In Search of the Lost Testament of Alexander the Great

by David Grant

  71.Suetonius Julius Caesar 56.2, drawing from Cicero Brutus 262, for Cicero’s likening rhetoric to curling irons; the analogy repeated in Quintilian 2.5.12, 5.12.18-120. Cicero De Oratoria 2.57-2.94 for the comment on Isocrates. For the dating of Cicero’s treatises see Dominik (1997) pp 13-15 and De Oratoria 1.5 for Cicero’s own description of his adolescence. The view that these historians (Flower (1994) p 46 for a list) attended Isocrates’ school is rejected by Schwartz and Flower (1994) pp 44-62 and put down to Hellenistic-era invention or Cicero using the term ‘school’ in a metaphysical sense.

  72.Discussed in Momigliano (1966) p 127 quoting Cicero De Legibus 1.1.5. for the ‘father of history’ label.

  73.Cicero De Oratoria 2.57-2.94; Flower (1994) p 43 for the accreditation of the quote. Pseudo-Plutarch Isocrates: Isocrates was asked how, not being very eloquent himself, he could make others so? He answered: ‘Just as a whetstone cannot cut, yet it will sharpen knives for that purpose.’

  74.Quoting and following Grant (1995) pp 27-28. Polybius 2.56.10-12; discussed by TP Wiseman in Gill-Wiseman (1993) p 134.

  75.Quintilian 3.1.19 recorded that neither Cicero nor the rhetor Marcus Antonius (died 87 BCE) completed their works on rhetoric. The Greek counterpart to suada was peitho, respectively stemming from ‘sweet’ and ‘persuasion’; Dominik (1997) p 3 for discussion.

  76.Quoting B Vickers In Defence of Rhetoric, Oxford University Press, 1988 and repeated in Flower (1994) p 185.

  77.Diodorus 1.76.1. Bagnall-Derow (2004) pp 206-211 for Ptolemaic papyri detailing legal procedures.

  78.Momigliano (1977) p 47 for Timaeus’ view on rhetoric.

  79.Following the discussion in Pernot (2000) p 10.

  80.In the Iliad 9.442 Achilles’ tutor, Phoenix, was appointed to teach him about the art of public speaking as well as fighting. At 3.212-223 there is a description of Odysseus’ skill at public speaking.

  81.Homer Iliad 9.343-344; Psychagogia was used by Plato in his Phaedra 261a and defined a positive aspect of rhetoric in persuading souls to see truth: ‘techne psychagogia tis dia logon.’

  82.Diogenes Laertius Empedocles 3 also Diogenes Laertius Zeno the Eleactic 4. The origins of rhetorike in Pernot (2000) pp 21-23.

  83.Cicero Brutus 46.

  84.Guthrie (1971) p 270; for Gorgias’ label see Wardy (1996) p 6. Antiphon’s On Truth is preserved in Oxyrhynchus Papyri, xi, no. 1364, quoted in Kagan (1965) p 2965. In translation the Rock of Ares, also called Areopagus, situated northwest of the Acropolis, functioned as a Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in ancient times; discussed further in chapter titled Wills and Covenants in the Classical Mind.

  85.Pliny 7.30 claimed Isocrates could charge 20 talents for a single oration.

  86.Plato Theatetus 151e (and Sextus Against the Mathematicians VII.60) attributed the phrase to Protagoras’ Truth. For the fees charged by the Sophists; see full discussion in Worthington (2007) pp 306-307. Aristotle Rhetoric 1402a23-5 recorded Protagoras’ claim to ‘make the weaker argument the stronger’.

  87.For Anaxagoras On Nature see discussion in Boyer-Merzback pp 56-58. For Anaxagoras’ imprisonment, see Plutarch Moralia 607f or On Exile 17 and de Placitis Philosophorum, Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras claimed the sun was a red-hot stone the size of the Peloponnese and not a deity.

  88.See discussion of 5th century Athenian law court practice in Worthington (2000) p 161. The implication of lies at the Assembly and lack of punishment for court case perjury discussed in Worthington (2001) p 163 and p 224.

