Φίλοι (fr. 296)

457

fr. 296 K.-A. (269 K.)
Ath. 6.266e-f
Νικόλαος δ’ ό περιπατητικός (FGrH90 F 95) καί Ποσειδώνιος ό στωικός (FGrH87 F 38
= fr. 51 Edelstein-Kidd) έν ταϊς ίστορίαις έκάτερος τούς Χίους φασίν έξανδραποδισθέ-
ντας ύπό Μιθριδάτου τού Καππάδοκος παραδοθήναι τοΐς ίδίοις δούλοις δεδεμένους,
ϊν’ είς την Κόλχων γην κατοικισθώσιν· ούτως αύτοϊς αληθώς τό δαιμόνιον έμήνισε
πρώτοις χρησαμένοις ώνητοϊς άνδραπόδοις ... μήποτ’ ούν διά ταϋτα καί ή παροιμία
Χίος δεσπότην ώνήσατο, ή κέχρηται Εϋπολις έν Φίλοις
Nicolaus the Peripatetic (FGrH 90 F 95) and Posidonius the Stoic (FGrH 87 F 38 = fr. 51
Edelstein-Kidd) both claim in their Histories that the Chians were deprived of their
freedom by Mithridates of Cappadocia and turned over in chains to their own slaves
to be resettled in Colchian territory. There can thus be no doubt that the divine power
was angry at them for being the first people to rely on slaves who were bought ...
Perhaps, then, this is the origin of the proverb “A Chian purchased a master”,
which Eupolis uses in Philoi

Meter Χίος δεσπότην can be accommodated in iambic trimeter, e. g.
_ If ώνήσατο were accepted as part of the quotation, the
word would fill out the end of the line: — I — —<>—; but see Text.
Discussion Lobeck 1820.138; Meineke 183911.533; Cobet 1856. 108-10; Cobet
1858. 156; Herwerden 1882. 73; Edmonds 1957. 408 n. 1, 409 n. a
Citation context From a long, complex discussion of slavery at the end of
Book 6 of Athenaeus certainly colored in part by Posidonius’ discussion of
the 2nJ-century BCE slave wars in Sicily (for which, see Verbrugghe 1975).
Text Lobeck noted that ώνήσατο is not a classical form (έπρίατο being ex-
pected; e.g. fr. 385.1 with n.; Ar. Eq. 44; Pax 1200; Archipp. fr. 21; And. 1.133;
contrast the imperfect έωνούμην at fr. 197, and cf. Ael. Dion, ε 59; Phryn. Ecl.
108; Lautensach 1911. 32-3), at least in Attic, and Herwerden observed that
verbs are often omitted in proverbs (e. g. μή παιδί μάχαιραν, “Don’t (give) a
knife to a child!”; cf. fr. 133 with n.) and suggested that only Χίος δεσπότην
belonged to Eupolis, ώνήσατο having been supplied by Athenaeus’ source or
perhaps by Athenaeus himself.
Interpretation The events to which Nicolaus and Posidonius (and so
Athenaeus) refer took place in the first half of the 1st century BCE and can
accordingly have no connection with the origins of Eupolis’ proverb (not
attested elsewhere; see Stromberg 1954. 39). This must in any case be a par-
adox—a man acquires a slave in order to tell him what to do, but the slave
turns the tables—and may well be connected with the claim that Chians