On the patria of Alexandria

Title(s):
  • On the patria of Alexandria
  • Περὶ τῶν πατρίων ᾽Αλεξανδρείας
    (Peri tōn patriōn Alexandreias, On the patria of Alexandria)
Period covered:
Distant past of Alexandria
Language:
Greek
State of Preservation:
Fragmentary
Genre:
  • Secular history (patria)
Remarks:
The only reference to the Patria of Horapollon comes from Photius, Bibliotheca codex 279, and the identification of its author is far from clear. The Suda mentions two different namesakes: the first is a grammarian who lived under the reign of Theodosius, without clarifying which Theodosius is meant); the second is a Neo-Platonist philosopher contemporary to the emperor Zeno (Suda ω 159). According to the testimony of P. Cairo Masp. III 67295 and of the Life of Isidore by Damascius, the elder Horapollon was the grandfather of the younger  (Maspero 1914: 176-181). Some scholars (Caprara 1998: 8, 22-23; Janiszewski 2006: 321-322; Focanti 2018) have attributed the Patria of Alexandria to the elder grammarian, others (Maspero 1918: 177; Cameron 1965: 492; PLRE I, 570; BNJ 630 T 3) to the younger. The Suda's mention of the elder Horapollon raises another problem, for it does not specify under which emperor the grammarian worked. Following Jacoby, Cameron (1965: 488) dates him to the reign of Theodosius I, whereas Maspero (1914: 176), Rémondon (1952: 64), Caprara (1998: 20-23), and Masson (1992: 231-235) think of Theodosius II. On balance, the likeliest solution to this conundrum is that the work was composed by the Elder Horapollon (Focanti 2018).
As Janiszewski (2006: 323-324) points out, there is no evidence to relate a passage of John Malalas concerning οἱ δὲ ἐκθέμενοι τὰ πάτρια Ἀλεξανδρείας τῆς μεγάλης ('those who wrote about the local history of Alexandria': cf. Chronicle 9.10, p. 167 Thurn) to the patria of Horapollon.
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • Al. Cameron (1965) 'Wandering poets: A literary movement in Byzantine Egypt'. Historia 14: 470-509.
  • M. Caprara (1998) '‘Ὡραπόλλων φιλόσοφος e la σχολή di Alessandria alla fine del V secolo'. Papiri filosofici: miscellanea di studi 2: 7-32.
  • J. Hammerstaedt (1997) 'Photius über einen verlorenen Codex mit Autoren des vierten Jahrhunderts n. Chr. aus Mittel- Bzw. Oberägypten'. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 115: 105-116.
  • P. Janiszewski (2006) The missing link: Greek pagan historiography in the second half of the third century and in the fourth century A.D. Warsaw: 315-324.
  • R. Kaster (1988) Guardians of language: The grammarian and society in Late Antiquity. Berkeley: 294-297.
  • J. Maspero (1914) 'Horapollon et la fin du paganisme égyptien'. Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale 2: 163-195.
  • O. Masson (1992) 'A propos d'Horapollon, l'auteur des Hieroglyphica'. Revue des études grecques 105: 231-235.
  • R. Rémondon (1952) 'L'Égypte et la suprême résistance au christianisme (Ve-VIIe siècles)'. Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale 51: 63-78.