APHTHONIUS  , of

Antioch, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the second half of the 4th century A.D., or even later . Nothing is known of his life, except that he was a friend of Libanius and of a certain Eutropius, perhaps the author of the epitome of Roman history . We possess by him IIpoyvuvavµara, a text-book on the elements of rhetoric, with exercises for the use of the young before they entered the regular rhetorical schools . They apparently formed an introduction to the TExv'I of Hermogenes . His style is pure and simple, and ancient critics praise his " Atticism." The book maintained its popularity as late as the 17th century, especiallyin Germany . Acollection of forty fables by Aphthonius, of ter the style of Aesop, is also extant . Spengel, Rhetores Graeci, ii.; Finckh, Aphthonii Progymnasmata(1865); Hoppichler, De Theone, Hermogene, Aphthonioque Progymnasmatum Scriptoribus (1884); edition of the fables by Furia (181o) .