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PATRICK REINARD

University of Trier

Aristarchus of SAMOTHRACE was the most important Greek philologist in antiquity (see Berti and Costa 2010, 149–54). He was a disciple of Aristophanes of BYZANTIUM and became the sixth director of the Library of Alexandria in 153 BCE, succeeding Apollonius (POxy. 1241 II; see now Murray 2012). The main productive period of Aristarchus’ career was in the reign of Ptolemy VI Philometor (180–145), during which time he became the teacher of the royal family. In 144 Ptolemy VII was usurped by Ptolemy VIII Physkon, who suppressed the entourage of the former king. Aristarchus and many of his disciples were forced to flee. He came to CYPRUS, but died shortly afterwards of dropsy (Schmid‐Stählin 1959, II.1: 264).

Aristarchus’ works are a climax of ancient philology, text criticism, and exegesis (Athenaeus calls him ὁ γραμματικώτατος, “grammarian par excellence”: 15.671–72). He was famous for his works on HOMER and his goal of “explaining Homer by Homer”: he refused allegorical interpretations, which were common in the philological tradition of Pergamon. As a teacher Aristarchus was also very efficacious. The Suda records approximately forty disciples, among whom are Apollodorus, Aristonicus, and Dionysius Thrax (Schmid‐Stählin 1959, II.1: 265 and 268). Aristarchus was the first to introduce and establish a system of diacritical signs for philological research in text criticism. This critical sign system is still recognizable in the works of Suetonius (De viris illustribus 108) and Diogenes Laertius (3.65–66).

Beside Homer, Aristarchus explored other famous poets: HESIOD, ALCAEUS, PINDAR, ARCHILOCHUS, ARISTOPHANES, Bacchylides, Alcman, ANACREON, and SOPHOCLES (Schironi 2004). We can add the PROSE author Herodotus to that list. Aristarchus’ commentary on Herodotus’ Histories is the only one of which a part has survived via an unmediated source: a papyrus fragment (P.Amh. 12) seems to contain an abbreviated part of a commentary on Book 1 (Bichler and Rollinger 2011, 119; West 2011, 77). The excerpt is written on the verso of unrelated accounts. The text gives comments on 1.194 and 1.215; the lack of any notes or information on the intervening chapters makes it obvious that P.Amh. 12 is the product of excerpting a much longer text. As Stephanie West points out, the excerpter was first of all interested in realia, and our fragment of Aristarchus was very likely produced for school needs, as chapters 194 and 215 seem to be suitable as reading exercises for teenagers (West 2011, 80–81). This evidence corresponds with the PAPYRI of Herodotos which preserve often just parts of the Herodotean text. In many cases these papyri texts were excerpts, too. The survival of a part of Aristarchus’ commentary leads some scholars to conclude that the famous philologist also published an edition of the Histories, which could be the template for known manuscript traditions (Schmid‐Stählin 1959, I.2: 666).

SEE ALSO: Editions; Education, Ancient; Manuscripts; Scholarship on Herodotus, Ancient Greece and Rome