The Anaximenean Authorship of the Rhetoric to Alexander in Light of Anaximenes' Indirect Tradition

This paper introduces evidence of new links between the Rhetoric to Alexander and the indirect tradition on Anaximenes of Lampsacus. Traces of Anaximenes are detected in both the dedicatory letter and the text of the treatise. In regard to the latter, the analysis of selected Anaximenean quotations collected in Stobaeus’ Florilegium suggests that Stobaeus or his source may have quoted from an appendix to the Rhetoric to Alexander slightly different from the one that we have, from a gnomologion inspired by the treatise, or from some of Anaximenes’ orations now lost, which provided content for the compila- tion of the treatise. Some anecdotes on Anaximenes’ life also may have been modelled after the Rhetoric to Alexander. Furthermore, by closely examining Anaximenes’ view on gene, and showing that there are no contradictions between Quint. Inst. Or. III 4, 9 (Anaxim. AS B XXXVI 9) and Rhet. Al. 1, 1, 1421b 7-8, this paper also challenges that evidence in the indirect tradition that suggests that Anaximenes could not be the original author of the Rhetoric to Alexander. In closing, the present analysis does not prove conclusively that Anaximenes is the author of the treatise, but demonstrates that the treatise is related to Anaximenes and his reception.