Aelius Aristides, His Teacher Alexander, and the Platonic Heritage of the διατριβὴ περὶ λόγους

The paper investigates the pedagogical aspects of Aristides’s works using diatribe as the point of connection between his philosophical and rhetorical influences. Miletti pays particular attention to Aristides’ Or. 32, written after the death of his teacher Alexander of Cotiaeon. In this oration, διατριβή takes center stage as an allusion to Cotiaeon’s pedagogy, which combines his educational activities alongside the transmission of other values, such as humanity and generosity. Miletti also examines the influence of the Platonic formula διατριβὴ περὶ λόγους as one of the ways in which the sophist Aristides connects his own pedagogical approach with Plato’s understanding of λόγοι through an imitatio Socratis.