A Pepaideumenoi's Novel. Sophistry in Longus' Daphnis and Chloe‪.‬

1. Introduction It has been widely recognized that the 'genre' (1) of the ancient Greek romance displays some tendencies that are also characteristic of the broader cultural climate of Imperial Greek literature, which has conventionally been labelled the 'Second Sophistic'. (2) For these influences of the contemporary context, one can point to the similar interaction with past figures and literary works, the quest for a distinctive Greek identity, and the overall influence of rhetoric and the contemporary literary taste on the novels' compositions. (3) In adding to these studies, this paper will explore the communication process which takes place between the learned composer of Daphnis and Chloe and its learned reader. In support of the traditional viewpoint that Longus should firmly be situated in the context of the Second Sophistic, it will be argued that part of the versatile amusement in Longus' story has its parallel in the contemporary rhetorical practice of the so-called sophists, who travelled all around the Roman Empire and gobsmacked various audiences with their amazing rhetorical talent. After all, such a correspondence can to a certain extent be expected, for it is quite logical that an audience that was made aware of certain narratological and rhetorical principles through attendance at public declamations would have appreciated such procedures in literary works as well. Moreover, education in the Roman Empire, with its focus on speaking and reading, imparted both rhetorical skill and literary taste (most probably with some overlap between the two), (4) and literary theory and criticism of this period such as Ps.-Longinus' On the sublime tended to offer a rhetorical approach to all sorts of literature. (5)