L’ep. 3 dello Ps.-Eschine: l’officina del falsario fra aemulatio e προγύμνασμα

This paper focuses on Ps.-Aeschines’ ep. 3 (Hernández-Muñoz, Berlin 2012) and offers a philo- logical analysis together with an interpretation of its rhetorical structure. This short message shows an unusual portrait of the Athenian orator: in the Second Sophistic progymnasmata Aeschines was the subject of ψόγοι and argumenta a persona and represented a negative exemplum of πολίτης for darkness of birth and treachery; here he is described as a sincere patriot, ready to face fiercely his exile and to sacrifice himself for Athens. The collected data highlight the imitator and his modus operandi, including a mimetic intent towards the demosthenic epistolary – achieved by reworking, and sometimes misunderstanding, the original model – and an unusual use of historical exempla, which seem to be lacking in rhetorical strength. All these aspects show that this composition is a form of epistolary ἠθο- ποιία that, in order to please a well-learned audience, includes as well more than one typical element of the ἐγκώμιον παράδοξον.