Sphenics

Sphenics are described in The Dictionary (4th edition, A.R. 3000) as a school of theors active in ancient Ethras, frequently retained by wealthy families as tutors. In the classic dialog tradition they are often set against Thelenes and his fid Protas on the Periklyne. Their most prominent champion is Uraloabus, whose confrontation with Thelenes—summarized in the dialog bearing his name—ends in a decisive defeat and the title figure’s public suicide.

As characterized there, Sphenics maintain that theorics happen entirely “between the ears,” with no recourse to external realities such as Protan forms. Later retrospectives treat them as forerunners of Saunt Proc, the Syntactic Faculties, and the Procians. The label also persists as an adjectival tag in current speech for a certain polemical bent.

In present discussions, some speakers use “Sphenic” to name a recognizable rhetorical toolkit. In one messal, a theor credits a burst of Procian oratory to a long catalog of Sphenic moves—appeals to mob sentiment, to authority, and to personal insecurity among them—then notes that such maneuvers are not the same as an argument. Earlier Halikaarnian usage recorded in the Dictionary likewise brands “all speech and writings of the ancient Sphenics” as bulshytt. No charter, hierarchy, or membership is preserved in the available text; the name functions chiefly as a historical collective and a label applied by others.