Potamo of Mytilene

Potamo or Potamon (Greek: Ποτάμων ὁ Μυτιληναῖος; around 65 BC–around AD 25)^[1]) of Mytilene in Lesbos,^[2] son of Lesbonax the rhetorician, was himself a rhetorician in the time of the Roman emperor Tiberius, whose favour he enjoyed.^[3] He is mentioned by Plutarch as an authority regarding Alexander the Great.^[4] It is probably he whom Lucian states to have attained the age of ninety.^[5]

When his son was killed, according to Seneca the Elder, he delivered a speech on the suasoria relating to the Spartans deliberating whether to flee Thermopylae wherein he exhorted the Spartans against flight, in contrast to his rival Lesbocles,^[1] who shut down his school of rhetoric after the death of his son.^[6] His city sent him on embassies to Rome in 45 and 25 BC.^[1]

The Suda informs us that, in addition to his work On Alexander of Macedon (Περὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος), he wrote several other works, namely:

• Annals of the Samians (Ὅρους Σαμίων)
• Encomium of Brutus (Βρούτου ἐγκώμιον)
• Encomium of Caesar (Καίσαρος ἐγκώμιον)
• On the Perfect Orator (Περὶ τελείου ῥήτορος)

To these should perhaps be added On the Different, quoted by Ammonius Grammaticus.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Potamon of Mytilene". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. III. p. 513.