he declaimed in Greek and Latin, both for and against, in 
     order to take his mind off his present troubles . . . (29) 

Scholasticism, like Senecanism, was directly related to the oral 
traditions of aphoristic learning.

*     When it is understood how entirely oral these thesis 
defenses were, it is easier to see why the students of such arts 
would need to have memories furnished with a large repertory 
of aphorisms and sententiae.  This is a factor in the prevalence 
of Senecan stylistic in later Roman times and for the long 
association of Senecan style with “scientific method” both in 
the middle ages and in the Renaissance. For Francis Bacon, as 
much as for Abelard, “writing in aphorisms” rather than in 
“methods” was the difference between keen analysis and mere 
public persuasion.