Deipnosophistae is a work by Athenaeus, written around 200 CE, about well-read people philosophizing at the dinner table and enjoying good food and drink.
The title is a combination of two words: Deipnos (Δείπνος) meaning Dinner and Sophists (Σοφιστές) meaning teachers of philosophy and rhetoric. The 15-part book Δειπνοσοφιστές was written by Athenaeus of Naucratis, an ancient Greek rhetorician and grammarian living in the Greek seaside city Naucratis in Egypt.
Deipnosophistae is written in the style of the Socratic dialogues. It is about well-educated men sitting at the dinner table discussing philosophical ideas, historical events, politics, good food and drink, and life in general.
In the book, the host of the banquet is the affluent scholar Publius Livius Larensius and the attendants are grammarians, lexicographers, law practitioners, musicians and others. Athenaeus gives the account of the discussions to his friend Timocrates.
Some of the names mentioned in the discussions are real, such as the names of Plutarch, Galen, Democritus and others. The discussions of the erudite dinner attendants give the reader a glimpse of ancient Greek and Roman life, literature, philosophy, food, manners and anecdotes that otherwise would have been unknown.
In imitation of Plato’s writings, Athenaeus’ account of the things discussed begins this way: “Were you, Athenaeus, present in person at that noble assembly of men now known as Deipnosophistae, which has been so much talked of about the town? Or was the account you gave to your friends derived from someone else?” “I was there myself, Timocrates.” “Will you not, then, consent to let us also share in that noble talk you had over your cups?”
Athenaeus was a native of Naucratis, the oldest Greek city established in Egypt. Located on the Canopic branch of the Nile, to the East of Alexandria, it was founded by settlers from Miletus around 620 BCE. Pharaoh Amasis II (r. 570-526 BCE) gave Naucratis special status, allowing the city to have its own laws. Naucratis was a great trading post, making it a rich city and, in the imperial period, a center of sophistic culture.
It was one of the more affluent Greek cities of Ptolemaic Egypt, together with Alexandria and Ptolemais. But after the foundation of Alexandria, Naucratis lost is supremacy in trade. However, it contributed to the cultural growth of Alexandria with by contributing a number of scholars: these include the historians Philistus and Charon, authors of Egyptian life like Lyceas and Dinon, and the poet Timodemus. In the third century BCE, Apollonius of Rhodes had written a Foundation of Naucratis, putting the city in the cultural space of Hellenism. Athenaeus has preserved a fragment of that text, which he attributes to Apollonius of Rhodes “or of Naucratis,” an indication of the fact that it was important for a Greek city to claim as its own the authors who were born on its soil.
In the imperial period the city was an important center of sophistic culture, whose philosophizing representatives occasionally emigrated to Athens. Proclus of Naucratis, the master of Philostratus, had moved to Athens. Proclus owned a private library which he shared with his students. Other sophists who were natives of Naucratis were Apollonius, Ptolemy and Pollux. The latter was the author of the Onomasticon (Ὀνομαστικόν), a Greek dictionary of Attic synonyms and phrases in ten books. Pollux was also the teacher of young Commodus, the future Roman emperor.
Athenaeus was representative of that intellectual environment he writes about in Deipnosophistae. He was a contemporary of Pollux and was also interested in lexicography. Like Pollux, Athenaeus too moved to Rome and stayed there. Once in Rome, he entered the circle of a rich Roman of equestrian rank, Larensius, the host of the banquets and symposia staged in the Deipnosophistae.
Larensius was a well-known character in Roman society in a primarily Greek intellectual circle, within which, however, there is also no lack of Roman big names. In this way, Deipnosophistae reflects a city that attracts men of letters and sophists of Greek origin. The hospitality of Larensius creates a warm environment in which cultured Romans and Greeks meet and exchange their knowledge of things important and less important.
