Apollodorus of Pergamon

Apollodor of Pergamon (* around 105 BC; † around 23 BC) was a Greek rhetorician .

Apollodor probably came from Pergamon in Asia Minor , where he gained a great reputation as a rhetorician. He later came to Rome, possibly on the initiative of Gaius Iulius Caesar in the 1950s. From this he was appointed the private tutor of his great-nephew Gaius Octavius (who later became Augustus), whom he also held in 45 BC. BC to Apollonia . He probably spent his twilight years in Rome, where he was one of Augustus' confidants. According to pseudo- Lukian ( Macrobii 23) he was 82 years old.

Apollodor had numerous students, including the poet Gaius Valgius Rufus , who recorded and continued his teachings (in Latin) after the oral lectures. An important school of speakers (the “Apollodoreer”) formed around Apollodorus, which was in sharp contrast to the school of his younger contemporary Theodoros of Gadara (the “Theodoreer”).

The writings of Apollodorus and his disciples have been lost in tradition. We are only informed of his rhetorical system from later sources (above all Quintilian and the Anonymous Seguerianus ), which require detailed interpretation. In particular, the contrast between the Apollodorees and Theodorees played out in the 1st century BC and AD a role.

Text output

• Rossella Granatelli (Ed.): Apollodori Pergameni ac Theodori Gadarei testimonia et fragmenta. Accedunt Apollodoreorum ac Theodoreorum testimonia et fragmenta . Rome 1991

literature

• Julius Brzoska : Apollodoros 64 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2886-2894 (outdated).
• Krystyna Stebnicka: Apollodorus. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , p. 39
• Michael Weißenberger : Apollodoros 8th In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 1, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-476-01471-1 , column 719.