Potamo or Potamon (; around 65 BC–around AD 25)) of

Mytilene Mytilene (; ) is the capital city, capital of the Greece, Greek island of Lesbos, and its port. It is also the capital and administrative center of the North Aegean Region, and hosts the headquarters of the University of the Aegean. It was fo ...

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

, son of

Lesbonax Lesbonax of Mytilene (), a Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the time of Roman emperor Augustus. According to Photius I of Constantinople he was the author of sixteen political speeches, of which two are extant, a hortatory speech after ...

the

rhetorician Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse (trivium) along with grammar and logic/dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or write ...

, was himself a rhetorician in the time of the Roman emperor

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

, whose favour he enjoyed. He is mentioned by

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

as an authority regarding

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

. It is probably he whom

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

states to have attained the age of ninety. When his son was killed, according to

Seneca the Elder Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder ( ; – c. AD 39), also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rhetoric, ...

, he delivered a speech on the

suasoria Suasoria is an exercise in rhetoric: a form of declamation in which the student makes a speech which is the soliloquy of an historical figure debating how to proceed at a critical junction in his life. As an academic exercise, the speech is deliv ...

relating to the

Spartan Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern Pe ...

s deliberating whether to flee

Thermopylae Thermopylae (; ; Ancient: , Katharevousa: ; ; "hot gates") is a narrow pass and modern town in Lamia (city), Lamia, Phthiotis, Greece. It derives its name from its Mineral spring, hot sulphur springs."Thermopylae" in: S. Hornblower & A. Spaw ...

wherein he exhorted the Spartans against flight, in contrast to his rival Lesbocles, who shut down his school of rhetoric after the death of his son. His city sent him on embassies to Rome in 45 and 25 BC.

Works

The

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

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 Ammonius Grammaticus (; ; ) was a 4th-century Egyptian priest. In 391, he was involved in a violent revolt centred at Alexandria's Serapeum, where the pagan rebels tortured and killed captured Christians. After the suppression of the revolt and t ...

Notes

{{Authority control 1st-century Greek writers Ancient Greek rhetoricians Ancient Mytileneans Historiography of Alexander the Great