A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ὀππιανός.) Under this name there are extant two Greek hexameter poems, one on fishing, Ἁλιευτικά, and the other on hunting, Κυνηγετικά; as also a prose paraphrase of a third poem on hawking, Ἰξευτικά. These were, till towards the end of the last century, universally attributed to the same person; an opinion which not only nade it impossible to reconcile with each other all the passages relating to Oppian that are to be found in ancient writers, but also rendered contradictory the evidence derived from the perusal of the poems themselves. At length, in the year 1776, J. G. Schneider in his first edition of these poems threw out the conjecture that they were not written by the same individual, but by two persons of the same name, who have been constantly confounded together; an hypothesis, which, if not absolutely free from objection, certainly removes so many difficulties, and moreover affords so convenient a mode of introducing various facts and remarks which would otherwise be inconsistent and contradictory, that it will be adopted on this occasion. The chief (if not the only) objection to Schneider's conjecture arises from its novelty, from its positively contradicting some ancient authorities, and from the strong negative fact that for nearly sixteen hundred years no

writer had found any trace of more than one poet of the name of Oppian: But the weight of this antecedent difficulty is probably more than counterbalanced by the internal evidence in favour of Schneider's hypothesis; and with respect to the ancient testimonies to be adduced on either side, it will be seen that he pays at least as much deference to them as do those who embrace the opposite opinion. The chief reason in favour of his opinion is the fact that the author of the "Halieutica" was not born at the same place as the author of the "Cynegetica," an argument which some persons have vainly attempted to overthrow by altering the text of the latter poem. The other, which is scarcely less convincing, though not so evident to everybody's comprehension, arises from the difference of style and language observable in the two poems, which is so great as to render it morally impossible that they could have been written by the same person: for, though it may be said that this. difference only shows that the author improved in writing by practice, this answer will not bear examination, as in the first place the inferior poem (viz. the "Cynegetica") was written after, not before, the other; and secondly, the author is commonly said to have died at the early age of thirty, which scarcely affords sufficient time for so great an alteration and improvement to have taken place. The points relating to each poem separately will therefore be first mentioned, and afterwards some historical facts commonly related concerning one of the authors, though it is difficult to determine which.

[W.A.G]