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Greek Declamation Beyond Philostratus’ Second Sophistic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2019

William Guast
William Guast*
Affiliation:
Winchester College*
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Abstract

This article examines the surviving Greek declamations of the first to third century AD. They are found to be at odds with Philostratus’ familiar picture of the genre in respect of their brevity and stylistic simplicity. Explanations in terms of forgery/misattribution, textual adulteration of some form or the youth of the declaimers at the time of composition are rejected, and it is concluded rather that Philostratus’ picture of the genre is significantly distorted. Specifically, the Vitae sophistarum (1) omit declamations composed for didactic ends in favour of show declamations and (2) even among show declamations focus almost exclusively on the more florid end of the stylistic spectrum.

Keywords

Greek declamationSecond SophisticPhilostratusLives of the SophistsVitae sophistarum
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 139 , November 2019 , pp. 172 - 186
Copyright
© The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 2019 

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Footnotes

*

[email protected]. For helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper I am grateful to Ewen Bowie, Malcolm Heath and the anonymous JHS referees, who provided two thoughtful and stimulating reports; I am also grateful to Daniela Colomo for allowing me to see her edition of PSI II 148, P.Lond.Lit. 140 and P.Oxy. inv. 115/A (22)b in advance of its publication. This work was made possible by a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Bristol funded jointly by the A.G. Leventis Foundation and the Institute of Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition. I use Rudolf Stefec’s new text of Philostratus’ Vitae sophistarum (2016), and cite this work according to Stefec’s new numeration and the traditional Olearius page numbers. I cite Hermogenes’ De ideis according to the edition of Michel Patillon (2012a), and Ps.-Hermogenes’ De inventione according to the edition of Patillon (2012b). I cite Hadrian of Tyre’s declamations by page and line number in the edition of Eugenio Amato (2009).