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 The Chreia and Ancient Rhetoric and Education Project investigates the chreia, or anecdote, which is one of the most widespread literary forms in Greek and Latin literature. It was used primarily to express and preserve the wit, wisdom, and memorable actions of philosophers, kings, generals, Spartans, even prostitutes. For example, Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, on seeing a young boy misbehaving, struck the boy’s pedagogue and said, “Why are you teaching such things?” The popularity of the chreia is explained in part by its brevity and
fixed form that made it easy to remember, but also by its use in all levels
of the educational curriculum, from the first sentences students read to
rather advanced exercises in argumentation by students of rhetoric. The
Chreia Project is publishing, in three volumes, introductions, texts, translations,
and commentary on every school text that makes use of the chreia. School
chreiai helped to inculcate the ethos of the educated elite as to teach
important habits of style and argumentation that informed the intellectual
culture from the time of Alexander the Great to the end of the Byzantine
empire.
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