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EntityQ649082· pop 12· linked from 14 articles

Also known as Apsines of Gadara, Valerius Apsines

Apsines of Gadara (; fl. 3rd century AD) was a Greek rhetorician. He was a native of the Hellenised city of Gadara, whose ruins stand today at the border of Jordan with Syria and Israel. Apsines went on to study at Smyrna and taught at Athens, gaining such a reputation that he was raised to the consulship by the emperor Maximinus. He was a rival of Fronto of Emesa, and a friend of Philostratus, the author of the Lives of the Sophists, who praises his wonderful memory and accuracy.

Person · Open Library

Born
3rd cent.
Works
2

Top works

  • Art Rhetorique. Problemes a Faux-Semblant
  • Two Greek rhetorical treatises from the Roman Empire

via Open Library + Wikidata

Authority record · VIAF

Nationality
GR, XX, XS
Language
grc
Gender
Male

Recorded by 19 libraries

via VIAF · OCLC

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
male
Place of birth
Gadara
Occupation
politician
Position held
Roman consul
Languages spoken
Ancient Greek
Show 6 more facts
floruit
0300-00-00
date of birth
0190-00-00
writing language
Ancient Greek
date of death
0250-00-00
significant place
Gadara
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~2 min read

Encyclopedic overview

3 sections
Contents
  • Editions
  • References
  • External links

Apsines of Gadara (; fl. 3rd century AD) was a Greek rhetorician. He was a native of the Hellenised city of Gadara, whose ruins stand today at the border of Jordan with Syria and Israel. Apsines went on to study at Smyrna and taught at Athens, gaining such a reputation that he was raised to the consulship by the emperor Maximinus. He was a rival of Fronto of Emesa, and a friend of Philostratus, the author of the Lives of the Sophists, who praises his wonderful memory and accuracy.

Two rhetorical treatises by him are extant: His Τέχνη ῥητορική ("Art of Rhetoric") is a greatly interpolated handbook of rhetoric, a considerable portion being taken from the Rhetoric of Longinus and other material from Hermogenes (the scholar Malcolm Heath posits this work was actually written by Aspasius of Tyre); an English translation was first published in 1997. Malcolm Heath has argued (APJ 1998) that the work's attribution to Apsines is incorrect. A smaller work, Περὶ ἐσχηματισμένων προβλημάτων ("on Propositions maintained figuratively").

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Apsines” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.