Alla ricerca del lettore ideale : insegnamento retorico e modelli letterari tra Quintiliano e Dione di Prusa

This paper presents the comparison of the literary canons that we read in Quintilian (inst. 10.1) and Dion of Prusa (orat. 18). In particular, the analysis focuses on the presence of Socratics and Xenophon, on the orator’s training by reading and doing rhetorical exercises, and on the portrait of the reader/speaker in the two authors. In this perspective, not only is it possible to highlight their similarities and differences, their common rhetorical and literary background, their chronological and spatial proximity, but also to detect their similarity about the educational purpose and the audience. Finally, it is possible to propose the idea of a closer link between the two works: Quintilian may have wanted to correct and expand the literary canon introduced by Dion, or, conversely, Dion may have suggested a more selected canon in order to fit the new historical context.