Basilicus (Ancient Greek: Βασιλικός) was a rhetorician and sophist of Nicomedeia. Many scholars believe he was one of the teachers of Apsines of Gadara, therefore he must have lived about 200 CE.[1][2]
However, some scholars disagree that he was a teacher of Apsines, as the evidence for this is that Apsines calls him "the divine Basilicus", a convention that could mean he was a teacher of Apsines, but, some argue, also could mean that he had taught one of Apsines's teachers, or was a man simply admired by Apsines.[3] However the general scholarly consensus is that he was, in fact, Apsines's teacher.[4]
He was the author of several rhetorical works:
- On the patterns of words (περὶ τῶν διὰ τῶν λέξεων σχημάτων)
- On rhetorical preparation (περὶ ῥητορικῆς παρασκενῆς)
- On exercise (περὶ ἀσκήσεως)
- On transformation (πεπὶ μεταποιήσεως)
There were several other, more obscure sophists with this name in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
References
- Suda, s.vv. Βασιλικὸς and Ἀψίνης
- Eudokia Makrembolitissa, Collection p. 93
- Heath, Malcolm (2004). Menander: A Rhetor in Context. Oxford University Press. p. 58. ISBN 9780199259205. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- Apsines (2018). Kennedy, George; Dilts, Mervin (eds.). Two Greek Rhetorical Treatises from the Roman Empire: Introduction, Text, and Translation of the Arts of Rhetoric Attributed to Anonymous Seguerianus and to Apsines of Gadara. Brill Publishers. p. 77. ISBN 9789004330313. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Basilicus". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 465.