ALCIPHRON

flourished 3rd century AD, , Athens rhetorician who wrote a collection of fictitious letters, a form of literature popular in his day. More than 100 of the letters have survived. The background of them all is the Athens of the 4th century BC, and the imaginary writers are farmers, fishermen, and courtesans. The material of the letters is largely derived from the writers of the so-called New Comedy. They are written in an imitation of the pure Attic dialect and show traces of the influence of Alciphron's contemporary Lucian.