![]() Present, too, were Plutarch, Leonides of Elis, Aemilianus Maurus, and Zoilus, wittiest of philologians. He was, as Athenaeus says, a satiric poet not inferior to any of the successors of Archilochus. For whatever the subject in which he displayed his learning, he made it appear as though that had been his only study, such was the encyclopaedic range in which he had been nurtured from boyhood. ![]() ยง 1.2 Now the wiseacres assumed to have been present at the banquet are: Masurius, a jurist, who had devoted no slight attention to all kinds of learning a poet, too, of unique excellence, a man second to none in general culture, who had pursued diligently the complete round of academic studies. Such is the delightful feast of reason which this wonderful steward, Athenaeus, introduces, and then, surpassing even himself, like the Athenian orators, he is so carried away by the ardour of his eloquence that he passes on by leaps and bounds to the further portions of his book. In short, the plan of the discourse reflects the rich bounty of a feast, and the arrangement of the book the courses of the dinner. For he has contrived to bring into his book an account of fishes, their uses and names with their derivations also vegetables of all sorts and animals of every description historians, poets, philosophers, musical instruments, innumerable kinds of jests he has also described drinking-cups in all their variety, the wealth of kings, the size of ships, and other matters so numerous that I could not easily mention them all for the day would fail me if I undertook to enumerate them kind by kind. ![]() ![]() Not one of their excellent sayings has Athenaeus failed to mention. ![]() The Sophist at Dinner is its title, and the subject is a banquet given by a wealthy Roman named Larensis, who has summoned as guests the men of his time most learned in their several branches of knowledge. Athenaeus is the father of this book, which he addresses to Timocrates. ![]()
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