The anonymous author of a commentary on Aphthonius was a teacher or scholar active in the 5th or 6th century CE, during the late antique period. No personal details about their life are known. They worked within the Greek rhetorical education system of the Eastern Roman Empire, where the Progymnasmata (a textbook of preliminary exercises) by Aphthonius of Antioch was a standard work.

The author’s primary surviving work is a line-by-line Commentary on Aphthonius, written to explain the textbook for students of oratory. A second set of explanatory notes or scholia on the same text is also attributed to the same anonymous tradition. Both works are preserved in manuscripts.

According to modern scholars, this commentary is a significant source for understanding how rhetoric was taught in late antiquity. It shows how a core textbook was interpreted in the classroom and provides technical explanations that might otherwise be lost. The work highlights the enduring importance of rhetorical exercises in Greek education and offers a view of teaching practices before the more famous Byzantine commentaries were written centuries later.