I have noticed the pre Socratic sophists in Greece hardly get a mention in books. The same again for Rome, the sophists might not even get mentioned at all. There is a torrent on kickass that has the Greek sophists and here is a book on Roman sophistry that looks good:

http://www.amazon.com/Second-Sophistic-Cultural-Phenomenon-Empire/dp/0415555019/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446591409&sr=1-2&keywords=second+sophistic+rome

Based on observation there is people today using sophistry and by definition, the only time you would have to use it is for deceptive means. I thought this could be the reason it is left out of books, because once a scam artist knows sophistry, they would not want other people knowing it, so that they can continue exploiting them for money/personal gain.

I have observed the following techniques of sophistry

-Be vary vague in your claims -Refer to abstract notions of the area you are talking about instead of concrete real life examples. Kind of the same as vagueness -Speak really fast and with multi argument complex sentences with no regard at all for logic or use of logical fallacies. Ipse dixit logical fallacies seem to be the most employed. Because of the complexity of the argument and the fast talking, the listener(s) don't have time to break it down in their heads and think it through, so they just end up believing the entire argument. -Pretty much never appeal to logic/intellect, pretty much always appeal to emotion, and everyones desire to have instant gratification. -Never extrapolate your arguments into what happens long term,always focus on right now. -Never mention the real opposition arguments to your arguments, make references to what seems like the opposition but is really just a strawman.

Thoughts?

And is there any good book on the techniques of sophistry? I cant seem to find any on amazon...