A good example of Larensius hospitality and generosity and Athenaeus appreciation of the host is in Book 8, Part 1, in which Athenaeus tells Timocrates of the beauties of Spain using as his reference the book Histories by Polybius of Megalopolis:
My good friend Timocrates: Discussing the wealth of Lusitania, which is a country in Iberia, now called by the Romans Spain, Polybius of Megalopolis, in the thirty-fourth book of his Histories, says that in that region, because of the temperate quality of the air, animals and human beings alike are very prolific, and the fruits of the country never fail. “For the roses in that country, the wall-flowers, the asparagus shoots, and similar plants leave off bearing not more than three months, while sea-food, in point of abundance, excellence, and beauty, far exceeds that found in our sea. The Sicilian medimnos (measure) of barley costs only a shilling, of wheat, eighteen-pence, Alexandrian currency. Wine costs a shilling for ten gallons, a kid of moderate size, twopence, as also a hare. The price of lambs is six or eight pence, a fat pig weighing a hundred pounds is five shillings, a sheep two; sixty pounds of figs may be bought for sixpence, a calf for five shillings, a yoke ox for ten. The meat of wild animals was hardly deemed to be worth any price; on the contrary, they trade it off as a bonus for goodwill.”
And right after the quote from the book, Athenaeus adds the praise for host Larensius as a way of thanking him for the hospitality: “Likewise to us the noble Larensius turns Rome into Lusitania on every occasion, filling us daily with all kinds of good things, and exerting himself pleasurably and generously for our benefit, though we bring nothing from home except dissertations.”
Deipnosphistae by Athenaeus is comprised of fifteen books that contain the following subjects of conversation and philosophizing:
Book 1: Introduction: Food in Homer; Banquets and entertainments in Homer; Types of wine.
Book 2: Wine and water; Fruit and nuts; Salads.
Book 3: Fruit, Shellfish; Meat; Seafood; Types of bread; Salt fish.
Book 4: Macedonian and Greek dinners; Spartan and Cretan dinners; Dinners of other nations; Extravagance and prodigality; Musical instruments.
Book 5: Symposia in Homer, Royal Processions; Enormous ships; Degenerate philosophers; Faults of philosophers.
Book 6: Fishmongers; Silver and gold; Parasites; Flatterers; Slaves.
Book 7: Pleasure lovers; Catalogue of fish; Fish (continued).
Book 8: Stories about fish; Fish eaters and epicures; Anecdotes about Stratonicus; Types of meat; Festivals and feasts.
Book 9: Meat and vegetables; Erudite cooks; Edible birds; Types of Meat; Beautiful cooks; washing of hands.
Book 10: Gluttons; Toasts; Drunkenness; Famous drinkers; Drunken behavior; Riddles.
Book 11: Cups and bowls; Intro and A-D; Cups and bowls E-K; Cups and bowls L-P; Cups and bowls; Malignity of Plato.
Book 12: Luxury of states; Luxury of individuals; Hedonism and obesity.
Book 13: Women and love; Prostitutes and courtesans; Mistresses of famous men; Love of boys.
Book 14: Entertainers and musicians; Dance; Musical instruments; Desserts and cakes; Fruit; Fowls; Cooks.
Book 15: Kottabos; Garlands; Perfumes and unguents; Drinking songs and parodies.
The modern reader might be perplexed by Athenaeus’ wide variety of topics discussed and the way the guests philosophize on serious issues, then follow these discussions with advice on cups used for wine in a formal dinner, or how the fish of the Mediterranean can be discussed in the same book as a philosophical contemplation on hedonism.
However, in the first book of Deipnosophistae the ancient Greek sophist explains the purpose of his book speaking, in the third person:
“Athenaeus is the father of this book, which he addresses to Timocrates. The Sophist at Dinner is its title, and the subject is a banquet given by a wealthy Roman named Larensius, who has summoned as guests the men of his time most learned in their several branches of knowledge. Not one of their excellent sayings has Athenaeus failed to mention. 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. 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. 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 ardor of his eloquence that passes on by leaps and bounds to the further portions of his book.”
For people living in the 2nd century, Deipnosophistae is like an encyclopedia or an almanac, written by philosophers, historians, lexicographers, authors and well-versed individuals philosophizing about things of significance, or, occasionally, subjects that are trivial but entertaining. A great collection of dissertations, as Athenaeus himself says.
