, a Greek grammarian, born at Naucratis in Egypt, flourished in
, a Greek grammarian, born at Naucratis
in Egypt, flourished in the third century. He was one of
the most learned men in his time, and had read so much,
and had such an uncommon memory, that he might be
styled the Varro of the Greeks. Of all his writings none
remain but the work entitled “The Deipnosophists,
” or,
the Sophists discoursing at Table. Here an infinite variety
of facts and quotations are preserved, which are to be met
with no where else and hence, as Bayle truly observes, it
is probable that this author is more valued by us than he
was by his contemporaries, who could consult the originals
from which these facts and quotations were taken. Athenaeus is supposed to have been injured by transcribers
the omissions, transpositions, and false readings in him being extremely numerous. The work consists of fifteen
books, the two, first and beginning of the third of which are
wanting, but, with many hiatuses in the rest, have been
supplied from an abridgment which is extant. It was first
printed in 1514, by Aldus Manutius, Venice, folio, and reprinted under the inspection of Casaubon, Leyden, 1600,
folio. The last edition is that of Shweighaeuser, Strasburgh, 1801—1807, 14 vols. 8vo, which Mr. Dibdin has
copiously described, and highly praised. The French critics, and perhaps others, have, however, objected that this
editor was not sufficiently versed in the rules of Greek versification, and that he neglected to consult some modern
critics, in whose works he might have found many passages of Athenaeus corrected.