Theophrastus' Characters: A New Introduction

The Characters is a set of thirty short portraits of recognisable Athenian types from the fourth century BCE. This book introduces the work and its author, Theophrastus, who was a colleague of Aristotle, succeeded him and led their philosophical school for thirty-five years.

Sonia Pertsinidis places Theophrastus within Greek philosophy and considers the Characters as literature. The book discusses the purpose of the sketches and their links with comedy, ethics and rhetoric, and it traces how far the work influenced later writing.

Because it is a compact introduction, it suits students reading the Characters for the first time, as well as classicists who want a guide to its purpose and context.

Edition note: first edition from Routledge, 2018, 104 pages, ISBN-13 9781138244436. It is part of the Routledge Focus on Classical Studies series.