  89.See discussion in Cahn (1990) p 128 and pp 147-149. Modern opinion is that Isocrates never wrote a treatise on the art of rhetoric.

  90.Diogenes Laertius Protagoras 52, translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1925.

  91.Collins (2008) Introduction pp xiii for Gorgias’ use of mageia and his Encomium of Helen 14 which related rhetoric to a drug or bewitchment; translation from Collins (2008).

  92.Pytheas made the lamp wick slur in Lucian Demosthenes: an Encomium 15, recorded by Plutarch Demosthenes 8.3-4.

  93.See the paired speeches in prosecution and defence discussed by Ryder (1975) pp 11-54. Aeschines went into voluntary exile to Rhodes when Demosthenes’ speech On The Crown resulted in his victory over Aeschines’ Against Ctesiphon in 336 BCE. For his help from actors and speaking with pebbles see Pernot (2000) pp 30-31. For the fancy footwork see Aeschines Against Ctesiphon 206.

  94.Quintilian 11.3-6.

  95.Cicero Tusculan Disputations 5.3.7. Riedweg (2002) p 91 citing Heracleides of Pontus’ claim also recounted in Diogenes Laertius Heracleides of Pontus 1.12.

  96.Riedweg (2002) pp 90-97 for full discussion, citing Croesus’ dialogue with Solon in Herodotus 1.30.2.

  97.Lucian The Double Indictment 6, translation by HW and FG Fowler, Clarendon Press, 1905. Quoting Lucian Demosthenes, An Encomium 10 for the meat sauce analogy.

  98.Details preserved in Pseudo-Plutarch Lives of the Ten Orators.

  99.See discussion on the Peripatetic objections to Demosthenes’ style in Worthington (2000) pp 234-238. Demetrius of Phalerum and Theophrastus both attacked Demosthenes.

  100.Aristotle On Sophistical Refutations. For Pythagoras’ classifications see the anonymous Life of Pythagoras 10-19 preserved by Photius.

  101.Aristotle Rhetoric translated by J Gillies, published by T Cadell, London, 1823, Book 3.1 and contents of Book 1.1-2.20. Also Diogenes Laertius Plato 93.

  102.Cited and discussed in Barnes (2000) p 26.

  103.Diogenes Laertius Aristotle 2 – ‘Aristotle has kicked us off, just as chickens do their mother after they have been hatched.’ Or perhaps the analogy is related to a quote by Diogenes the Cynic where he claimed ‘men strive in digging and kicking to outdo one another’: Diogenes Laertius Diogenes 6.27.

  104.Cato Praecepta ad Filium (broadly Maxims Addressed to his Son), quoted by Pliny 29.13-14.

  105.See discussion of Cato’s familiarity with Greek rhetoric and educating his sons to its principles in Dominik (1997) p 6 quoting Quintilian 3.1.19 who stated Cato was the first he knew of to ‘handle’ the topic.

  106.Pliny.29.13-14 for Cato’s warning; Pliny 13.28, 13.84 and Livy 40.29 for the burning of the manuscripts.

  107.The rerum repetitio was a Roman demand for reparations that usually led to war; the ceremony saw a blood-dipped spear hurled into the offenders’ territory with a formal incantation, after which, and following a thirty-three day warning, war was declared. See Livy 1.24 and 1.32 for descriptions of the ceremony and procedures.

  108.The Disticha Catonis discussed in Gudeman Romans (1894) p 149.

  109.Hannibal was denied reinforcement by Hanno’s political opposition in Carthage. See discussion in TA Dodge, Hannibal, Da Capo Press, New York, 1995 reprint of 1891 edition, pp 396-397, quoting Livy. The lack of reinforcements is blamed for his ultimate inability to subdue Italy. Hannibal’s men wanted to march on Rome after Cannae. See Livy Histories 22.51. Even the Romans expected a siege of the city.

  110.Losses at Cannae were variously recorded: Livy 22.49.8-25 gave 45,000 infantry and 2,700 cavalry. Polybius claimed 70,000 infantry killed with 10,000 captured. Appian Hannibalic War 4.25 claimed 50,000; Plutarch Fabius Maximus 16.8 claimed 50,000 infantry dead with a further 10,000 captured.

