Athenaeum

The author

The only elements which we know on Athénée come from its work. Born in Egypt, probably under Marc-Aurèle, it would have made its studies with Alexandria where it would have lived of 170 with 230. It would have been then established with Rome, where it writes its work, Δειπνοσοφισταί / Deipnosophistaí , “the banquet of the sophists”, allusion to the Matter of table of Plutarque and to the Banquet of Plato. According to this text itself, Athénée would have also been the author of a treaty on the monarchs of Syria as well as comment of the comedy Poisson (disappeared today) of certain Archippos, contemporary of Aristophane.

He probably dies after 223: the Deipnosophistes evoke the death of certain Ulpien, which is perhaps celebrates it lawyer Ulpien, died on this date. However, that is not sure: Athenaeum describes the death of Ulpien like “happy”, with the direction where it does not occur at the end of a long illness (686c); however historical Ulpien dies assassinated. surer index, the Deipnosophistes are used at the 5th century by the lexicographer Hésychios of Alexandria. Lastly, the narrator of work, identified like “Athenaeum”, locates his own account under the reign of the emperor Commode (537f), i.e. of 181 with 192.

The Deipnosophistes

Composition

The Deipnosophistes are a series of conversations held at the time of a fictitious dinner that the work places at Rome, at the beginning of the 3rd century: before the death of a character describes as “Galien” (either in 199 for historical Galien) and after the death of “Ulpien” (cf above). It includes/understands fifteen books during which “Athenaeum”, the narrator, tells with an interlocutor named Timocrate the conversations of the famous dinner. Timocrat himself expresses himself only once, at the beginning of book I, but “Athenaeum” is addressed to him at the beginning and the end of the majority of the fifteen books.

The book is primarily a collection of anecdotes and quotations, under the pretext of a banquet given by the rich person P. Livius Larensis, where the many guests, fine well-read men, discuss varied subjects. These guests are as well contemporary authors as of famous dead: thus Plato, in his Tééthète , had ressuscity Protagoras for the needs for work. Are named Galien, Ulpien, Masurius Sabinus (one of the authors of the Digeste ), Zoïle (critical of Homère), Plutarque, etc the authors thus quoted with half-are sometimes disguised by Athénée, by precaution: thus, Zoïle is never worried in the work of Homeric questions, however its only claim to fame; Plutarque is presented like simple a grammairien; Démocrite is not mentioned like native of Abdère, but of Nicomédie. Joined together around the same table, these authors discuss with blow quotations old authors on a very great number of subjects:

delivers I: gastronomical literature, wine and food in the work of Homère, the wine;
books II and III: out of works and bread;
books IV: the organization of the meals and music;
delivers V: luxate and ostentation;
delivers VI: parasites and flattery;
books VII and VIII: the fish;
delivers IX: meat and poultry;
delivers X: gloutonnery, wine;
delivers XI: cuts;
delivers XII: social conventions;
delivers XIII: love;
delivers XIV: music, desserts;
delivers XV: crowns and perfumes.

The compilation of Athenaeum is invaluable, because one estimates at 1.500 the number of works quoted, whose great majority are lost today, for approximately 700 authors represented. The majority of the quotations are allotted to an author and are referred. The long quotations were probably raised by Athénée directly, during its readings: no compilation of quotations of this type is known. On the other hand, the shorter quotations, more particularly those which touches with the lexicography and grammar, result probably from sources of second hand.

Deipnosophistes is an invaluable tool on the literature and the life in Greece in the Antiquité. It is also a good source on the Greek banquets (symposiums), the dishes which were been useful there, and the spectacles which were proposed there. It is thus also a true treaty of Gastronomie, with information on the habits of table, the food, the menus, the crockery, the wine. The digressions to which the guests deliver themselves make pass under our eyes all the ancient company.

The handwritten tradition

The work of Athenaeum reached us via a Byzantine manuscript, copied by Jean the Calligrapher with Constantinople at the 10th century, brought in Italy by Jean Aurispa to the 15th century and bought by the cardinal Bessarion. Preserved at the Library Saint-Marc of Venice, it is known under the name of Marcianus Venetus 447 or of Marcianus A. To this Codex composed of 370 folios miss the first two books, the beginning of the third, part of dispersed book XV and some passages.

These deficiencies are mitigated by a late Byzantine summary that the tradition names the Épitomé . It concentrates on the quotations contained in the work, by leaving side the conversational part and by often omitting the references. Despite everything, the philologists agree to recognize it more faithful to the original than the Marcianus has . It is difficult to date: the only positive evidence is that Eustathe de Thessalonique largely employs it when he teaches at the patriarchal school of Constantinople, that is to say before 1175. Lastly, the text is supplemented by the Lexique of Hésychios or the Souda , Byzantine encyclopedia of the end of the 11th century: they preserved versions different from the direct handwritten tradition, and sometimes preferable.

Lastly, it should be noted that Marcianus has comprises a series of notes testifying to Deipnosophistes in thirty books, instead of the fifteen known ones currently, which explains certain inconsistencies in the text, and in particular in the presentation of the guests. This cutting is confirmed by specimens of the Lexique of Hésychios which attest knowledge of work in thirty books.

Posterior editions

The princeps edition of Athenaeum goes back to August 1514. It is due to Alde Manuce and is based on a manuscript established by Crétois Marco Musuro. It is not attached that indirectly in Venetus has, then inaccessible. Quickly exhausted, the Aldine one is followed two years later by the edition of Christian Herlin, printed by Jean Walder of Basle. In 1556, Andrea Arrivabene prints in Venice the first translation in Latin of Athenaeum, works of Natalis Comes on the basis of the Aldine one. Of poor quality, it is exceeded in 1583 by the translation of the doctor Jacques Daléchamp, based on the edition of Basle. It is the latter which the humanistic one chooses protesting Isaac Casaubon to place it against its edition of the Deipnosophistes , published in 1597. This one marks a big step in the history of the transmission of Greek and Latin works. The pagination of Casaubon remains thus used in a current way since the 19th century.

The first translation of Athenaeum as a Frenchwoman is due to the abbot Michel de Marolles, in 1680. Of poor level, it is followed in 1789-1791 by that of Jean Baptiste Lefebvre de Villebrune, which is characterized by its acrimony against Casaubon. At the 19th century, of Strasbourg the Jean Schweighæuser, German Wilhelm Dindorf and Auguste Meineke mark, by their editions, the history of the text of Athenaeum. It is finally Georg Kaibel which delivers, in 1887-1890, the edition considered today as that of reference.

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