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St Photius the Great, tr. Freese, 1920; selections

161. Codex 161: Sopater, Various Extracts

Read the Various Extracts of the sophist Sopater,¹ in twelve books, compiled from the works of different historians and writers. The first book gives an account of the fables of the gods from the third book of Apollodorus,² an Athenian who taught grammar, On the Gods. The selections are not from the third book alone, but also from the fourth, fifth, ninth, first, twelfth, fifteenth, and sixteenth, down to the twenty-fourth. The collection includes the mythical tales and fictions concerning the gods and whatever else is of any historical value, such as the stories of the heroes, the Dioscuri, and those in Hades, and the like. The compiler has also drawn upon the second book of Juba³ On Painting, and upon the Deipnosophists of Athenaeus⁴ of Naucratis. Such are the sources and contents of the first book.

The second book is from the first book and onwards down to. the tenth book of the Epitomes of Pamphila,⁵ the daughter of Soteridas, and from Artemon⁶ of Magnesia’s On Remarkable Deeds of Women, the Apophthegms of Diogenes⁷ the Cynic, the eighth book of Sappho,⁸ and various other writers. Such is the second book of the extracts.

The third book is from the Various History of Favorinus,⁹ from books N, C, and the rest in order, with the exception of T, up to W. These contain various histories, the reasons and origins and meanings of words and names, and the like. This ends the third book.

The fourth book is compiled from an anonymous work entitled a Collection of Wonderful Things, from the sixteenth book of the Miscellaneous Notes of Aristoxenus,¹⁰ and from the eighth book of the Dramatic History of Rufus.¹¹ Here are to be found many improbable and incredible things, various tragic and comic incidents, dialogues and speeches, manners and customs, and the like, with which the fourth book ends.

The fifth book consists of extracts from the first, second, and third books of Rufus’s Musical History. It contains an account of different comedians and tragedians, of writers of dithyrambs, players on the flute and cithara, of nuptial songs and song accompanied by dance, of dancers and others who took part in theatrical contests, the origin and family antecedents of those among them who became famous, whether men or women; which of them were known as the originators of what practices, which of them were the friends and intimates of emperors and kings; what the contests were and whence derived, in which each exhibited his art. The general festivals celebrated by the whole Athenian people are also described. All these things, and the like, the reader will find in the fifth book.

The sixth book is from the fourth and fifth books of the Musical History by the same Rufus. It gives an account of flute-players, of the songs sung to the flute by men and women, of the poets Homer, Hesiod, and Antimachus,¹² and most of the other poets belonging to their school, and tells us something about female soothsayers, who the so-called Sibyls were and whence they came, all borrowed from Rufus. The second book of the Halieutica of Damostratus,¹³ and the first, fifth, ninth, and tenth books of the Lives of the Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius¹⁴ are also drawn upon. We have an account of the philosophers and of the origin of the divine study---- philosophy; how it flourished, who were the heads and champions of the different schools, who were their followers or rivals, the character exhibited by each, their birth and origin, their manner of life from the beginning, and the time in which they flourished. The book also contains information about rhetoric and rhetoricians, extracts from Aelius Dionysius’s work On Alexandria, and from the Aegyptiaca of Hellanicus,¹⁵ and concludes with various mythical and fictitious stories and other things.

The seventh book is a kind of anthology from the History of Herodotus.

The eighth book consists of extracts from an old and anonymous work. It gives a list of women who rose to fame and made a brilliant name, of the deeds of certain men and their meetings for the study of rhetoric, of the excellence of friendship, and the maxims of worthy men. There are also selections from Plutarch’s essays on How a Young Man should Listen to the Poets and on Nature and Labours, showing how many, often with great difficulty, have reformed a vicious nature, while others through carelessness have allowed a good one to become corrupted; how some who in their younger days were looked upon as slow and unintelligent, when they grew up were distinguished by brilliant qualities, quick-witted-ness, and intellectual gifts. Also from the treatises On Shamefacedness, On Garrulity, On Anger, On How One should Obtain Benefit from One’s Enemies, On Cheerfulness, On Political Precepts, On Wealth, How One can be Conscious of Progress in Virtue, On Rules of Health, On Marriage Precepts. Amongst these extracts is to be found much that is worthy of being remembered, both words and deeds, which will be found serviceable in many respects. Such is the contents of the eighth book.

The ninth book consists of extracts from Plutarch’s The Slow Vengeance of the Gods, the Lives of Demetrius and Of Brutus the Roman, the book entitled Apophthegms of Famous Men, the little treatise On Rivers, and How to Distinguish the Flatterer from the Friend, the Lives of Crates, Daiphantus, and Pindar, and the work entitled Apophthegms of Kings and Generals, and the first to the eighth of the Convivial Discourses. Such is the matter supplied by Plutarch. The author has also borrowed from the first, second, third, and fourth books of Rufus’s Roman History, in which will be found much that deserves mention although mixed up with fables and long-winded nonsense. Such is the contents of the ninth book.

