Apollonius Molon (sometimes called simply Molon), Greek rhetorician, who flourished about 70 BC. He was a native of Alabanda, a pupil of Menecles, and settled at Rhodes. He twice visited Rome as an ambassador from Rhodes, and Cicero (who visited him during his trip to Greece in 79-77BC) and Caesar took lessons from him. Perhaps it is credit of Apollonius Molon's work that Cicero and Caesar, Cicero especially, became revered orators in the Roman republic. He is reputed to have quoted Demosthenes in telling his pupils that the first three elements in rhetoric were "Delivery, Delivery and Delivery." He had a stellar reputation in Roman Law courts, and was even invited to address the Roman Senate in Greek - an honour not usually bestowed upon foreigner ambassadors. He endeavoured to moderate the florid Asiatic style and cultivated an "Atticizing" tendency. He wrote on Homer, and, according to Josephus, violently attacked the Jews.
References
- C Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iii.
- Emil Schürer, Story of the Jewish People, iii. (Eng. tr. 1886).
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
