Epaphroditus of Chaeronea

Epaphroditus of Chaeronea
Died	95 AD Rome
Occupations	Scholar Librarian Poet

Epaphroditus of Chaeronea

was a Greek speaking grammarian who lived in Rome during the era of emperor Nerva.

Although born into slavery, he was later freed and became an acclaimed writer and collector of books on grammar, language and various other subjects.

Life

He was born in Chaeronea in Greece.

Slavery

He was a slave in the house of Archias, a famous teacher of Greek literature who educated Epaphroditus. Later, Epaphroditus was sold to and freed by a Roman knight named Marcus Mettius Modestus, who was prefect of Egypt in the fifties and resided in Alexandria.

Later life

He died in the reign of Emperor Nerva at the age of 75.

Career

He settled in Rome, where he founded a school, owned two houses, founded a library that boasted no less than 30,000 scrolls, and published several books.

Bibliography

Several of his works are known from ancient sources:

• A grammatical Commentary on Homer, fragments of which survive. Epaphroditus appears to have had an interest in the etymology of place names.
• A commentary on the Aitia ("causes") by Callimachus of Cyrene.
• A commentary on the Shield of Heracles, which was attributed to the legendary poet Hesiod.
• Two other literary works, called the Lexeis ("words" or "literary styles") and the Peri Stoicheiôn (on "first principles of language").

External links

• Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics

• Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), E, Emporiae, Epaphrodītus

• A Brief Outline of the History of Libraries/Chapter 8 - Wikisource, the free online library