Callinicos de Pétra, sophiste et historien

Abstract

Callinicus of Petra was a sophist of the second half of the third century A. D. The Fragmente der griechischen Historiker of F. Jacoby devotes an entry to him (FGrHist 281), as does the “ New Jacoby” (FGrHist Cont 1090). The file, however, is not complete ; additional new evidence can fill out these entries. A systematic study of the sources amplifies the list of works attributable to him ; and with this as a foundation, one can reconstruct a sophist’s typical career, highlighted by teaching, rivalry with colleagues, and the writing of orations and rhetorical treatises, as well as a somewhat occasional historical work. Sophist and historian, Callinicus of Petra interestingly exemplifies the intersection of rhetoric and history. His case is similarly instructive for the history of rhetoric, because he belongs to a period when written evidence for the theory and practice of Greek oratory is scarce. He demonstrates that one ought not to accede too quickly to the notion of a decline in rhetoric and sophistic during the third century A. D.