Alcidamas, of Elaea, in Aeolis, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the 4th century BC. Elaea or Elaia (Greek: Ελαία) was an ancient city of Aeolis, Asia, the port of Pergamum; the site is not precisely determined but is near Zeytindağ, İzmir Province, Turkey. ... Aeolis (Aiolis) or Aeolia (Aiolia) was an area in west and northwest Asia Minor, mostly along the coast and offshore islands (particularly Lesbos), where the Aeolian Greek city-states were located. ... Sophism was originally a term for the techniques taught by a highly respected group of philosophy and rhetoric teachers in ancient Greece. ... Rhetoric from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is the art or technique of persuasion, usually through the use of language. ... (5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) // Events Invasion of the Celts into Ireland Battle of the Allia and subsequent Gaulish sack of Rome 383 BCE Second Buddhist Councel at Vesali. ...

He was the pupil and successor of Gorgias and taught at Athens at the same time as Isocrates, whose rival and opponent he was. We possess two declamations under his name: Peri Sofiston, directed against Isocrates and setting forth the superiority of extempore over written speeches (a more recently discovered fragment of another speech against Isocrates is probably of later date); Odusseus, in which Odysseus accuses Palamedes of treachery during the siege of Troy (this is generally considered spurious). Gorgias (in Greek Γοργἰας, circa 483-376 BC) // Introduction Due to his ushering in of rhetorical innovations involving structure and ornamentation and his introduction of paradoxologia – the idea of paradoxical thought and paradoxical expression – Gorgias of Leontini has been labeled the ‘father of sophistry’ (Wardy 6). ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína (IPA: )) is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world, named after goddess Athena. ... Isocrates (436–338 BC), Greek rhetorician. ... Odysseus and the Sirens. ... In Greek mythology, Palamedes was the son of Nauplius and Clymene. ... Walls of the excavated city of Troy Troy (Ancient Greek Τροία Troia, also Ίλιον; Latin: Troia, Ilium) is a legendary city, scene of the Trojan War, described in the Trojan War cycle, especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. ...

According to Alcidamas, the highest aim of the orator was the power of speaking extempore on every conceivable subject. Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 3) criticizes his writings as characterized by pomposity of style and an extravagant use of poetical epithets and compounds and far-fetched metaphors. Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Aristotelēs 384–March 7 322 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher, who studied with Plato and taught Alexander the Great. ...

Of other works only fragments and the titles have survived: Messeniakos, advocating the freedom of the Messenians and containing the sentiment that "all are by nature free"; a Eulogy of Death, in consideration of the wide extent of human sufferings; a Techne or instruction-book in the art of rhetoric; and a Fusikos lolos. Lastly, his Mouseion (a word of doubtful meaning) contained the narrative of the contest between Homer and Hesiod, two fragments of which are found in the Agon Omerou kai Esiodou, the work of a grammarian in the time of Hadrian. A 3rd century papyrus (Flinders Petrie, Papyri, ed. Mahaffy, 1891, pl. xxv.) probably contains the actual remains of a description by Alcidamas. The Homère Caetani bust at the Louvre, a 2nd century Roman copy of a 2nd century BC Greek original. ... Hesiod (Hesiodos, ), the early Greek poet and rhapsode, presumably lived around 700 BC. Historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and some authors have even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest. ... A bust of Hadrian. ... // Overview Events 212: Constitutio Antoniniana grants citizenship to all free Roman men 212-216: Baths of Caracalla 230-232: Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east 235-284: Crisis of the Third Century shakes Roman Empire 250-538: Kofun era, the first... Papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus at Kew Gardens, London Papyrus is an early form of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15 ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt. ... Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (3 June 1853 – 28 July 1942) was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. ... John Pentland Mahaffy (1839- 30 April 1919), Irish classical scholar, was born in Switzerland on July 12 1839. ...

Lit.: Aristoteles, Rhetorik III 3; - Vahlen, J., Der Rhetor Alkidamas, in Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akad., XLIII, 507 ff,1864; - F. Blaß, Die attische Beredsamkeit, 1887-1893; - F. Blaß, Antiphontis orationes ... adiunctis ... Alcidamatis declamationibus (1881) 18922; - Auer, Hubertus, De Alcidamantis declamatione que inscribitur, Münster, Diss., 1913; - Milne, M.J.A., A study in Alcidamas and his Relation to Contemporary Sophistic. Bryn Mawr, Diss, 1924; - Walberer, G., Isokrates und Alkidamas, Hamburg, Diss., 1938; - Dupréel, E., Les sophists, 1948; - Webster, T.B.L., Greek theories of art and literature down to 400 B.C., CQ 33 (1939) 166 -79; - Kurz, D., AKPIBEIA, Das Ideal der Exaktheit bei den Griechen bis Aristoteles, 1970; - Finley, Moses I., Die Sklaverei in der Antike: Geschichte und Probleme, 1981; - Dreher, M., Sophistik und Polisentwicklung, 1983; - Heinz, Schulz-Falkenthal, Sklaverei in der griechisch-roemischen Antike: eine Bibliographie wissenschaftlicher Literatur vom ausgehenden 15. Jh., 1985; - Dušanic, Slobodan, Alcidamas of Elaea in Plato's Phaedrus, CQ 42, (1992) 347-357: 1997; - O'Sullivan, Neil, Alcidamas, Aristophanes and the beginnings of Greek stylistic Theory, 1992; - Taureck, Bernhard H. F., Die Sophisten zur Einführung, 1995; - Rossner, Christian, Recht und Moral bei den griechischen Sophisten (Rechtswissenschaftliche Forschung und Entwicklung; 595), 1998, zgl.: München, Univ., Diss., 1998; -Schumacher, Leonhard, Sklaverei in der Antike: Schicksal und Alltag der Unfreien (Beck's archaeologische Bibliothek), 2001; - Mariss, Ruth, Alkidamas: Über diejenigen, die schriftliche Reden schreiben, oder über die Sophisten: eine Sophistenrede aus dem 4. Jh. v. Chr., eingeleitet und kommentiert (orbis antiquus; 36), 2002, zugl.: Münster (Westfalen, Univ., Diss, 1998).

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.