Alexander Peloplaton

Who is Alexander Peloplaton?

Alexander, surnamed Peloplaton, a Greek rhetorician of the age of the Antonines, was a son of Alexander of Seleucia, in Cilicia, and of Seleucis. His father was distinguished as a pleader in the courts of justice, by which he acquired considerable property, but he died at an age when his son was too young to care for himself. His place, however, was supplied by his friends, especially by Apollonius of Tyana, who is said to have been in love with Seleucis on account of her extraordinary beauty, in which she was equaled by her son. His education was entrusted at first to the philosopher Favorinus, and afterwards to Dionysius. He spent the property his father had left to him on pleasures, but, says Philostratus, not contemptible pleasures.

When he had attained the age of manhood, the town of Seleucia, for some reason now unknown, sent Alexander as ambassador to the emperor Antoninus Pius, who is said to have ridiculed the young man for the extravagant care he bestowed on his outward appearance. He spent the greater part of his life away from his native place, at Antiochia, Rome, Tarsus, and traveled through all Egypt, as far as Ethiopia. It seems to have been during his stay at Antiochia that he was appointed Greek secretary to the emperor Marcus Aurelius, who was carrying on a war in Pannonia, around the year 174. On his journey to the emperor he made a short stay at Athens, where he met the celebrated rhetorician Herodes Atticus. He had a rhetorical contest with him in which he not only conquered his famous adversary, but gained his esteem and admiration to such a degree that Herodes honored him with an extremely expensive gift. One Corinthian, however, of the name of Sceptes, when asked what he thought of Alexander, expressed his disappointment by saying that he had found "the clay, but not Plato." This saying gave rise to the surname of Peloplaton. The place and time of his death are not known.