Note 10 — Chapter I · THE SOPHISTIC TREND IN ANCIENT RHETORIC

The term second sophistic is generally applied to the Greek rhetoric and oratory of the second, third, and fourth Christian centuries, and is also applicable to the Latin. Already defined as a tendency in the first century (ARP IV. ii), it is reviewed at that point by H. von Arnim in the introduction to Leben und Werke des Dio von Prusa, Berlin, 1898. The second century is reviewed more specifically by Boulanger. Wright’s introduction provides the best summary guide and bibliography for English readers. The studies of the influence of the second sophistic on the Christian orators of this period (see the list at the head of this chapter) review and define sophistic more precisely and more significantly than the general works cited in their bibliographies. But E. Norden’s Die antike Kunstprosa and E. Rohde’s Der griechische Roman are still suggestive.