Apollonius Molon

Apollonius Molon or Molo of Rhodes (or simply Molon; Ancient Greek: Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Μόλων), was a Greek rhetorician. He was a native of Alabanda, a pupil of Menecles, and settled at Rhodes, where he opened a school of rhetoric. Prior to that, he twice visited Rome as an ambassador from Rhodes.^[1] Marcus Tullius Cicero studied with him during his trip to Greece in 79–77 BC, as did Gaius Julius Caesar a few years later.^[2] Perhaps it is at least partially due to Apollonius Molon's instruction that Caesar, and Cicero especially, achieved fame as orators in the Roman Republic. Molon 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 honor not usually bestowed upon foreign ambassadors.

Molon wrote on Homer and endeavored to moderate the florid Asiatic style of rhetoric.^[1] According to Josephus, in Against Apion, Apollonius Molon slandered the Jews.^[3]

Notes

1.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Apollonius Molon". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 186. This cites:

   • C. Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iii.
   • Emil Schürer, Story of the Jewish People, iii. (Eng. tr. 1886).
2. Plutarch. "Life of Caesar". University of Chicago. p. 447. After this, Sulla's power being now on the wane, and Caesar's friends at home inviting him to return, Caesar sailed to Rhodes to study under Apollonius the son of Molon, an illustrious rhetorician with the reputation of a worthy character, of whom Cicero also was a pupil.
3. Louis H. Feldman, Gōhei Hata Josephus, Judaism and Christianity 1987 p18 "Of this group, Manetho, Lysimachus, Chaeremon, Apion, Posidonius, and Apollonius Molon (the last two are providers of material for Apion) are severely criticized in Josephus' Against Apion because they slandered and attacked Moses and the Jews by asserting that 1) the ancestors of the Jews were Egyptians... 10) Moses was a fraud and a charlatan whose commandments teach only evil, no virtue (Apollonius Molon, Lysimachus)."