Second Sophistic: How Greek Elites Used Rhetoric to Assert Identity in the Roman Empire

The Second Sophistic was a cultural and intellectual movement in the Greek-speaking parts of the Roman Empire, flourishing from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. Coined by Philostratus in his 'Lives of the Sophists' (3rd century AD), the term refers to a revival of Classical Greek culture, particularly rhetoric. Unlike the 'First Sophistic' of the 5th-4th centuries BC, which focused on philosophical inquiry, the Second Sophistic emphasized historical topics and the art of rhetoric itself. Provincial elites used performative orations in archaic Attic Greek to demonstrate education and status, asserting their Greek identity under Roman rule. Key figures included Herodes Atticus, a wealthy Athenian orator and Roman consul (AD 143), who funded monuments in Athens and restored the aqueduct at Olympia; and Aelius Aristides, a student of Herodes, who left over 50 extant orations. The movement was a reaction to Roman dominance, using education (paideia) and linguistic purity as political capital, allowing Greeks to negotiate their identity through memory and language rather than resistance. The term 'sophist' had both positive and negative connotations, sometimes implying disingenuousness. The movement was centered in the Greek-speaking East, including Athens and Asia Minor, and was supported by emperors like Hadrian and the Antonines.