  111.Livy 34.1.8-34.2.5.

  112.For Cato’s speech in Athens in Latin see Plutarch Cato 12.4. Whilst he spoke sufficient Greek, he gave the speech through an interpreter.

  113.Horace Epistles 2.1.156-157, translation from Epistles, and Ars Poetica, Loeb Classical Library edition no. 194, edited and translated by HR Fairclough, 1929 p 408. In translation: ‘Greece, the captive, made her savage victor captive, and brought the arts into rustic Latium.’

  114.Polybius 31.25.5 quoting Cato.

  115.Suetonius Lives of Eminent Rhetoricians 25 for the expulsion of rhetoricians from Rome. For the banning of coins see Atkinson (2009) p 39.

  116.Plutarch Cato 22-23.

  117.Quoting Highet (1949) p 105.

&n
bsp; 118.Athenaeus 213d. Athens had sided with Mithridates of Pontus in his revolt against Rome and the city felt the Senate’s backlash. The so-called brain drain quote from Potter (2006) p 528.

  119.Probis pateo was traditionally inscribed above the city gates or the doors of places of learning in the Roman world.

  120.Plutarch Cicero 4.4-5; Quintilian 12.6.7; Valerius Maximus Dictorum factomque memorabilium libri (Memorable deeds and sayings) 2.2-3; Aelian Varia Historia 12.25; Pseudo-Aurelius Victor De Viris Illustribus Urbis Romae 81.2; Plutarch Caesar 3.1.

  121.Lucian The Double Indictment 6, translation by HW and FG Fowler, Clarendon Press, 1905.

  122.Quoting Hesiod from Lucian’s Hermotimos or on Philosophical Schools 2.

  123.Quoting Whitmarsh (2002) p 175 on paradigms.

  124.The censorship of 92 BCE discussed in Dominik (1997) p 7.

  125.Following the discussion in Dominik (1997) p 6. We inherit the Rhetoric to Alexander as part of the corpus of Aristotle’s manuscripts but it is more likely attributable to Anaximenes of Lampsacus; see discussion in Pernot (2000) p 40. Dominik (1997) p 4 for Antonius’ probable publication date.

  126.The loss of the effectiveness of public speech causing change in Rome discussed in Dominik (1997) p 224 following the observation of RW Cape; exampled by Seneca’s Suasoria 6.1-27 and 26-7.

  127.Following discussion in Pearson (1960) p 248 on Potamon of Mytilene. The Suda mentioned his link to Tiberius and Pseudo-Lucian’s Makrobioi 23 for his age. The On the Perfect Orator was mentioned in the Suda. Plutarch 61 mentioned his expertise on Alexander.

  128.Quoting Macaulay (1828); Pernot (2000) p 159 ff for Quintilian’s career.

  129.Horace Epistle 2.1.156-157: ‘Graeci capta ferum victorem cepit et artis intulit agresti Latio.’ Virgil’s line from the Aeneid book 2 was in fact ‘fear the Danaans, even those bearing gifts!’ In full, Equo ne credite, Teucri! Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis. It referred to the wooden horse at Troy.

  130.Quoting Pernot (2000) p 128.

  131.Discussed in Pitcher (2009) p 53.

  132.Excerpted from Macaulay (1828).

  133.Livy 38.17.12.

  134.As noted and proposed by Bosworth-Baynham (2000) Introduction pp 7-8.

  135.Livy 38.17.12. The dating of Livy’s work is uncertain; he commenced the Ab Urbe Condita Libri mid-life and completed it much later. He is thought to have been born ca. 60 BCE and to have died ca. 17/18, possibly the same year as Ovid, as claimed by St Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus ca. 347-420). Diodorus published sometime between 36 and 30 BCE.

  136.Livy 9.17-18.

  137.Quoting Lucan De Bello civili 10.20-52 and 10.1. Seneca Epistles 113.27-30, 83.18-25 and Suasoria 1.5-6 are good examples of vitriol hurled at Alexander; cited by Spencer (2002) p 89 and discussed at pp 140-143; Lucan 10.22-45 cited by Stewart (1993) p 14; for other polemics against Alexander see Livy 9.18.1-7, Cicero Letters to Atticus 12.40-13.28 also cited by Spencer (2002) pp 53-60.

