The Reliability of Philostratus's "Lives of the Sophists"

Swain, Simon

doi:10.2307/25010945

Cited by 35 publications

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“…display should be taken as further evidence for a wider range of styles among show declamations. 76 Hellenistic declamation: Swain (1991) 152; Herodes: Anderson (1986) 82-85; omissions and disparagement: Bowersock (1969) 110-17, Anderson (1986) 84 nn. 50, 87-88.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…above) from longer show declamations rather than teaching texts, then it may be that the plain style that some of them display should be taken as further evidence for a wider range of styles among show declamations. 75 Hellenistic declamation: Swain (1991) 152. Herodes: 82-85.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 I will lay out the challenges the extant texts present before attempting to reconcile them with Philostratus; first, however, we must survey the texts themselves. 1 Thus there is little analysis of the surviving declamations other than those by Aristides in important works such as Bowie (1970), Kennedy (1974), Russell (1983), Anderson (1993) and Swain (1996). Reardon (1971) 104-14 is the longest treatment, while Schmitz (1997) and Whitmarsh (2005) 37, 70-73 have some sharp observations.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Greek Declamation Beyond Philostratus’ Second Sophistic

Guast¹

2019

J. Hell. Stud.

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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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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