Oppian (, ; ), also known as Oppian of Anazarbus, of Corycus, or of Cilicia, was a 2nd-century
Greco-Roman
The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and co ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
during the reign of the
emperors
The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rule ...
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...
and
Commodus
Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...
, who composed the ''Halieutica'', a five-book didactic epic on fishing.
Biography
Oppian states that he is from 'the city of Hermes' and the 'city at the promontory of Sarpedon'. This has been supplemented by information from the biographies attached to medieval manuscripts, which state that his birthplace was Caesarea (now known as
Anazarbus) or Corycus in
Cilicia
Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...
, or
Corycus
Corycus (; also transliterated Corycos or Korykos; ; , lit. "maiden castle") was an ancient city in Cilicia Trachaea, Anatolia, located at the mouth of the valley called Şeytan deresi; the site is now occupied by the town of Kızkalesi (for ...
according to the
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...
. All these cities were in the
Roman province
The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...
of
Cilicia
Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...
, in what is now southern Turkey.
He composed a
didactic poem in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...
on
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
(, ). It is about 3500 lines and bears a dedication to
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...
and his son
Commodus
Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...
, placing it to the time of their joint rule (176-180 AD).
A later didactic poem on
hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
, the ''Cynegetica'' (, ), was also attributed to Oppian. For that reason, its anonymous poet is generally referred to as
Pseudo-Oppian or Oppian of Apamea. Furthermore, a didactic poem on
bird catching, ''Ixeutica'' (, ), which now only survives in a prose
paraphrase
A paraphrase () or rephrase is the rendering of the same text in different words without losing the meaning of the text itself. More often than not, a paraphrased text can convey its meaning better than the original words. In other words, it is a ...
, was also attributed to Oppian in the manuscript tradition. The ''Ixeutica'' is now thought to describe a work composed by the Dionysus whom the
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...
mention as the author of a treatise on rocks (, ). A likely explanation for the attribution of all these works to Oppian is that the three didactic poems on hunting, fishing, and fowling were at some point circulated as a complementary trio.
According to the anonymous biographies attached to the Byzantine manuscripts of the ''Halieutica'', Oppian's father, having incurred the displeasure of a colleague of
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...
named
Lucius Verus
Lucius Aurelius Verus (; 15 December 130 – 23 January 169) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Verus' succession together with Ma ...
by neglecting to pay his respects to him when he visited Rome, was banished to
Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
. Oppian, who had accompanied his father into exile, returned after the death of Verus and presented his poems to Marcus Aurelius, who was so pleased with them that he gave the author a piece of gold for each line, took him into favour, and pardoned his father. Oppian subsequently returned to his native country but died of the plague shortly afterwards at the early age of thirty. His contemporaries erected a statue in his honour, with an inscription which is still extant, containing a lament for his premature death and a eulogy of his precocious genius.
The ''Halieutica''
The ''Halieutica'' consists of five books, which can be divided into two parts: books 1-2 describe the behaviour of fish and other marine animals, books 3-5 contain various fishing techniques. The content of the ''Halieutica'' is not sufficient to serve as a practical guide for fishing. Instead, the humans and animals described in the work often seem to provide examples of good and bad behaviour. The fish in the ''Halieutica'' are depicted in an anthropomorphic fashion, as their behaviour is generally motivated by emotions such as hate, love, greed, jealousy and friendship. The fish are also very frequently the subject of
Homeric simile Homeric simile, also called an epic simile, is a detailed comparison in the form of a simile that is many lines in length. The word "Homeric", is based on the Greek author, Homer, who composed the two famous Greek epics, the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odys ...
s. In many cases, Oppian reverses the Homeric technique: where
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
compares epic heroes with animals, the actions of animals in the ''Halieutica'' are often compared to all types of human behaviour.
[See for instance Kneebone, E. 2008. "'ΤΟΣΣ' ΕΔΑΗΝ: The Poetics of Knowledge in Oppian's ''Halieutica''", ''Ramus'' 37.1-2, 32-59; Bartley, A.N. 2003. ''Stories from the Mountains, Stories from the Sea. The Digressions and Similes of Oppian’s Halieutica and the Cynegetica''. Göttingen; Effe, B. 1977. ''Dichtung und Lehre. Untersuchungen zur Typologie des antiken Lehrgedichts''. München, p. 137-153]
The content of the ''Halieutica'' is as follows:
* Book 1: after the introduction and dedication of the work to
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...
, the first half of the work contains a catalogue of marine animal species, sorted by their habitat (''Hal''. 1.80-445). The second half describes their reproductive behaviour (''Hal''. 1.446-797).
* Book 2: this book describes the 'battles' of fish, how predators catch their prey and techniques that fish use to avoid capture by other fish.
* Book 3: the book starts with a description of the preparations for fishing (''Hal''. 3.29-91). It then describes how fish escape fishermen (''Hal''. 3.92-168). The main portion of the book contains various techniques to capture fish through their gluttony (''Hal''. 3.169-528), followed by a list of fish that can be caught due to their aggression and ends with
tuna
A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...
fishing (''Hal''. 3.529-648).
* Book 4: the main theme of this book is fishing through manipulating the love and lust of fish (''Hal''. 4.1-449). The remainder of the book describes, among other things, frightening fish (''Hal''. 4.502-634) and fishing with poison (''Hal''. 4.647-693).
* Book 5: in many ways the grand finale of the ''Halieutica'', as it teaches you how to catch the largest animals of the sea, including
whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...
s,
shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...
s, and
dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...
s. The work is concluded by a section on the fatal outcome of
sponge diving. (''Hal''. 5.612-680)
Editions
* , with Latin translation by Laurentius Lippius,
Aldine edition, Venice, 1517;
* Oppianus. Poetae alieuticon, sive de piscibus, libri quinq
ee graeco traducti ad Antonium Imperatorem
authore Laurentio Lippio Collensi, interprete librorum quinq
eOppiani. C. Plinii Secundi naturalis historiae libri duo
de naturis piscipium, in altero vero de medicinis ex aquatilibus sive piscibus. Pauli item Iovii de piscibus liber unus
first Johannes Caesarius edition, Strasbourg, Jacob Cammerlander, 1534;
* , , 1549;
* , ;
* , 1597;
* , 1606;
* (1776);
* F. S. Lehrs (1846);
* U. C. Bussemaker (Scholia, 1849).
* Fajen, F. 'Oppianus. ''Halieutica (Berlin, 1999)
Translations
* Diaper and Jones (1722, Oxford)
* A. W. Mair (1928).
References
External links
''Oppian's Halieuticks of the Nature of Fishes and Fishing of the Ancients in V. Books, Translated from the Greek, with an Account of Oppian's Life and Writings, and a Catalogue of his Fishes''(1722)
*''Poetae bucolici et didactici. Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, Nicander, Oppianus, Marcellus de piscibus, poeta de herbis'', C. Fr. Ameis, F. S. Lehrs (ed.), Parisiis, editore Ambrosio Firmin Didot, 1862
pp. 1-126
:Scholia
*''Scholia in Theocritum. Scholia et paraphrases in Nicandrum et Oppianum'', Fr. Dübner, U. Cats Bussemaker (ed.), Parisiis, editore Ambrosio Firmin Didot, 1849
pp. 243-449
{{authority control
2nd-century Greek poets
Ancient Greek didactic poets
Ancient Greek epic poets