Apollonius the Sophist

Apollonius (Greek: Ἀπολλώνιος), also called "the Sophist", was a famous grammarian, who probably lived towards the end of the 1st century AD and taught in Rome in the time of Tiberius. He was born in Alexandria, the son of another grammarian, Archibius.

He was the author of a Homeric dictionary (Λέξεις Ὁμηρικαί), the only work of this kind existent today. His chief authorities were Aristarchus of Samothrace and Apion's Homeric glossary (although some sources cite Apion as a disciple of Apollonius). The surviving text of this dictionary is an epitome, that is, it is a shortened summary of the original. In the original version, Apollonius apparently supplied at least one quotation in each entry.

It was edited for the first time by Villoison (1773, 2 vol. in quarto) from a manuscript of Saint Germain, and also by I. Bekker (1833).

References

• Apollonii sophistae lexicon homericum, Immanuel Bekker (ed.), Berolini typis ex impensis Gr. Reimeri, 1833.
• Ludwig Leyde, ''De Apollonii Sophistae Lexico Homerico (1885)
• E. W. B. Nicholson on a newly discovered fragment in Classical Review (Nov. 1897)
• Biographical Dictionary Imago Mundi - Apollonius (in French)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Apollonius (the Sophist)". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.