ABSTRACT
Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists (Vitae Sophistarum) famously invents the term ‘Second Sophistic’ for the performative, rhetorical culture that flourished under the Roman Empire. It is a text that gives miniature portraits of Herodes Atticus, Aelius Aristides and numerous others. The narrating voice of this work, while relating anecdotes and select quotations from the great sophists, also gives its readers an implicit model for the interpretation of sophists. The figures within the text, moreover, are frequently interpreters and critics of each other. Drawing on physiognomics, rhetoric and knowledge of Greek literature and culture, the great sophists critique one another’s practice of rhetorical improvisation and as exemplars of the Hellenic tradition.
