The following contribution will examine the form and content of school rhetoric in the Latin schools of early modern Sweden. After an introduction to the schools, an outline of their curricular heritage will be given, situating school rhetoric in the classical trivium. Three components of rhetorical education are identified: the theoretical teaching, the reading of exemplary texts, and the exercises, all three components displaying a striking traditionalism and stability during the eighteenth century. Furthermore, it will be shown that rhetorical education also served as a means of instilling virtue in pupils and that rhetoric was an essential component in the reproduction of a representative learned culture and in the formation of virtuous character and erudite identity.