Attic versus AsianThe attic style in Greek literature and art was replaced, for a time, by the more decorative and ornate Asian style. Attic resurfaces, as an ideal, suggesting a more ascetic style, brief and witty, concise. Both styles influenced writers and orators in Rome, and much later in Britain. Writers like Matthew Arnold used an Attic prose style, while the more flowery Asian style also had its supporters. In Roman times, Cicero analyzed these styles and suggested that there were several Attic styles and that the simple style was not the only one. Cicero found himself embroiled in the Attic-Asiatic debate; Those who wanted to discredit him called him an Asian writer. Cicero wrote a treatise on rhetoric. Rhetoric is the art of meaning, speech, writing and language. Roman rhetoricians, such as Cicero and Quintilian, used Aristotelian concepts in their writings, as did later commentators. Cicero's works served as a link between Aristotle and later generations, transmitting through the Hellenistic era ideas that would otherwise be lost to us: "They furnish, therefore, an idea, incomplete indeed but nevertheless valuable, of ideas about government which passed from Greece to Rome during the three centuries before the Christian era and produced such profound effects on Roman law” (Cicero 40). The works of Cicero influenced Saint Augustine in the Middle Ages. Before converting to Christianity, Augustine taught rhetoric. Augustine revived interest in rhetoric – an important contribution, after early Christians abandoned it as a pagan art. He embodied rhetorical concepts in his writings and teachings and held that preachers should be able to teach, delight, and move—the same notions championed by Cicero. Augustine said it was necessary to pay attention to the rules of effective expression to achieve the goals of Christianity. And such rules were to be used only in the service of truth and thus revitalized the philosophical basis of rhetoric (Bizzell and Herzberg 382-383). As noted, some considered Cicero to be more Asian than Attic, one such person being Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon argued for global empirical scrutiny by promoting a renaissance of secular scholarship. He rejected fables, myths and other accounts as very inaccurate. His definition of rhetoric suggests that he attempted to bring linguistic power under rational control. Bacon also favored the rhetorical scientific approach; his ideas were important in three streams of modern rhetorical thought: epistemological, belletristic and elocutionist (Foss, Foss and Trapp). 8).