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Alexander Nume'nius

Ἀλέξανδρος Νουμήνιος, (or Νουμηνίου, as Suidas calls him), a Greek rhetorician, who lived in the reign of Hadrian or that of the Antonines. About his life nothing is known.


Works

We possess two works which are ascribed to him.


The one which certainly is his work bears the title Περὶ τῶν τῆς Διανοίας καὶ Λέξεως Σχημάτων, i. e. De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis. J. Rufinianus in his work on the same subject (p. 159, ed. Ruhnken) expressly states that Aquila Romanus, in his treatise " De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis," took his materials from Alexander Numenius' work mentioned above.


On Show-speeches

The second work bearing the name of Alexander Numenius, entitled Περὶ Ἐπιδεικτικῶν, i. e. On Show-speeches, is admitted on all hands not to be his work, but of a later grammarian of the name of Alexander; it is, to speak more correctly, made up very clumsily from two distinct ones, one of which was written by one Alexander, and the other by Menander. (Vales. ad Euseb. Hist. Eccles. p. 28.)


Editions

The first edition of these two works is that of Aldus, in his collection of the Rhetores Graeci, Venice, 1508, fol., vol. i. p. 574, &c. They are also contained in Walz's Rhetores Graeci, vol. viii.

The genuine work of Alexander Numenius has also been edited, together with Minucianus and Phoebammon, by L. Normann, with a Latin translation and useful notes, Upsala, 1690, 8vo.


Further Information

See Ruhnken, ad Aquil. Rom. p. 139, &c.; Westermann, Gesch. der Griech. Beredtsamkeit, § 953, n. 13.104, n. 7.

[L.S]

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