  138.The caging episode was retold in Justin 15.3.3-9, Plutarch Demetrius 27.3-4, Pausanias 1.9.5, Curtius 8.1.14-19, Valerius Maximus 9.3 etx.1, Seneca de Ira 3.17.2, 3.23.1, Pliny 54.

  139.Heckel (2006) p 154 for the alternative identification of Lysimachus.

  140.Seneca Concerning Anger 3.17.1-4 and Concerning Clemency 1.25.1. See citation in Curtius 8.1.17. The Lysimachus episode discussed in Heckel (1992) p 249.

  141.Athenaeus 598b-c mentioned his being caged but does not mention the mutilation of the ears and nose that Seneca recounted. Plutarch Symposiacs 2.634f had the story almost identically transmitted about Timagenes making the fatal quip, but no punishment was mentioned.

  142.Valerius Maximus’ use of Alexander as an exemplum discussed in Wardle (2005).

  143.See discussion in Spencer (2002) pp 15-21 for Rome’s dictators and their emulation of Alexander; also p 37 for the Trajan-era admiration. Following discussion of I Worthington in Carney-Ogden (2010) p 167 for the return of philhellenism.

  144.For the use of inuictus see Spencer (2002) p 168.

  145.Atkinson (2009) p 245 for discussion on the last sighting of Alexander’s body in Alexandria. Septimus Severus had the tomb locked according to Cassius Dio 7513.2 but Caracalla, who saw himself as a reincarnation of Alexander, allegedly saw the tomb in 215. De Polignac (1999) p 8 for discussion of the emperors emulating Alexander. For Crassus thinking he was following in Alexander’s footsteps see Cassius Dio 40.17 and 68.29.1, 68.30-31 for Trajanus’ emulation. Arrian 7.4-10 for a digression in Dionysus and Heracles in India.

  146.Historia Augusta, Alexander Severus 50 for the Silver Shields. Further discussion in Roisman (2012) p 243. Stewart (1993) p 348 for Caracalla’s title from the anonymous Epitome de Caesaribus Sexti Aurelia Victoris 21.4. Herodian 4.8.9 for Caracalla’s deposits and Cassius Dio 78.7.1 for his withdrawals.

  147.Historia Augusta, Antoninus Caracalla 2.1-3.

  148.From Gore Vidal’s 1959 review of Robert Graves’ The Twelve Caesars.

  149.F Nietzsche The Gay Science, Vintage Books, New York, 1974, pp 137-8, citing Nisetich (1980) p 73.

  150.Herodian book 4.8-9 and Cassius Dio 78.7-8 for his emulation of Alexander and Cassius Dio 7-8 for his arming 16,000 Macedonians and mistreating followers of Aristotle’s doctrine. See chapter titled Sarissa Diplomacy: Macedonian Statecraft for more on the pezhetairoi.

  151.Quintilian 10.101-105. Cicero De Officiis 2.13. Crassus became consul in 95 BCE and married the daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur who was an expert on Roman law and later defended Marius.

  152.Arrian Preface 1.1-2 translation by A de Selincourt, Penguin Books edition, 1958.

  153.Quoting Pitcher (2009) introduction p IX.

  154.Compare the statement in Xenophon Hellenika 4.81: ‘I shall pass over those actions that are not worth mentioning, dealing only with what deserves to be remembered.’ For Xenophon’s prejudices see Warner (1966) p 22 ff and for ‘those in the know’, p 34.

  155.Quoting Benedetto Croce (1886-1952); discussed in Boardman-Griffin-Murray (1986) p 235.

  156.Following the definition of Carr (1987) pp 29-30.

  157.In 1960 Hans-George Gadamer published Truth and Method which refined earlier treatises on ‘philosophical hermeneutics’; this was its central proposition.

  158.Diodorus confirmed the wealth of literary materials when he arrived in Rome. Plutarch used at least twenty-four sources for his Alexander biography alone.

  159.Arrian Preface 1.2 and 6.11.2, translation from Hammond-Atkinson (2013).

