He obtained a great reputation among a certain section and founded a special school, the members of which called themselves Hermagorei. His chief opponent was Posidonius of Rhodes, who is said to have contended with him in argument in the presence of Pompey (Plutarch, Pompey, 42).

Hermagoras devoted himself particularly to the branch of rhetoric and to have arranged the parts of an oration differently from his predecessors. Cicero held an unfavourable opinion of his methods, although Quintilian approved of them, although he considers that Hermagoras neglected the practical side of rhetoric for the theoretical.

Stasis (sta, "to stand", a position where opponents agree to disagree.) Theory:

1. stochasmos (conjecture)
2. horos (definition)
3. poiotes (quality)
4. metalepsis (objection)

According to Suidas and Strabo, he was the author of rhetorical manuals and of other works, which should perhaps be attributed to his younger namesake, surnamed Canon, the pupil of Theodorus of Gadara.

See Strabo xiii. p. 621; Cicero, De inventione, i. 6. 8, Brutus, 76, 263. 78, 271; Quintilian, Instit. iii. 1. 16, 3. 9, If. 22; CW Piderit, De Hermagora rhetore (1839); G Thiele, Hermagoras Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Rhetorik (1893).

The substructure of stasis-theory from Hermagoras to Hermogenes

• Malcolm Heath, Hermogenes On Issues. Strategies of Argument in Later Greek Rhetoric. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 ., Bryn Mawr Classical Review 98.3.13
  
• Dieter, Otto Alvin Loeb. "Stasis." Landmark Essays on Classical Greek Rhetoric. Edward Schiappa, Editor. Davis: Hermagoras Press, 1994. 211-241.
  
• Matthes, D., Leipzig (T) 1962, p. 1

Ancient Greeks