The crafting of persuasive appeals that finds its conditions of possibility in and has the capacity to exceed the context of its production. Sophistic oratory can be read as both a symptom of and a cha llenge to the socioeconomic, politica l, and cu ltural climate of ancient Greece. Emerging out of a society destab ilized by the precarious movement from fragmentation and tyrannical rule toward unification and democracy, sophistic oratory was a force of transformation within the polis. Anticipating the Aristotelian division of rhetoric into forensic, deliberative, and epideictic types, sophistic oratory played an active ro le in the reclamation of property lost in tyrannical rule, the instruction of proper citizenry and just govern ance, and the inculcation of va lues through the praise and blame of prominent figures.