[2] The hard training of Byzantine rhetoric provided skills and credentials for citizens to attain public office in the imperial service, or posts of authority within the Church.
[1][3] Another bridge between the Hellenistic tradition of eloquence and Byzantium was the rhetorical school of Gaza that flourished in the fifth and sixth century.
[4] Thomas M. Conley divides the history of Byzantine rhetoric into four periods: The Dark Ages, After Iconoclasm, 11th and 12th centuries, and the Paleologan Era.
[1] After the Iconoclast period, Byzantine scholars collected manuscripts of Greek rhetoricians such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Menander Rhetor, and Alexander Numenius.
[1] Important Byzantine figures from this period include Michael Psellus, Nikephoros Basilakes, Gregory Pardos of Corinth, and Euthymios Zigabenos.