A thirteenth-century manuscript attributes a short fragment of a speech Pros Basilea to the fourth-century orator Themistius. Its editors argue that the piece is authentic and was addressed to Theodosius I. In fact, style and vocabulary, geographical references, and the way the divinity of the emperor is highlighted, strongly argue against its authenticity. The fragment must be dated much later than the fourth century: this article suggests a date in the reign of Justinian.

This book, which transcends the boundaries between literature, social history, and philosophy, studies Plutarch's practical ethics, a group of twenty-odd texts ...

Paideia– i.e. Greek culture, comprising, amongst other things, language, literature, philosophy and medicine – was a constituent component of the social identity of the elite of the Roman empire: as a number of influential studies on the Second Sophistic have recently shown, leading members of society presented themselves as such by their possession and deployment of cultural capital, for example by performing oratory, writing philosophy or showcasing medical interventions. As the ‘common language’ of the men ruling the various parts of (...) the empire, Greek culture became a characteristic of, and thus ade factocondition for, leading socio-political positions. Whilst most elite men would have taken for granted a good cultural education no less than a leading position, an outstanding command of the classical Greek language, literature and tradition as displayed in epideictic performances allowed some orators, philosophers and doctors to move distinctively up the social ladder, sometimes reaching the ears of, and thereby wielding influence over, the emperor himself. (shrink)