"It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences." ARISTOTLE'S RHETORIC is an ancient Greek treatise on the art of persuasion, dating from the 4th century BC. Aristotle is generally credited with developing the basics of the system of rhetoric that "thereafter served as its touchstone", influencing the development of rhetorical theory from ancient through modern times. The Rhetoric is regarded by most rhetoricians as "the most important single work on persuasion ever written."