Aphthonius of Antioch

Aphthonius of Antioch (Greek: Ἀφθόνιος Ἀντιοχεὺς ὁ Σύρος)[1] was a Greek sophist and rhetorician.

Not to be confused with Aelius Festus Aphthonius.

Life

He flourished in the second half of the 4th century, or even later. Nothing is known of his life, except that he was a friend of Libanius and of a certain Eutropius, perhaps the author of the epitome of Roman history. We possess by Aphthonius the Προγυμνάσματα, a textbook on the elements of rhetoric, with exercises for the use of the young before they entered the regular rhetorical schools. They apparently formed an introduction to the Τέχνη of Hermogenes of Tarsus.[2]

Aphthonius' style is pure and simple, and ancient critics praise his "Atticism." The book maintained its popularity as late as the 17th century, especially in Germany. A collection of forty fables by Aphthonius, after the style of Aesop, is also extant.[2]

According to Rowe and Rees, an Aphthonius, the Greek rhetorician of Antioch visited Serapeum about A.D. 315.[3]

References
  1. Argyropoulos, Joannes, Prolegomena in Aphthonii progymnasmata
  2.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aphthonius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 168.
  3. Alan Rowe & B. R. Rees (1956). "A Contribution To The Archaeology of The Western Desert: IV - The Great Serapeum Of Alexandria" (PDF). Manchester.

Further reading
  • Heinsius, Daniel, Progymnasmata Apthonii sophistae Graece (1626)
  • Agricola, Rodolphus and Catanaeo, Giovanni Maria, Aphthonii Progymnasmata (1655)
  • Edition of the fables by Francesco de Furia (1810)
  • Leonhard von Spengel, Rhetores Graeci, vol.2 (1856), p. 21f. Google books here. - The page numbers from this are used in subsequent texts for reference, according to Kennedy p. 95.
  • Christoph Eberhard Finckh, Aphthonii et Nicolai Progymnasmata sophistarum progymnasmata (1865)
  • Oskar Philipp Hoppichler, De Theone, Hermogene, Aphthonique Pro-gymnasmatum Scriptoribus (1884)
  • Hugo Rabe, Leipzig: Teubner (1926) - modern critical edition
  • Ray Nadeau, Speech Monographs 19 (1952), p. 264-85 - English translation. Revised version in Readings from Classical Rhetoric, ed. Patricia P. Matsen &c, p. 266-288.
  • George Alexander Kennedy, Progymnasmata: Greek textbooks of prose composition and rhetoric, pp. 95f. - English translation. Preview on Google Books here.
  • Malcolm Heath, Aphthonius Progymnasmata (1997). Online English translation, but does not include all the material at the end given by Kennedy.
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