Introduction to Part I
In the following five chapters we will survey evidence of the sophistic movement in Alexandria from the perspective of two of its most important critics, Philo of Alexandria (?-ca. a.d. 50) and Dio of Prusa (ca. a.d. 40-112), and from a student of the sophists named Neilus who wrote early in the Principate of Vespasian.
Neilus, a student of rhetoric, sent a letter to his father from Alexandria about the movement from the perspective of one being educated in Greek paideia, P.Oxy. 2190. He lived there during a time of great stimulus to the sophistic movement brought about by Vespasian's exemption of teachers of rhetoric from taxes and compulsory liturgies. This papyrus thus provides insight into the world of the sophists.
Dio of Prusa discussed the movement as it existed in Alexandria primarily, but not exclusively, in relation to politeia during his visit there in the early seventies. His goal was to mend a rift between Vespasian and the Alexandrians, but, to our benefit, his orations also help to delineate the meaning of the term 'sophist' and its character in one of the leading intellectual centres in the East.
Philo's corpus reflects the nature of the movement during the first half of the first century. He was concerned with, among other things, the hindrance the movement posed for those who sought 'salvation' through 'virtue'.
These three primary sources throw light on the sophistic movement in Alexandria in the first century a.d.
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