HERMOGENES, of Tarsus, Greek rhetorician, surnamed `~va•rlip (the polisher), flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180). His precocity secured him a public appointment as teacher of his art while he was still a boy, but at the age of 25 his faculties gave way. He had, however, composed a series of rhetorical treatises, which became popular text-books, and the subject of commentaries. Of his Art of Speaking we still possess the sections rc.w arItaewv (on legal issues), IIEpi E6pEoews (on the invention of arguments), IIEpi i&ECOV (on the various kinds of style), Hepi µeOo&ou beLv6n7ros (on the method of speaking effectively), and IIpoyvyvko p ara (rhetorical exercises).
Editions by C. Walz (1832), and by L. Spengel (1854) , in their Rhetores Graeci; H. Rabe (Leipzig, 1913) ; bibliographical note on the commentaries in W. Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur (1898).