Athenaeus in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

The Greek scholar, a native of Naucratis in Egypt. He was educated at Alexandria, where he lived from A.D. 170-230. After this he lived at Rome, and there wrote his Δειπνοσοφισταί (or "Banquet of the Learned"), in fifteen books. Of these the first, second, and part of the third are only preserved in a selection made in the eleventh century; the rest survive in a tolerably complete state. The work shows astonishing learning, and contains a number of notices of ancient life which would otherwise have been lost. The author gives us collections and extracts from more than 1500 works (now mostly lost), and by more than 700 writers. His book is thrown into the form of a conversation held in the year A.D. 228 at a dinner given by Larensius, a rich and accomplished Roman, and a descendant of the great antiquarian Varro. Among the guests are the most learned men of the time, including Galen the physician and Ulpian the jurist. The conversation ranges over numberless subjects connected with domestic and social life, manners and customs, trade, art, and science. Among the most valuable things in the book are the numerous passages from prosewriters and poets, especially from the masters of the Middle Comedy. Good editions are those of Dindorf (1827); and Meineke, 4 vols. (1859-67). There is a literal English translation in the Bohn Classical Library, 3 vols. (1854).