Aphthonius of Antioch

Aphthonius of Antioch (Greek: Ἀφθόνιος Ἀντιοχεὺς ὁ Σύρος) or Aelius Festus Aphthonius, Greek sophist and rhetorician, 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. Possibly of African origin, he was considered to be one of the most important classical rhetoricians.

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. He wrote a metrical handbook De Metris, in four books, which was added to the Ars Grammatica of Gaius Marius Victorinus sometime before 400, but not by Victorinus himself.

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.

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