  160.Pearson (1960) p 218.

  161.Quoting Stewart (1993) p 10.

  162.Green (1974) p 479.

  163.Diodorus 1.3.

  164.Diodorus 1.74.7 and 12.95.1 for his own comments on democracy. Quoiting Sacks (1990) p 26 on ‘moral utility’.

  165.Polybius 8.24.1.

  166.Diodorus 1.4.1.

  167.Sacks (1990) p 171 ff for discussion of Diodorus’ intended terminus.

  168.See Goralski (1989) p 81 for reference to the 280 surviving works of Photius. Bosworth-Baynham (2000) p 311 for Diodorus’ chronological scope.

  169.St. Jerome Kronikon; the entry was cited under the Year of Abraham 1968 (49 BCE).

  170.Diodorus complex attitude to Rome discussed in Sacks (1990) p 212 ff; p 129 for Sicilian loss of enfranchisement. Caesar has proposed sine suffragio for the whole island, though Mark Antony claimed he had requested Latinitas for Sicily, before Sextus Pompey; discussed in Sacks (1990) p 207 ff.

  171.Diodorus 1.4.4 for Agyrium and 4.24 for its Heraclean cult. Diodorus 4.24 for Heracles’ visit. Quoting Polybius 12.26 on Timaeus; discussed in Momigliano (1977) p 48. Diodorus 16.82.5 and 16.83.3 for hints of Agyrium’s former importance; Sacks (1990) p 165 for discussion.

  172.Plutarch attributed the Ode containing the line to Sosius in his Demosthenes 1.1 but to Euripides in his Alcibiades 11.

  173.See discussion in Barber (1993) pp 84-90.

  174.In his Kronikon St. Jerome stated Diodorus was in his p
rime in the year of Abraham 1968, which would suggest 49 BCE. His presence in Egypt in 59 BCE is suggested at 1.83.8 and further references to Egypt at 144.1-4 indicate he started composing as early as 56 BCE whereas at 16.7.1 his references to Tauromenium (modern Taormina) and Caesar’s removal of the citizens relates to activity of 36 BCE. Diodorus 1.4.3 for the statement on Rome’s expansion; Bosworth-Baynham (2000) pp 312-314 for a summary of Diodorus’ attitude to Rome.

  175.See Diodorus’ comment at 40.8 on filching and earlier publishing by third-parties; his comment on ‘before they were ready’ rather than before the ‘whole Library was completed’ does, nevertheless, suggest he may have published packets himself.

  176.1.4.4 for Diodorus’ claim to a ‘considerable familiarity’ with Latin. Herodotus 2.16 for Europe and Asia. Diodorus’ geography of Mesopotamia put Nineveh on the Euphrates for example. He never mentioned the Acropolis at Athens. At 1.4.2 Diodorus mentioned Rome as the only other place he visited apart from Egypt. Diodorus 1.83.8-9 for his eyewitness account of an incident in Egypt and 3.381 for mention of the ‘royal records’ in Alexandria. Sacks (1990) p 189 for Diodorus’ seeming lack of affiliations in Rome.

  177.Discussion in Barber (1993) p 14 and p 17. See Green (2007) p IX for the term ‘kaleidoscopic disjunctiveness’, though applied to the earlier Hellenistic period.

  178.See discussion in Pitcher (2009) p 115 for his method and p 127 quoting Dionysius of Halicarnassus On Thucydides 9.

  179.Diodorus 20.43.7. Translation RM Greer from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1954.

  180.Polybius 15.24a and 5.31.3-5 for his recognition of the problem.

  181.Polybius 33.2 and quoting Seneca Quaestiones Naturales 7.16, translation by J Clarke, 1910.

  182.Sempronius Asellio Rerum Gestarum Libri fragment 1, translation from Dominik (1997) p 217.

  183.Braudel (1969) p 11, commenting on Leopold von Ranke’s adherence to contemporary documentary evidence.

  184.Diodorus 17.117.5 commented that Alexander had accomplished greater deeds than any of the kings before or after his own time. Fire and sour wine – a technique Hannibal used to clear mountain paths when crossing the Alps; detailed in Livy 21.37.