Aelius Theon

Ailios Theon was a rhetorician of Alexandria and author of a collection of preliminary exercises ( Progymnasmata ) for the training of orators.

He lived and wrote probably in the mid to late first century AD and his treatise is the earliest treatment of these exercises. The work, which is incompletely preserved and probably formed an attachment to a manual of rhetoric, showing formation and flavor and contains valuable notes on style as well as the speeches of the masters of Attic oratory. Theon also wrote comments to Xenophon, Isocrates and Demosthenes and treatises on the style.

This Theon must be distinguished from the Stoics Theon, who lived in the time of Augustus, and also wrote on rhetoric.

Expenditure

• Aelius Theon: Progymnasmata. Edited by Michel Patillon, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1997, ISBN 2-251-00453- X ( with a detailed introduction, Armenian text and French translation ).
• Theon: The " Progymnasmata " of Theon: A new text with Translation and Commentary. 2 volumes, edited by James R. Butts, Claremont / Michigan 1986 ( with commentary and English translation).