Socrates' student, Plato, attacked the rhetoric that he felt was responsible for his teacher's death.  It was a sophistic rhetoric developed  to win at all costs. Words ruled over truth, indeed, created truth (epistemic in nature).  This went against everything Socrates taught. Truth is knowable and should win, but with this new sophistic rhetoric, Socrates was forced to drink hemlock and became a martyr for Truth.  Plato was obsessed with attacking this type of rhetoric.  His obsession would rub off on his student, Aristotle, who would develop a more ethical rhetoric.

Aristotle, Plato's student, was a more logical person and developed his own brand of rhetoric. It became the model from which Western society would be based.  To understand Aristotelian rhetoric, the ABC's of our rhetoric, one must begin by understanding the basic principles.