（Ἀπελλικῶν). A Peripatetic philosopher, born at Teos in Asia Minor, and one of those to whom we owe the preservation of many of the works of Aristotle. The latter, on his deathbed, confided his works to Theophrastus, his favourite pupil and Theophrastus, by his will, left them to Neleus, who had them conveyed to Scepsis, in Troas, his native city. After the death of Neleus, his heirs, illiterate persons, fearing lest they might fall into the hands of the king of Pergamus, who was enriching in every way his newly-established library, concealed the writings of Aristotle in a cave, where they remained for more than 130 years, and suffered greatly from worms and dampness. At the end of this period Apellicon purchased them for a high price. His wish was to arrange them in proper order, and to fill up the lacunae that were now of frequent occurrence in the manuscripts, in consequence of their neglected state. Being, however, but little versed in philosophy, and possessing still less judgment, he acquitted himself ill in this difficult task, and published the works of the Stagirite full of faults. Subsequently the library of Apellicon fell, among the spoils of Athens, into the hands of Sulla , and was carried to Rome, where the grammarian Tyrannion had access to them. From him copies were obtained by Andronicus of Rhodes, which served for the basis of his arrangement of the works of Aristotle.
Ritter thinks that too much has been made of this story. On its authority it has even been pretended that the works of Aristotle have reached us in a more broken and ill-arranged shape than any other productions of antiquity. He thinks that the story arose out of some laudatory commendations of the edition of Aristotle by Andronicus, and that it is probable, not to say certain, that there were other editions, of the respective merits of which it was possible to make a comparison. At any rate, according to him, the acroamatic works of Aristotle have not reached us solely from the library of Neleus, and consequently it was not necessary to have recourse merely to the restoration by Apellicon, either to complete or retain the lacunae resulting from the deterioration of the manuscripts. See Aristoteles.
Read More
Apellicon (Greek: Ἀπελλικῶν) (died c. 84 BCE), a wealthy native of Teos, afterwards an Athenian citizen, was a famous book collector of the 1st century BCE.
He not only spent large sums in the acquisition of his library, but stole original documents from the archives of Athens and other cities of Greece. Being detected, he fled in order to escape punishment, but returned when Athenion (or Aristion), a bitter opponent of the Romans, had made himself tyrant of the city with the aid of Mithradates. Athenion sent him with some troops to Delos, to plunder the treasures of the temple, but he showed little military capacity. He was surprised by the Romans under the command of Orobius (or Orbius), and only saved his life by flight.[1] He died a little later, probably in 84 BCE.
Library
Apellicon's chief pursuit was the collection of rare and important books. He purchased from the family of Neleus of Scepsis in the Troad manuscripts of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus (including their libraries), which had been given to Neleus by Theophrastus himself, whose pupil Neleus had been. They had been concealed in a cellar to prevent their falling into the hands of the book-collecting princes of Pergamon, and were in a very dilapidated condition. Apellicon filled in the lacunae, and brought out a new, but faulty, edition. In 84 Sulla removed Apellicon's library to Rome.[2] Here the manuscripts were handed over to the grammarian Tyrannion of Amisus, who took copies of them, on the basis of which the peripatetic philosopher Andronicus of Rhodes prepared an edition of Aristotle's works.
Apellicon's library contained a remarkable old copy of the Iliad. He is said to have published a biography of Aristotle, in which the calumnies of other biographers were refuted.
Read More
