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Why did oratory once hold an important place among the literary arts?

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Antique book open to the frontispiece of The Iliad of Homer, showing the title and an engraved portrait of a bearded man, with old books in the background. — literature *The Iliad*, an epic of the Trojan War attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer, is considered a foundational work of Western literature.

Oratory once held a central place among the literary arts because, for much of human history, it was the primary vehicle for communication, education, and political life in societies where literacy was limited to a small elite.12

In ancient Greece and Rome, oratory was not merely a tool for public speaking but a foundational educational discipline known as rhetoric. It was considered essential for public careers in law and politics, where the ability to persuade an audience was a critical skill. Because many people were illiterate until the late 19th century, formal oratory—including political speeches, legal pleadings, and sermons—served as a vital means of educating the masses and shaping public discourse.3425

Furthermore, oratory was deeply intertwined with the development of literary style. Treatises on rhetoric, such as those by Cicero and Quintilian, codified figures of speech and methods of arrangement that influenced generations of writers and statesmen. Orations were often treated as significant literary documents, studied and memorized to mold the prose style and moral education of future leaders.35