'''Alcidamas''', of [[Elaea (Aeolis)|Elaea]], in [[Aeolis]], [[ancient Greece|Greek]] [[sophist]] and [[rhetoric]]ian, flourished in the [[4th century BC]].

He was the pupil and successor of [[Gorgias]] and taught at [[Athens]] at the same time as [[Isocrates]], whose rival and opponent he was. We possess two declamations under his name: ''On Sophists'', directed against Isocrates and setting forth the superiority of extempore over written speeches (a more recently discovered fragment of another speech against Isocrates is probably of later date); ''Odysseus'', in which [[Odysseus]] accuses [[Palamedes]] of treachery during the siege of [[Troy]] (this is generally considered spurious).

According to Alcidamas, the highest aim of the orator was the power of speaking ''extempore'' on every conceivable subject. [[Aristotle]] (''Rhet.'' iii. 3) criticizes his writings as characterized by pomposity of style and an extravagant use of poetical epithets and compounds and far-fetched metaphors.

Of other works only fragments and the titles have survived: ''Messeniakos'', advocating the freedom of the Messenians and containing the sentiment that "all are by nature free"; a ''Eulogy of Death'', in consideration of the wide extent of human sufferings; a ''Techne'' or instruction-book in the art
of rhetoric; and a ''Fusikos logos''. Lastly, his ''Mouseion'' (a word of doubtful meaning) seems to have contained the narrative of the contest between [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]], two fragments of which are found in the ''Agon Homerou kai Hesiodou'', the work of a grammarian in the time of [[Hadrian]]. This hypothesis of the contents of the ''Mouseion'', originally suggested by [[Nietzsche]] (''Rheinisches Museum'' 25 (1870) & 28 (1873)), appears to have been confirmed by two papyrus finds - one [[3rd century]] BC ([[William Matthew Flinders Petrie|Flinders Petrie]], ''Papyri'', ed. [[John Pentland Mahaffy|Mahaffy]], 1891, pl. xxv.) and one 2nd or 3rd century AD (University of Michigan pap. 2754: Winter, J. G., 'A New Fragment on the Life of Homer' TAPA 56 (1925) 120-129 [http://images.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?rgn1=apis_inv;op2=And;rgn2=ic_all;op3=And;rgn3=ic_all;c=apis;q1=2754;back=back1152510816;size=50;subview=detail;resnum=1;view=entry;lastview=reslist;cc=apis;entryid=x-1622;viewid=2754V.TIF]).

==References==
*{{1911}}

==Further reading==
*Alcidamas' surviving works
**Guido Avezzù (ed.), ''Alcidamante. Orazioni e frammenti'' (now the standard text, with Italian translation, 1982)
**J.V. Muir (ed.), ''Alcidamas. The works and fragments'' (text with English translation, 2001) - [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2001/2001-10-12.html reviewed in ''BMCR'']
**Ruth Mariss, ''Alkidamas: Über diejenigen, die schriftliche Reden schreiben, oder über die Sophisten: eine Sophistenrede aus dem 4. Jh. v. Chr., eingeleitet und kommentiert'' (Orbis Antiquus, 36), 2002
**[[Friedrich Blass]], [[Teubner]] edition of the Greek text (1908) [[http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC69142315&id=KSAMAAAAIAAJ online]]
**Alcidamas, [http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/alcidamas/alcsoph1.htm "Against the Sophists," trans. Van Hook (1919)]
*About Alcidamas
**[[Aristotle]], ''[[Rhetoric (Aristotle)|Rhetoric]]'' III.3
**J. Vahlen, "Der Rhetor Alkidamas", ''Sitzungsberichte der wiener Akademie, Phil.-Hist. Cl.'', 43 (1863) 491-528 [[http://books.google.com/books?id=sqYVAAAAIAAJ&printsec=toc&dq=Sitzungsberichte+der+wiener+Akademie&as_brr=1&sig=SQ5oDs0LodOLUJRJBonlrIdYOA8#PPA491,M1 online]](=''Gesammelte philologische Schriften'' (Leipzig & Berlin 1911) 1.117-155)
**[[Friedrich Blass]], ''Die attische Beredsamkeit'', part 2 (1892) [[http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC02475280&id=vkgMAAAAIAAJ online]], pp. 345-363
**[[Martin Litchfield West|M.L. West]] (1967) for Alcidamas' invention of the contest of Homer and Hesiod[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-8388%28196711%292%3A17%3A2%3C433%3ATCOHAH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K], N.J. Richardson (1981) against[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-8388%281981%292%3A31%3A1%3C1%3ATCOHAH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J]
**[http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/alcidamas/index.htm Various articles on Alcidamas] (1856-1919, with links to further online material)
**Additional bibliography is available online at Christopher Skiebe: [http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/a/alcidamas_v_e.shtml ''Alcidamas''. In: Friedrich-Wilhelm Trautz / Traugott Bautz (Hrsg.): Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon], Band XXIII (2004).

[[Category:Ancient Greek rhetoricians]]

[[de:Alkidamas]]
[[es:Alcidamante]]
[[fr:Alcidamas]]
[[gl:Alcidamas]]
[[it:Alcidamante]]
[[hu:Alkidamasz]]
[[sk:Alkidamas z Elaie]]