Potamo of Mytilene
Potamo or Potamon (Template:Langx; around 65 BC–around AD 25)[1]) of Mytilene in Lesbos,[2] son of Lesbonax the rhetorician, was himself a rhetorician in the time of the Roman emperor Tiberius, whose favour he enjoyed.[3] He is mentioned by Plutarch as an authority regarding Alexander the Great.[4] It is probably he whom Lucian states to have attained the age of ninety.[5]
When his son was killed, according to Seneca the Elder, he delivered a speech on the suasoria relating to the Spartans deliberating whether to flee Thermopylae wherein he exhorted the Spartans against flight, in contrast to his rival Lesbocles,[1] who shut down his school of rhetoric after the death of his son.[6] His city sent him on embassies to Rome in 45 and 25 BC.[1]
Works
The Suda informs us that, in addition to his work On Alexander of Macedon (Περὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος), he wrote several other works, namely:
- Annals of the Samians (Ὅρους Σαμίων)
- Encomium of Brutus (Βρούτου ἐγκώμιον)
- Encomium of Caesar (Καίσαρος ἐγκώμιον)
- On the Perfect Orator (Περὶ τελείου ῥήτορος)
To these should perhaps be added On the Different, quoted by Ammonius Grammaticus.
Notes
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