Marcus Antonius Polemon (; c. 90 – 144 AD) or Antonius Polemon, also known as Polemon of Smyrna or Polemon of Laodicea (), was a

sophist A sophist () was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics and mathematics. They taught ''arete'', "virtue" or "excellen ...

who lived in the 2nd century. His son

Attalus Attalus or Attalos may refer to: People *Several members of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon **Attalus I, ruled 241 BC–197 BC **Attalus II Philadelphus, ruled 160 BC–138 BC **Attalus III, ruled 138 BC–133 BC *Attalus, father of Ph ...

and great-grandson Hermocrates of Phocaea were also notable sophists.

Early life

Polemon was

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

from a family of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

consular rank. He was the grandson of

Polemon II of Pontus Marcus Antonius Polemon Pythodoros, also known as Polemon II of Pontus and Polemon of Cilicia (; 12 BC/11 BC–74), was a prince of the Bosporan, Pontus, Cilicia, and Cappadocia. He served as a Roman client king of Pontus, Colchis, and Cilicia. ...

.Krystyna Stebnicka
The Physical Appearance of a Pure Greek in Literature of the Second Sophistic Period
''Palamedes: A Journal of Ancient History'', 2 (2007), p. 157-172 He was born in

Laodicea on the Lycus Laodicea on the Lycus ( ''Laodikeia pros tou Lykou''; , also transliterated as ''Laodiceia'' or ''Laodikeia'') ( or archaically as ) was a rich ancient Greek city in Asia Minor, now Turkey, on the river Lycus (Çürüksu). It was located in the ...

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

(modern Turkey), however, he spent a great part of his life in Smyrna (modern

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

). From early manhood, he received civic honors from the citizens of Smyrna for his services to the city. In Smyrna he was educated by Scopelianos of Klazomenai. He then attended the school of Timocrates of Heracleia for four years. After that he travelled to

Bithynia Bithynia (; ) was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast a ...

to learn from the Sophist

Dio Chrysostom Dio Chrysostom (; ''Dion Chrysostomos''), Dio of Prusa or Cocceianus Dio (c. 40 – c. 115 AD), was a Greek orator, writer, philosopher and historian of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. Eighty of his ''Discourses'' (or ''Orations''; ) are ...

Career

Polemon was a master of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

, a prominent member of the

Second Sophistic The Second Sophistic is a literary-historical term referring to the Greek writers who flourished from the reign of Nero until c. 230 AD and who were catalogued and celebrated by Philostratus in his ''Lives of the Sophists''. However, some recent ...

. He was favored by several Roman Emperors.

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

is said to have granted him the privilege of free travel wherever he wished;

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

extended that privilege to Polemon's posterity.G.W. Bowersock, ''Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 48 Hadrian not only admitted he ruled with Polemon's advice, but Polemon accompanied the emperor during his travels in Greece and Asia Minor. When his enemies accused Polemon of spending funds Hadrian had given him to benefit the city of Smyrna, the emperor defended the sophist with a letter declaring that Polemon had rendered Hadrian an account of the moneys entrusted to him. Polemon gave the dedicatory oration to Hadrian's Temple of Olympian Zeus in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, which G.W. Bowersock speculates was "an embarrassing repudiation of the obvious person for the occasion,

Herodes Atticus Herodes Atticus (; AD 101–177) was an Athenian rhetorician, as well as a Roman senator. A great philanthropic magnate, he and his wife Appia Annia Regilla, for whose murder he was potentially responsible, commissioned many Athenian public w ...

. There is a famous story of his arrogant behavior towards Antoninus Pius, whom he threw out of his house at midnight when Antoninus was the newly arrived Governor of Asia. Three times he headed a legation dispatched by Smyrna to the emperor. Under Hadrian he was made

strategos ''Strategos'' (), also known by its Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized form ''strategus'', is a Greek language, Greek term to mean 'military General officer, general'. In the Hellenistic world and in the Byzantine Empire, the term was also use ...

, and subsequently appointed strategos for life. He was a priest of Dionysos and

agonothetes In ancient Greece, an ''agonothetes'' (, plural '; ἀγωνοθέται) were the persons who decided the disputes and awarded the prizes in the Panhellenic Games. Alternative names for the same role included ''athlothĕtae'' (ἀθλοθέται) ...

of the athletic competitions that took place in Smyrna in honour of the emperor Hadrian. Owing to Polemon's rhetorical skills the emperor stopped favoring

Ephesos Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

and endowed Smyrna with 10 million drachmae, which financed the building of a new

grain market The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals such as wheat, barley, maize, rice, and other food grains. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other agri ...

, a gymnasium, and a temple. Polemon founded in Smyrna one of the foremost schools of rhetoric. His style of oratory was imposing rather than pleasing; however his character was haughty and reserved.

Later life

In his later years, Polemon suffered from

arthritis Arthritis is a general medical term used to describe a disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, Joint effusion, swelling, and decreased range of motion of ...

. At the age of 56 and no longer able to stand the pain, he ordered his servants to lock him in his family tomb. When his friends and family begged him not to commit suicide in this manner, he said, "Give me another body and I shall come forth." There, he most likely died from either

starvation Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, de ...

dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water that disrupts metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds intake, often resulting from excessive sweating, health conditions, or inadequate consumption of water. Mild deh ...

Works

Polemon's treatise on

physiognomy Physiognomy () or face reading is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object, or terrain without referenc ...

is preserved in a 14th-century Arabic translation.Published with a Latin translation in ''Polemonis de Physiognomonia liber arabice et latine'', ed. G. Hoffmann, in R. Foerster, ''Scriptores physiognomici graecis et latini'' (Leipzig, 1893) The only fully surviving works of Polemon are his funeral orations for the

Athenians Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

generals

Callimachus Callimachus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar, and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works, most of which ...

and Cynaegirus, who died at the

Battle of Marathon The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens (polis), Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Achaemenid Empire, Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaph ...

in 490 BC. These orations are titled ''logoi epitaphioi'' (epitaphs). His rhetorical compositions were subjects that were taken from Athenian history.

References

Bibliography

*''Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul: Polemon's ''Physiognomy'' from Classical Antiquity to Medieval Islam,'' edited by Simon Swain, Oxford University Press (2007); includes English translations of the major surviving Greek, Latin, and Arabic versions of Polemon's ''Physiognomy''. *M. W. Gleason, ''Making Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome'', Princeton (1995). *M. D. Campanile, "Note sul ''bios'' de Polemone", ''Studi ellenistici'', 12 (1999), 269–315. * * {{Authority control 144 deaths Roman-era Sophists Physiognomists Roman Olympia Ancient Smyrna Roman Phrygia Suicides in ancient Greece 2nd-century Romans Antonii