The tenth book is compiled from the Erato of Cephalion,¹⁶ and describes the life and deeds of Alexander the Great; from the treatise of Apollonius the Stoic; concerning women who have been philosophers or have achieved fame by anything else, or by whose mediation families were reconciled; from the History of Macedon by Theagenes; from Plutarch’s Lives of Nicias, Alcibiades, Themistocles, Theseus, Lycurgus, Solon, and Alexander the son of Philip, Cimon, [Lysander, Demosthenes], Pericles, Pelopidas, Phocion, and Aristides, containing much that is worthy of being narrated and recorded. Such is the contents of the tenth book.

The eleventh book is in like manner compiled from Plutarch’s Lives of Epaminondas, Dion, Agesilaus, Agis, Cleomenes, Eumenes of Cardia, Philopoemen, Aratus, who when general of the Achaean league commanded the forces seventeen times and greatly distinguished himself in the field, and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus; from the first and second books of Aristophanes¹⁷ the grammarian’s work On Animals, and the seventeenth book of king Juba’s Theatrical History. Such is the contents of the eleventh book.

The twelfth book is taken from various sources: Callixenus’s¹⁸ Catalogue of Painters and Sculptors, Aristonicus’s¹⁹ On the Museum at Alexandria, the Constitutions of Aristotle, dealing with those of the Thessalians, Achaeans, Parians, Lycians, Chians, and of all the peoples whom he has mentioned in his political writings, the usefulness of which is evident. Such is the contents of the twelfth book.

The work is very useful to the reader. For although it is not free from fabulous, monstrous, false and improbable statements, as I have already mentioned more than once, yet from those which are as it were contributions from the storehouse of learning, one may gather much that promotes virtue and honesty. For the student of rhetoric and sophistic, as he himself says to his friends in the introduction, they are of considerable importance and will be very serviceable. The diction is varied, not confined to one style, although clearness is the distinguishing feature of the entire work.

Notes

Perhaps Sopater of Apamea, who was at first intimate with Constantine the Great, but was put to death by him on account of his pagan propaganda.
Flourished about 140 B.C.
3 Castor and Pollux.
King of Mauretania, born c. 50 B.C., died c. A.D. 20. He was a most prolific writer on all kinds of subjects.
Of Naucratis, in Egypt; flourished at Rome during the reign of Commodus and his successors. His Doctors at Dinner (Sandys) is a kind of encyclopaedia, in which are preserved numerous quotations from some 700 ancient authors, especially of the Middle and New Comedy.
Learned female grammarian of the time of Nero; author of a work bearing upon the history of literature (see Cod. 175).
Nothing further is known of him.
403-323 B.C.
Of Eresus or Mytilene in Lesbos. Two complete poems and numerous fragments remain, increased by the papyrus-finds in Egypt.
Of Arelate (Arles); sceptic; author of. numerous popular philosophical worlds, epideictic declamations, and speeches. He chiefly resided in Rome, and was patronised by Hadrian.
Of Tarentum; flourished 318 B.C. He was a great authority on music and rhythm (he was called ὁ μουσικός), and wrote on almost every subject.
It is uncertain whether he is identical with the author of the Musical and Roman Histories mentioned below, or whether the author of the last is an orator of whose rhetorical work a fragment has been preserved.
Of Colophon or Claros, contemporary of Plato. His elegy Lyde, on the death of his mistress, was famous. He also wrote a long-winded epic, Thebais, and was the author of an edition of Homer.
Roman senator; lived a little earlier than Aelian (c. A.D. 170-230). Besides the Halieutica (On Fishing), he wrote on aquatic divination, and marvellous things.
His date is unknown, possibly the second half of the third century A.D. The Lives is an undigested and uncritical compilation from different works.
Of Mytilene (died c. 405 B.C.). He wrote several genealogical works, and the history of various countries and peoples, amongst them an Atthis (history of Attica), and Troica (History of Troy).
See Cod. 68.
18 First century B.C.
19 His date is uncertain. The work was much used by Stephanus of Byzantium, the geographer.
20 Add Timoleon.
Of Byzantium (c. 257-180 B.C.), successor of Eratosthenes as librarian of Alexandria. He is famous for his editions of Homer and other poets, in which he introduced accents and other marks to be used in the criticism of the text.
Of Rhodes, end of third century B.C. Wrote on art and a descriptive account of Alexandria.
Of Alexandria, contemporary of Strabo (who died c. A.D. 24). He wrote on the critical marks used in the Iliad and Odyssey, and commentaries on Homer and Pindar.