Alcĭphron in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Alcĭphron （Ἀλκίφρων). A Greek rhetorician of the second century A.D., author of a collection of 118 fictitious Letters in three books. These, written in tolerably pure style and tasteful form, profess to be from sailors, peasants, parasites, and hetaerae. They are sketches of character, ingeniously conceived and carried out, which give us a vivid picture of the existing state of culture, especially at Athens. The letters from hetaerae are particularly interesting, as their plots are taken from the New Attic Comedy, especially the lost plays of Menander. The text, with a Latin version, is edited by Westermann and Hercher in the Didot collection (Paris, 1856). See Novels and Romances.

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