[German version]

(Ἀφθόνιος; Aphthónios). Rhetorician of the 4th and the 5th cent. AD, from Antiochia, student of  Libanius and friend of  Eutropius. Of his writings, the practice speeches mentioned in Phot. library 133 are lost; still extant are 40 fables, some of which he had adopted from  Babrius, others he had newly created. Also still extant are the so-called  progymnasmata , which contain 14 definitions of basic rhetorical concepts used as introductory material for the discipline of rhetoric (e.g. fable μῦθος, narration διήγημα, pro or contra argume…