‘All that may become a man'

Simon Goldhill has recently drawn attention to the erotic paideia inherent in the Greek novels written during the period of the Second Sophistic. ¹ The educative function of these works extends well beyond the erotic. Characters interact in situations drawn from many areas of society which must strike the reader as plausible, and, like scenes in the popular television ‘soaps’ of today, present real dilemmas and possible answers to them. In this paper, I want to discuss the appearances of bandits (lēistaillatrones) and consider them as undesirable role models for those wishing to construct a socially sanctioned masculine identity.