Cornelianus

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Sulpicius Cornelianus was a Roman rhetorician. He lived in the reign of the Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius and Verus. This puts him in the late 2nd century (Aurelius and Verus reigned from 161 to 180). Cornelianus acted as secretary to Marcus Aurelius.

The grammarian Phrynichus speaks of Cornelianus with high praise; Phrynichus dedicated his Ecloga to him, and describes him as worthy of the age of the great orator Demosthenes.[1]

Fronto is our source for the fact that Cornelianus was named Sulpicius.[2]

It has been argued that Cornelianus is the author of a surviving treatise in Greek entitled Philetaerus (φιλέταιρος), which had previously been attributed to the great 3rd century grammarian Herodian.[3] Herodian, too, was on good terms with Marcus Aurelius.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cf. Phrynichus p. 225 s.v. βασίλισσα, p. 379 s.v. τὰ πρόσωπα (ed. Christian Lobeck).
  2. ^ Fronto Letters to his friends 1.4 (pp. 187, 237).
  3. ^ S. Argyle 1989, "A new Greek grammarian", Classical Quarterly 39.2: 524-35.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).