C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Alciphron (Second Century)
Alciphron (al’si-fron). A Greek rhetorician who flourished in the second century of the Christian era, and attained celebrity through his series of more than a hundred imaginary letters purporting to be written by the very dregs of the Athenian population, including courtesans and petty rogues. Their importance in literature is due almost wholly to the insight they afford into the social conditions and manners and morals of the day. The letters from the courtesans (hetairai) are based upon incidents in Menander’s lost plays, and the new Attic comedy was likewise drawn upon for material. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).