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ATHENAEUS
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ATHENAEUS , of See also:Naucratis in See also:Egypt, See also:Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and the beginningof the 3rd See also:century A.D. Suidas only tells us that he lived " in the times of See also:Marcus "; but the contempt with which he speaks of See also:Commodus (died 192) shows that he survived that See also:emperor. Athenaeus himself states that he was the author of a See also:treatise on the thratta—a See also:kind of See also:fish mentioned by See also:Archippus and other comic poets—and of a See also:history of the Syrian See also:kings, both of which See also:works are lost. We still possess the Deipnosophistae, which may mean See also:dinner-table philosophers or authorities on banquets, in fifteen books. The first two books, and parts of the third, See also:eleventh and fifteenth, are only extant in See also:epitome, but otherwise we seem to possess the See also:work entire. It is an immenSe See also:store-See also:house of See also:miscellaneous See also:information, chiefly on matters connected with the table, but also containing remarks on See also:music, songs, dances, See also:games, courtesans. It is full of quotations from writers whose works have not come down to us; nearly 800 writers and 2500 See also:separate writings are referred to by Athenaeus; and he boasts of having read 800 plays of the See also:Middle See also:Comedy alone. The See also:plan of the Deipnosophistae is exceedingly cumbrous, and is badly carried out. It professes to be an See also:account given by the author to his friend Timocrates of a banquet held at the house of See also:Laurentius (or Larentius), a See also:scholar and wealthy See also:patron of See also:art. It is thus a See also:dialogue within a dialogue, after the manner of See also:Plato, but a conversation of sufficient length to occupy several days (though represented as taking See also:place in one) could not be conveyed in a See also:style similar to the See also:short conversations of See also:Socrates. Among the twenty-nine guests are See also:Galen and See also:Ulpian, but they are all probably fictitious personages, and the See also:majority take no See also:part in the conversation. If Ulpian is identical with the famous, jurist, the Deipnosophistae must have been written after his See also:death (228); but the jurist was murdered by the praetorian See also:guards, whereas Ulpian in Athenaeus See also:dies a natural death. The conversation ranges from the dishes before the guests to See also:literary matters of every description, including points of See also:grammar and See also:criticism; and they are expected to bring with them extracts from the poets, which are read aloud and discussed at table. The whole is but a clumsy apparatus for displaying the varied and extensive See also:reading of the author. As a work of art it can take but a See also:low See also:rank, but as a repertory of fragments and morsels, of information it is invaluable. Editio princeps, Aldine, 1524; See also:Casaubon, 1597–1600; See also:Schweighauser, 1801–1807; See also:Dindorf, 1827; See also:Meineke, 1859–1867; Kaibel, 1887-189o; See also:English See also:translation by See also:Yonge in See also:Bohn's Classical Library. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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