Alciphron

Alciphron was a Greek rhetorician and sophist of the Roman imperial period, generally dated to the second or early third century CE. He is celebrated for his collection of fictional letters (the Epistulae), imaginary correspondence purporting to be written by ordinary Athenians — fishermen, farmers, parasites, and courtesans — set in an idealized classical Athens. Composed in polished Attic Greek in the spirit of the Second Sophistic, the letters vividly evoke everyday life and draw heavily on New Comedy, especially Menander. Little is known of his life, and even his exact dates remain uncertain.