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Apion, a Greek grammarian. His name is sometimes incorrectly spelt Appion, and
some writers, like Suidas, call him a son of Pleistoneices, while others more
correctly state that Pleistoneices was only a surname, and that he was the son
of Poseidonius (Gell. vi. 8; Senec. Epist. 88; Euseb. Praep. Evang. x. 10). He
was a native of Oasis, but used to say that he was born at Alexandria, where he
studied under Apollonius, the son of Archibius, and Didymus, from whom he imbibed
his love for the Homeric poems (Suid. s. v. Apion; Joseph. c. Apion. ii. 3, &c).
He afterwards settled at Rome, where he taught rhetoric as the successor of the
grammarian Theon in the reign of Tiberius and Claudius.
He appears to have enjoyed an extraordinary reputation for his extensive
knowledge and his versatility as an orator; but the ancients are unanimous in
censuring his ostentatious vanity (Gell. v. 14; Plin. H. N. Praef. and xxx. 6;
Joseph. c. Apion. ii. 12). He declared that every one whom he mentioned in his
works would be immortalized; he placed himself by the side of the greatest philosophers
of ancient Greece, and used to say, that Alexandria ought to be proud of having
a man like himself among its citizens. It is not unlikely that the Name "cymlbalum
mundi," by which Tiberius was accustomed to call him, was meant to express both
his loquacity and his boastful character. He is spoken of as the most active of
grammarians, and the surname mochthos which he bore, according to Suidas, is usually
explained as describing the zeal and labour witll which he prosecuted his studies.
In the reign of Caligula he travelled about in Greece, and was received
everywhere with the highest honours as the great interpreter of Homer (Senec.
l. c). About the same time, A. D. 38, the inhabitants of Alexandria raised complaints
against the Jews residing, in their city, and endeavonred to curtail their rights
and privileges. They sent an embassy to the emperor Caligula, which was headed
by Apion, for He was a skilful speaker and known to entertain great hatred of
the Jews. The latter also sent an embassy, which was headed by Philo. In this
transaction Apion appears to have overstepped the limits of his commission, for
he not only brought forward the complaints of his fellow-citizens, but endeavoured
to excite the emperor's anger against the Jews by reminding him that they refused
to erect statues to him and to swear by his sacred name (Joseph. Ant. xviii. 10).
The results of this embassy, as well as the remaining part of Apion's life, are
unknown; but if we may believe the account of his enemy Josephus (c. Apion. ii.
13), he died of a disease which he had brought upon himself by his dissolute mode
of life.
Apion was the author of a considerable number of works, all of which
are now lost with the exception of some fragments.
1. Upon Homer, whose poems seem to have formed the principal part of his studies,
for he is said not only to have made the best recension of the text of the poems,
but to have written explanations of phrases and words in the form of a dictionary
(Lexeis Homerikai), and investigations concerning the life and native country
of the poet. The best part of his Lexeis Homerikai are supposed to be inclarporated
in the Homneric Lexicon of Apollonius (Villoison, Proleg. ad Apollon. p. ix. &c).
Apion's labours upon Homer are often referred to by Eustathius and other grammarians.
2. A work on Egypt (Ailuptiaka), consisting of five books, which was highly valued
in antiquity, for it contained descriptions of nearly all the remarkable objects
in Egypt. It also contained numerous attacks upon the Jews. (Euseb. Praep. Evang.
x. 10; Gell. v. 14; Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 19).
3. A work against the Jews (Euseb. l. c.). A reply to these attacks is made by
Josephus, in the second book of his work usually called Kata Apionos, and this
reply is the only source from which we learn anything about tho character of Apion's
work.
4. A work in praise of Alexander the Great (Gell. vi. 8).
5. Histories of separate countries (Historia kata ethnos, Suid. s. v. Apion).
6. On the celebrated glutton Apicius, and,
7. Peri tes Pomaikes dialektou (Athen. vii. p. 294, xv. p. 680).
8. De metallica discipline (Plin. Elench. lib. xxxv). The greatest fragments of
the works of Apion are the story about Androclus and his lion, and about the dolphin
near Dicaearchia, both of which are preserved in Gellius. Suidas (s. vv. Agurtes,
spilades, spharagon, and triglena) refers to Apion as a writer of epilgrams, but
whether he is the same as the grammarin is uncertain (Villoison, l. c. ; Burigny,
in the Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript. xxxviii. p. 171, &c.; Lehrs, Quaest. Epicae,
Dissert. i., who chiefly discusses what Apion did for Homer).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited May 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Apion. A Greek grammarian of the first century A.D., a pupil of Didymus, and president of the philological school at Alexandria. He also worked for a time at Rome under Tiberius and Claudius. A vain, boastful man, he travelled about the Greek cities, giving popular lectures on Homer. Of his many writings we have only fragments left. The glosses on Homer that bear his name are of later origin; on the other hand, the Homeric lexicon of the sophist Apollonius is based on his genuine Homeric glosses. His bitter complaint, Against the Jews, addressed to Caligula at the instance of the Alexandrians, is best known from Iosephus's noble reply to it.
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