Zythum (original) (raw)

Brill's New Jacoby, ed. Ian Worthington, 2015

Apion was of Egyptian ancestry, born in one of the oases west of the Nile, probably c. 10 BC. He went down to Alexandria and studied under Didymos ‘Bronze-Guts’, became a citizen of Alexandria, and succeeded Theon as head of the Library, c. AD 20 (all T 1). Under Tiberius he taught in Rome and was well enough known for the Emperor to mock him as the world’s gong (T 12). Under Caligula, he was appointed ambassador of the Greeks of Alexandria to argue a case against the Jews of Alexandria before the emperor in Rome, which took place in AD 40 (T 6). At some point in Caligula’s reign, likely before his service as ambassador, he made a well-received speaking tour of Greece (T 7). Also c. AD 40 he met Pliny, not yet Elder, who half his lifetime later still recalled the event (F 15). Under the emperor Claudius, i.e., in the 40s, Apion was again teaching in Rome (T 1). He probably died c. AD 50; Josephus alleges a failed operation as the cause (T 9). Apion has been received since Josephus as a shrill and hateful opponent of the Jews. But in fact, Apion’s reaction was, strictly speaking, xenophobic and not specific to the Jews. Apion, both in his discourse and in his career, takes a clear part in two distinct cultural discourses. On the one hand, Apion takes part in the Egyptian xenophobic discourse, and on the other, in the countervailing pair of Greco-Roman discourses that Egypt was ancient and learned, as well as that Egypt was perverse.