28

Testimonia (test. 2a)

test. 2a K.-A.
Σ53 Ov. Ib. 523
Anaxandrides, non Menius, ut multi retulerunt. hunc enim Anaxandridem
Eustachius refert, quom Athenienses bonas leges habere diceret, sed malis
uti eos praedicaret, enumeraretque ceteras nationes quae aut sine lege essent
aut non in condendis legibus tantum salis habuissent, usui venirent tamen
melius, coniectus in carcerem est inediaque extinctus et eius opus publice
concrematum est
Anaxandrides, not Menius, as many have reported. For Eustachius reports
that this is Anaxandrides; when he said that the Athenians have good laws,
but proclaimed that they use bad ones, and enumerated other states that
either were without law or had not shown much wit in making laws, but
nevertheless used them better, he was thrown into prison and died from
starvation, and his work was publicly burned
Citation Context Σ53 Ov. Ib. 523 (utque parum stabili qui carmine laesit
Atheniri) purports to identify the qui in that line, but the explanation is pred-
icated on the textual corruption Athenas for Athenin.31 The identification of
Anaxandrides as the poet referred to here is attributed to a certain Eustachius,
whom La Penna 1959 ad loc. identified as Eustachius of Arras, otherwise known
as Eustachius Atrebatensis or Nemetacensis, a thirteenth-century Franciscan
bishop; Eustachius presumably derived (or deduced) the information from
commentaries on Aristotle (cf. on frr. 66; 83).
Interpretation The statement that Anaxandrides died from starvation in
prison is clearly drawn from the text of Ovid (Ib. 524 invisus pereas deficiente
cibo·, cf. Ση on 523, where the same fate is given to a certain poet Phedymus);
on the assertion that his work was publicly burned, see test. 2. Gataker 1659. 77,
whence Barnes 1694 on E. Ph. 392 (= 396 Barnes), took the claim seriously and
asserted that criticism of Athens had deadly repercussions for Anaxandrides
(‘quod illi dicterium [misprinted as dicterinm] fatale fuisse perhibet in com-
mentariis ad Aristotelem Eustratius’); Meineke 1839 1.368 rightly noted that
there is no evidence whatsoever for this assertion, the appeal to Eustratius,
i. e. Eustachius, notwithstanding.
Discussion Gataker 1659. 77; Barnes 1694 on E. Ph. 392 (= 396 Barnes)

31 Athenis is the brother (?) of Boupalos and one object of Hipponax’ invective (cf.
Hippon. fr. 70.11; Suda i 588 [= Hippon. test. 7 Degani]); Ib. 523-4 are thus a refer-
ence to Hipponax, not Anaxandrides.