Editing Alcidamas

{{short description|4th century BC Greek sophist and rhetorician}}
'''Alcidamas''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀλκιδάμας}}), of [[Elaea (Aeolis)|Elaea]], in [[Aeolis]], was a [[ancient Greece|Greek]] [[sophist]] and [[rhetoric]]ian, who flourished in the 5th-4th century BC [https://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir:100196/datastream/PDF/view].

==Life==
He was the pupil and successor of [[Gorgias]] and taught at [[Athens]] at the same time as [[Isocrates]], to whom he was a rival and opponent. We possess two declamations under his name: ''On Sophists'' (Περὶ Σοφιστῶν), directed against Isocrates and setting forth the superiority of extempore over written speeches (a more recently discovered fragment of another speech against Isocrates {{Citation needed|date=July 2019}} is probably of later date); ''Odysseus'' (perhaps spurious)<ref>O'Sullivan 2008</ref> in which [[Odysseus]] accuses [[Palamedes (mythology)|Palamedes]] of treachery during the siege of [[Troy]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

According to Alcidamas, the highest aim of the orator was the power of speaking ''ex tempore'' on every conceivable subject. [[Aristotle]] (''Rhet.'' iii. 3) criticizes his writings as characterized by pomposity of style and an extravagant use of poetical epithets and compounds and far-fetched metaphors.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Of other works only fragments and the titles have survived: ''Messeniakos'', advocating the freedom of the [[Messenia (ancient region)|Messenians]] and containing the sentiment that "God has left all men free; nature has made no man a slave";<ref>Aristotle, ''[[Rhetoric (Aristotle)|Rhet.]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0060%3Abekker+page%3D1373b 1373b] 18–19 with the scholium of the anonymous commentator (''[[Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca|CAG]]'' XXI:2, p. 74.31f.)</ref><ref>J.D. Bury and Russell Meiggs, ''A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great'', fourth ed. (New York, New York:  St. Martin's Press, 1975), page 375.</ref> a ''Eulogy of Death'', in consideration of the wide extent of human sufferings; a ''Techne'' or instruction-book in the art
of rhetoric; and a ''Phusikos logos''. Lastly, his ''Mouseion'' (a word invoking the [[Muse]]s) seems to have contained the narrative of the ''[[Contest of Homer and Hesiod]]'',  of which the version that has survived  is the work of a grammarian in the time of [[Hadrian]], based on Alcidamas.  This hypothesis of the contents of the ''Mouseion'', originally suggested by [[Nietzsche]] (''Rheinisches Museum'' 25 (1870) & 28 (1873)), appears to have been confirmed by three papyrus finds{{mdash}}one 3rd century BC (''Flinders Petrie Papyri'', ed.  [[John Pentland Mahaffy|Mahaffy]], 1891, pl. xxv.), one 2nd century BC (Basil Mandilaras, 'A new papyrus fragment of the ''Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi''' ''Platon'' 42 (1990) 45–51)  and one 2nd or 3rd century AD (University of Michigan pap. 2754: Winter, J. G., 'A New Fragment on the Life of Homer' ''TAPA'' 56 (1925) 120–129 [http://images.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?rgn1=apis_inv;op2=And;rgn2=ic_all;op3=And;rgn3=ic_all;c=apis;q1=2754;back=back1152510816;size=50;subview=detail;resnum=1;view=entry;lastview=reslist;cc=apis;entryid=x-1622;viewid=2754V.TIF]).

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Alcidamas|volume=1|page=523}}
*O'Sullivan, N. (2008) 'The authenticity of [Alcidamas] ''Odysseus'': two new linguistic arguments', ''Classical Quarterly'' 58, 638–647

==Further reading==
*Alcidamas' surviving works
**Guido Avezzù (ed.), ''Alcidamante. Orazioni e frammenti'' (now the standard text, with Italian translation, 1982)
**J.V. Muir (ed.), ''Alcidamas. The works and fragments'' (text with English translation, 2001) – [https://web.archive.org/web/20020224005950/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2001/2001-10-12.html reviewed in ''BMCR'']
**Ruth Mariss, ''Alkidamas: Über diejenigen, die schriftliche Reden schreiben, oder über die Sophisten: eine Sophistenrede aus dem 4. Jh. v. Chr., eingeleitet und kommentiert'' (Orbis Antiquus, 36), 2002
**[[Friedrich Blass]], [[Teubner]] edition of the Greek text (1908) [https://books.google.com/books?id=KSAMAAAAIAAJ online]
**Alcidamas, [https://web.archive.org/web/20061208070357/http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/alcidamas/alcsoph1.htm "Against the Sophists," trans. Van Hook (1919)]
*About Alcidamas
**[[Aristotle]], ''[[Rhetoric (Aristotle)|Rhetoric]]'' III.3
**J. Vahlen, "Der Rhetor Alkidamas", ''Sitzungsberichte der wiener Akademie, Phil.-Hist. Cl.'', 43 (1863) 491–528 [https://books.google.com/books?id=sqYVAAAAIAAJ&q=Sitzungsberichte+der+wiener+Akademie&pg=PA491 online](=''Gesammelte philologische Schriften'' (Leipzig & Berlin 1911) 1.117–155)
**[[Friedrich Blass]], ''Die attische Beredsamkeit'', part 2 (1892) [https://archive.org/details/dieattischebere01blasgoog online], pp.&nbsp;345–363
**[[Martin Litchfield West|M.L. West]] (1967) for Alcidamas' invention of the contest of Homer and Hesiod {{JSTOR|638018}}, N.J. Richardson (1981) against {{JSTOR|638455}}
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233325/http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/alcidamas/index.htm Various articles on Alcidamas] (1856–1919, with links to further online material)
**Additional bibliography is available online at {{BBKL|a/alcidamas_v_e|band=23|autor= Christopher Skiebe|artikel=Alcidamas von Elaia|spalten=9-10}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcidamas}}
[[Category:Sophists]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek rhetoricians]]
[[Category:4th-century BC Greek philosophers]]