Chaeremon of Alexandria
Template:Short description Template:Infobox philosopher Chaeremon of Alexandria (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx, gen.: Template:Langx; fl. 1st century AD) was a Stoic philosopher and historianTemplate:Sfn who wrote on Egyptian mythology from a "typically Stoic" perspective.Template:Sfn
Life
According to the Suda, he was the head of the Alexandrian school of grammarians, and he may also have been head of the Museion.Template:Sfn He was probably one of the ambassadors to Claudius from Alexandria in 40 AD.Template:Sfn He also taught Nero, probably before 49 AD when Seneca the Younger became Nero's tutor.Template:Sfn He may have been the grandson of the Chaeremon who accompanied the Roman prefect Aelius Gallus on his tour of Egypt in 26 AD.Template:Sfn His father – about whom nothing is known – was called Leonidas, and he was probably born no later than 10 AD.Template:Sfn
One of the poems from Martial's eleventh book of Epigrams mocks Chaeremon; as Martial did not usually attack living figures Chaeremon presumably died before 96 AD when Epigrams XI was published.Template:Sfn
Works
All of Chaeremon's works are lost, though a number of fragments are quoted by later authors.Template:Sfn Three titles are preserved: the History of Egypt, Hieroglyphika, and On Comets, with another fragment quoted from an unknown grammatical treatise of his.Template:Sfn
Josephus quotes an extensive fragment from Chaeremon's Egyptian history, in which he scornfully recounts and ridicules, in a manner similar to that of Manetho, the departure of the Jews from Egypt. Josephus boasts of having refuted Chaeremon as well as Manetho and others.<ref>("Contra Ap." i. 32, 33)</ref> Chaeremon's history is also mentioned by Porphyry.<ref>(Eusebius, "Præ-paratio Evangelica," iii. 4, v. 10; Porphyry, "De Abstinentia," iv. 6-8)</ref> Chaeremon's description of Egypt recalls the ideas which Philo, Clement, Origen, and others introduced into the Old and the New Testament.Template:Sfn The asceticism especially, which he ascribes to the ancient Egyptian priests, is analogous to the description in Philo's work, "De Vita Contemplativa"; still there is no literary connection between the two authors.Template:Sfn Fragments of the "History of Egypt" may still exist in a treatise of Psellus published in 1877.<ref>Sathas, in "Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique," vol. i.)</ref>Template:Sfn
According to the Suda,<ref>(Suda, s.v. Xαιρήμωυ),</ref> another work of Chaeremon was entitled "Hieroglyphica," and probably contained interpretations of the hieroglyphics <ref>(collected from the works of the Byzantian Tzetzes, in Müller's "Fragmenta Historicorum Grœcorum," iii. 499);</ref> while a third work may be the book "On the Comets" mentioned by Origen.<ref>("Contra Celsum," i. 59)</ref> Origen also made use of other writings of Chaeremon that are now lost.<ref>(Suda, s.v. 'Ωριγένης).</ref>Template:Sfn
Notes
Editions and Translations
- P. Charvet, S. Aufrère, J-M. Kowalski, A. Zucker, Le Quartette d'Alexandrie - Hérodote, Diodore, Strabon, Chérémon, Collection Bouquins, Paris, 2021, (1563 p). Aufrère provides a translation of a fictional text, Chaeremon's Book of Phtomyris or Critics des Aigyptiaka, a literary exercise imagined as a response to classical authors Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo.
- Template:Cite book. Pieter van der Horst includes 14 certain and 14 doubtful fragments in his edition of Chaeramon's works.