Views of the art of public speaking. Why do I have a fear of public speaking?

What is the History of Public Speaking:

The history of public speaking dates back to the time when the ancient civilizations used public speakers to deliver their messages.

1) The Classical Period (500 BCE – 400 BCE)

Although public speaking training first started in Egypt, the written piece regarding the oratory came from Ancient Greece. Public speaking emerged as a crucial tool because the Greeks highly valued public political participation. 

The development of public speaking theories during the Classical period was marked by Aspasia of Miletus, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle aka The Fantastic Four.

During the classical period, Rhetoric (a tool to persuade the listeners) was considered to be the main component of speech delivery or discourse.

However, each of them had defined rhetoric in different ways, for instance, Plato defined the scope of rhetoric in terms of his negative opinions about the art, on the other hand, Aristotle defined its scope by the three means of persuasion i.e. Ethos, Logos and Pathos.

Amongst the four, Aristotle was one of the most famous Greek scholars, as he developed definitive models for public speaking. He also came up with his own institution called The Lyceum where he taught the theories and principles of public speaking.

2) The Romans

The Roman culture of public speaking is highly inspired by the Greek culture of training. The Roman orators developed and modified the Greek techniques of public speaking. 

Some of the areas of study during this period were how to add wit and humor in your speech, how to appeal to the audience’s emotions, and the use of digressions.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was considered to be one of the significant rhetoricians of all time. He developed a theory called the Five Canons of Rhetoric– a five-step process for developing a persuasive speech that we still use while teaching public speaking today.