Apsines and Pseudo-Apsines (Attribution of Greek rhetorical treatises)

Citations of Apsines by name in the treatise transmitted under his name are inconsistent with the traditional attribution. Editors remove the problem by treating these citations as interpolations, but there is no text-critical warrant for this. Since rhetorical technical texts were often misattributed, and there is no compelling internal or external evidence to support the traditional attribution, the traditional attribution should be abandoned. It is then possible to accept that Apsines was the author of [Hermogenes] On Invention, sometimes cited under his name. A number of testimonia can be explained on the assumption that [Apsines] was a pupil of Apsines named Aspasius, perhaps Aspasius of Tyre. Internal evidence is consistent with this conclusion.