Rufus of Perinthus and the Rhetorical Art

Rufus of Perinthus was a Greek rhetorician and sophist of the 2nd century CE, active during the period of the Second Sophistic. A native of Perinthus in Thrace, he is known primarily for his celebrated and bitter feud with the renowned sophist Herodes Atticus, a defining rivalry reported by Philostratus in his Lives of the Sophists.

Only one work is definitively attributed to Rufus: an oration against Herodes Atticus, which is now lost. He illustrates the intensely competitive nature of sophistic intellectual life. His documented conflict with one of the era's most powerful figures provides a clear example of the personal and professional dynamics central to the Second Sophistic's public culture.