Chapter Eight,. Pliny On Apion

Apion was a first century success story. Apion contributed to the Homeric scholarship of his day, producing a Glossary of Homeric Expressions and lecturing widely on Homeric topics; indeed according to Seneca Apion toured Greece during Caligula's principate and 'everywhere had Homer's name joined to his'. Apion's work survives in fragments only, but what we know about his reputation in antiquity suggests that his approach to scholarly endeavor as little in common with the model that Pliny proposes in his preface. The argument of this paper has necessarily been speculative. The actual title of the work mentioned by Pliny - if a title be wanting in our sentence - is unlikely to be known for certain, unless the sands of Egypt divulge more Apion than they have done so far. Keywords: Apion; Egypt; Homeric scholarship; Pliny