Apsines

{{Short description|Greek rhetorician}} {{other uses}} '''Apsines of Gadara''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀψίνης ὁ Γαδαρεύς}}; fl. 3rd century AD) was a Greek rhetorician. He was a native of the Hellenised city of Gadara,<ref name=Blank2019>Blank, David, [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/philodemus/ "Philodemus"], The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), accessed 3 June 2020.</ref> 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.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Apsines|volume=2|page=232}}</ref>

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<ref name="EB1911"/> and other material from Hermogenes (the scholar Malcolm Heath posits this work was actually written by Aspasius of Tyre);<ref name="Menander">{{cite book | last = Heath | first = Malcolm | title = Menander: A Rhetor in Context | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 2004 | pages = 56–60 | language = English | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VVgTDAAAQBAJ | isbn = 9780199259205 }}</ref> 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").<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Editions== * Jan Bake (1849) * Spengel-Hammer, ''Rhetores Graeci'' (1894) * Mervin R. Dilts and George A. Kennedy, eds., ''Two Greek Rhetorical Treatises from the Roman Empire'' (Brill, 1997)

==References== {{reflist}} * Hammer, ''De Apsine Rhetore'' (1876) * Volkmann, ''Letorile der Griechen und Romer'' (1885)

==External links== * [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1998/1998-08-08.html Bryn Mawr Classical Review page on Dilts/Kennedy]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apsines}} Category:3rd-century Greek writers Category:Ancient Greek rhetoricians Category:Ancient Greek educators Category:Rhetoric theorists Category:3rd-century writers Category:Roman-era Athenian rhetoricians Category:Ancient Smyrna Category:3rd-century Roman consuls Category:Ancient Greeks in Rome Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Year of death unknown