SOURCE: Flinterman, Jaap-Jan. “The Writer.” In Power, Paideia & Pythagoreanism: Greek Identity, Conceptions of the Relationship between Philosophers and Monarchs and Political Ideas in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius, pp. 29-51. Amsterdam, Netherlands: J. C. Gieben, 1995.

In the following excerpt, Flinterman summarizes the preface and introduction to Philostratus's The Lives of the Sophists, discussing the author's attitude toward the sophists and various Greek literary and political issues, and finally, challenges scholarly analyses that claim Philostratus did not identify with his fellow sophists.

The Suda (Φ 421) calls the author of the VA (Apollonius of Tyana) and the VS (The Lives of the Sophists) a sophist,¹ and the mere fact that Philostratus is also referred to as such in inscriptions honouring himself and his son is enough to show that he was attached to this title. Attempts to formulate a comprehensive definition of the phenomenon of the sophistēs as it is known...