Aristonicus of Alexandria
Encyclopedia
Aristonicus of Alexandria
was a distinguished Greek
grammarian who lived during the reigns of Augustus
and Tiberius
, contemporary with Strabo
. He taught at Rome
, and wrote commentaries and grammatical treatises.
ic poems.
These and some other works are all now lost, with the exception of fragments preserved in the passages above referred to. By far the most important fragments of his work are preserved in the scholia of the Venetus A
manuscript of the Iliad
.
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
was a distinguished Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
grammarian who lived during the reigns of Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
and Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
, contemporary with Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
. He taught at Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, and wrote commentaries and grammatical treatises.
Works
He is mentioned as the author of several works, most of which were related to the HomerHomer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
ic poems.
- On the wanderings of Menelaus
- On the critical signs of the Iliad and Odyssey , on the marginal signs by which the Alexandrian critics used to mark suspected or interpolatedInterpolation (manuscripts)An interpolation, in relation to literature and especially ancient manuscripts, is an entry or passage in a text that was not written by the original author...
verses in the Homeric poems and in HesiodHesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
's Theogony - On ungrammatical words , a work of six books on irregular grammatical constructions in Homer
These and some other works are all now lost, with the exception of fragments preserved in the passages above referred to. By far the most important fragments of his work are preserved in the scholia of the Venetus A
Venetus A
Venetus A is the more common [or original] name for the tenth century manuscript catalogued in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice as Codex Marcianus Graecus 454, now 822....
manuscript of the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
.
Editions
- Scholia on the Iliad:
Erbse, H.Hartmut ErbseHartmut Erbse was a German classical philologist.-Life:The son of a dentist from Thüringen, Erbse studied classical philology in Hamburg, where he was well known for his lively hat-wear and received his doctorate in 1940...
1969-88, Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem, 7 vols. (Berlin) - Aristonicus' work reconstructed from the Iliad scholia:
Friedländer, L.Ludwig FriedländerLudwig Henrich Friedlaender was a German philologist.He studied at the universities of his hometown Königsberg, Leipzig, and Berlin from 1841 to 1845...
1965 [1853], Aristonici Alexandrini περὶ σημείων Ιλιάδος reliquiae emendatiores, reprint (Amsterdam)- Online edition of Friedländer at books.google.com (available online or as 13.9 MB PDF file)