spitamenes wrote:I was skimming through Ian Worthingtons book and he mentioned an account of Alexander from an author by the name of Athenaeus. Im sure its not a very prominent account as I am just now coming across his name. And it is apparently written in some kind of antidote style of writing. Does anyone have insight on this guy and what he's all about? Sounded a bit interesting and maybe off the beaten path so Imm trying to find a bit more information.
All the best...
Spitamenes
Hi Spitamenes,
Athenaeus did indeed write in an anecdotal style, very much like a dinner party conversation - the book, Deipnosophists, can be translated as "Philosophers at dinner", or something similar.
Within the book there are numerous references to Alexander, providing tidbits of information and occasionally longer descriptions. Very often we learn the names of obscure people in Alexander's entourage as a result. An example would be:
Book 1. 20 a.
There were celebrated jugglers also at Alexander’s court – Scymnus of Tarentum, Philistides of Syracuse, and Heracleitus of Mitylene.
Or snippets of geographical or other information that pertains to Alexander:
Book 2. 42 f.
In the dominion of Carthage there is a well in which the water at the top is like oil, but of a darker hue; they skim this off in globules and use it for sheep and cattle. Among other people also occur springs with a similar oiliness, like the one in Asia, about which Alexander wrote word that he had discovered a well of oil.
Book 3. 124 c
Even the excellent Xenophon, in the Memorabilia, knows of the use of snow in drinking, and Chares of Mitylene, when he recounts the siege of the Indian capital Petra. He says that Alexander dug thirty refrigerating pits which he filled with snow and covered with oak boughs. In this way, he says, snow will last a long time.
Possibly to most famous reference in Athenaeus, however, is his list of Philip's wives, which was taken from Satyrus, and which is the only clear list of Philip's wives and children:
Book 13.557 b – e
Philip of Macedon did not, to be sure, take women along with him on his campaigns, as did Darius, the one who was deposed by Alexander; for Darius although engaged in a war in which his entire empire was at stake, took round with him three hundred and sixty concubines, according to the account given by Dicaearchus in the third book of his History of Greece. Yet Philip always married a new wife with each new war he undertook. “In the twenty-two years of his reign, at any rate,” as Satyrus says in his Life of him, [c] “he married Audata of Illyria, and had by her a daughter, Cynna; he also married Phila, a sister of Derdas and Machatas. Wishing to put in a claim to the Thessalian nation as his own besides others, he begot children by two women of Thessaly, one of whom was Nicesipolis of Pherae, who bore to him Thettalonice, while the other was Philinna of Larisa, by whom he became the father of Arrhidaeus. In addition, he took possession of the Molossian kingdom by marrying Olympias, by whom he had Alexander and Cleopatra, [d] and when he subjugated Thrace, there came over to his side Cothelas the Thracian king, who brought with him his daughter Meda and a large dowry. By marrying her also he thus brought home a second wife after Olympias. After all these women he married Cleopatra, with whom he had fallen in love, the sister of Hippostratus and niece of Attalus; and by bringing her home to supplant Olympias, he threw the entire course of his life into utter confusion. For immediately, during the celebration of the wedding itself, Attalus remarked, ‘But now, I warn you, princes will be born who will be legitimate, and not bastards.” Alexander, on hearing that, threw the goblet which he held in his hand at Attalus, and he retaliated upon Alexander with his own cup. [e] After this Olympias fled to the country of the Molossians, while Alexander went to Illyria. Cleopatra, in her turn, bore to Philip a daughter, the one who was called Europa.
It's available in Loeb editions, in a number of volumes. But you can find it online, as well.
Hope this helps.
ATB
