Foreword
Sophistic rhetoric in the Roman Empire had a powerful impact upon the culture, society, and government of the Hellenized world of the eastern Mediterranean.
The so-called Second Sophistic has been accessible principally through inscriptions and Philostratus' Biographies of the Sophists. Despite intimations of sophistic activity already in the reign of Nero, the record has traditionally begun in the late first and early second century.
But through his mastery of both New Testament scholarship and Roman history Bruce Winter has succeeded in documenting, for the first time, the sophistic movement of the mid-first century. Inspired by a remarkable papyrus from Oxyrhynchus and supported by rich documentation for Philo's Alexandria and Paul's Corinth, Winter has uncovered the foundations of the Second Sophistic.
A new edition of his authoritative work comes at just the right time. Rhetoric and its practitioners in the Roman Empire have lately attracted a new generation of innovative scholars for whom Winter's book will be indispensable.
G. W. Bowersock
Professor of Ancient History
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
