author
of Naucratis Athenaeus
A sharp-eyed collector of ancient gossip, food lore, and literary trivia, this Greek writer turned a dinner party into one of the richest surviving windows into the classical world. His great work preserves countless quotations from authors whose books have otherwise disappeared.
3 Audiobooks
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)
by of Naucratis Athenaeus
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
by of Naucratis Athenaeus
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)
by of Naucratis Athenaeus
About the author
Athenaeus of Naucratis was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian from Naucratis in Egypt, active around the late 2nd and early 3rd century AD. He is best known for the Deipnosophistae (often translated as The Learned Banqueters or The Dinner Sophists), a sprawling work set during a banquet where learned guests trade stories, arguments, jokes, and quotations on everything from food and music to history and literature.
What makes Athenaeus especially valuable is that he preserved material from many earlier writers whose original works are now lost. Because of that, his book is more than entertaining conversation: it is one of the major surviving storehouses of information about everyday life, scholarship, and cultural taste in the ancient Mediterranean.
Little is known for certain about his personal life, and even basic details come down in fragments. Still, his writing shows a lively, curious mind and a love of wide-ranging conversation, making him feel surprisingly modern for an author writing nearly two thousand years ago.