Editing Athenaeus (section)

==The ''Deipnosophistae''==
{{Main|Deipnosophistae}}
[[Image:Symposium scene Nicias Painter MAN.jpg|thumb|320px|The ''Deipnosophistes'' belongs to the literary tradition inspired by the use of the [[Ancient Greek cuisine|Greek banquet]]. Banqueters playing [[Kottabos]] while a musician plays the [[Aulos]], decorated by the artist 'Nicias'/'Nikias'.]]

The ''[[Deipnosophistae]]'', which means 'dinner-table philosophers', survives in fifteen books. The first two books, and parts of the third, eleventh and fifteenth, are extant only in [[epitome]], but otherwise the work seems to be complete. It is an immense store-house of information, chiefly on matters connected with famous cooks, dining, but also containing remarks on music, songs, dances, philosophy, games, [[Hetaira|courtesans]], and luxury. Nearly 800 writers and 2,500 separate works are referred to by Athenaeus; one of his characters (not necessarily to be identified with the historical author himself) boasts of having read 800 plays of [[Ancient Greek comedy|Athenian Middle Comedy]] alone. Were it not for Athenaeus, much valuable information about the ancient world would be missing, and many ancient Greek authors such as [[Archestratus]] would be almost entirely unknown. Book XIII, for example, is an important source for the study of sexuality in [[Classical Greece|classical]] and [[Hellenistic Greece]], and a rare fragment of [[Theognetus]]' work survives in 3.63. 

The ''Deipnosophistae'' professes to be an account given by an individual named Athenaeus to his friend Timocrates of a banquet held at the house of Larensius (Λαρήνσιος; in Latin: [[:de:Publius Livius Larensis|Larensis]]), a wealthy book-collector and patron of the arts. It is thus a dialogue within a dialogue, after the manner of [[Plato]], but the conversation extends to enormous length. The topics for discussion generally arise from the course of the dinner itself, but extend to literary and historical matters of every description, including abstruse points of grammar. The guests supposedly quote from memory. The actual sources of the material preserved in the ''Deipnosophistae'' remain obscure, but much of it probably comes at second hand from early scholars.

The twenty-four named guests<ref>{{cite book|last=Kaibel|first=Georg|title=Athenaei Naucratitae Dipnosophistarum Libri XV, Vol. 3|date=1890|publisher=Teubner|location=Leipzig|pages=561–564}}</ref> include individuals called Galen and Ulpian, but they are all probably fictitious personages, and the majority take no part in the conversation. If the character Ulpian is identical with [[Ulpian|the famous jurist]], the ''Deipnosophistae'' may have been written after his death in 223; but the jurist was murdered by the [[Praetorian Guard]], whereas Ulpian in Athenaeus dies a natural death. 

The complete version of the text, with the gaps noted above, is preserved in only one [[manuscript]], conventionally referred to as A. The epitomized version of the text is preserved in two manuscripts, conventionally known as C and E. The standard edition of the text is [[S. Douglas Olson|Olson]]'s [[Bibliotheca Teubneriana|Teubner]]. The standard numbering is drawn largely from [[Isaac Casaubon|Casaubon]].

The encyclopaedist and author [[Thomas Browne|Sir Thomas Browne]] wrote a short essay upon Athenaeus<ref>[[Thomas Browne|Sir Thomas Browne]], ''[[s:From a reading of Athenaeus|From a Reading of Athenaeus]]''</ref> which reflects a revived interest in the ''Banquet of the Learned'' amongst scholars during the 17th century following its publication in 1612 by the Classical scholar [[Isaac Casaubon]].