“Pamphile of Epidaurus”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Pamphile or Pamphila of Epidaurus{{efn|{{lang-grc-gre|Παμφίλη ἡ Ἐπιδαυρία}}, Pamphílē hē Epidauría}} ({{abbr|fl.|Active}} {{sc|ad}} 1st century) was a historian of Egyptian descent who lived in Greece during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero (ruled 54 – 68 AD) and wrote in the Greek language. She is best known for her lost work Historical Commentaries, a collection of miscellaneous historical anecdotes in thirty-three books. Although this collection has been lost, it is frequently cited by the Roman writer Aulus Gellius (c. 125 – after 180 AD) in his Attic Nights and by the Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius in his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. She is also described in the tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia, the Suda, and by the Byzantine writer Photios (c. 810/820 – 893). According to the Suda, she also wrote a large number of epitomes of the works of other historians as well as treatises on disputes and sex. She may be the author of the anonymous surviving Greek treatise Tractatus De Mulieribus Claris In Bello, which gives brief biographical accounts of the lives of famous women.

Background

According to the Suda, a tenth-century AD Byzantine encyclopedia, Pamphile was an Epidaurian;^[1] Photios describes her as an Egyptian by birth or descent,^[2] which may be reconciled by supposing that she was a native of Epidaurus, and that her family came from Egypt. Photios summarizes the preface to her work, in which we learn that during the thirteen years she had lived with her husband, from whom she was never absent for a single hour, she was constantly at work upon her book, and that she diligently wrote down whatever she heard from her husband and from the many other learned people who frequented their house, as well as whatever she herself read in books. The name of her husband is differently stated. In one passage the Suda speaks of her as the daughter of Soteridas and the wife of Socratidas,^[1] but in another passage she is described as the wife of Soteridas.^[3]

Writings

The principal work of Pamphile was the Historical Commentaries, a collection of historical anecdotes comprising thirty-three books.{{sfn|Preus|2015|page=284}} The estimation in which it was held in antiquity is shown by the extensive references to it in the works of the Roman historian Aulus Gellius and the Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius, who appear to have availed themselves of it to a considerable extent.{{sfn|Preus|2015|page=284}} Photios gives a general idea of the nature of its contents. The work was not arranged according to subjects or according to any settled plan, but it was more like a commonplace book, in which each piece of information was set down as it fell under the notice of the writer, who stated that she believed this variety would give greater pleasure to the reader. Photios considers the work as one of great use, and supplying important information on many points in history and literature. Photios speaks only of eight books but the Suda says that it consisted of thirty-three. The latter must be correct, since we find Gellius quoting the eleventh^[4] and twenty-ninth,^[5] and Diogenes Laërtius the twenty-fifth^[6] and thirty-second.^[7] Perhaps no more than eight books were extant in the time of Photios. The work is also referred to by Diogenes Laërtius in other passages.^[8]

Besides the history already mentioned, the Suda says she also wrote an Epitome of Ctesias in 3 books; a very large number of epitomes of histories and other books; On Disputes; On Sex; and many other works.

Notes

References

1. ^¹Suda π 139, Pamphile
2. ^Photios, Cod. 175
3. ^Suda, Soteridas, σ875
4. ^Aulus Gellius, xv. 23
5. ^Aulus Gellius, xv. 17
6. ^Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 23
7. ^Diogenes Laërtius, v. 36
8. ^Diogenes Laërtius, i. 24, 68, 76, 90, 98, ii. 24

Bibliography