Iliad

Apollonius

5. The son of ARCHEBULUS, Archebius, or Anchibius, was like his father an eminent grammarian of Alexandria. He lived about the time of Augustus, and was the teacher of Apion, while he himself had been a pupil of the school of Didymus. This is the statement of Suidas, which Villoison has endeavoured to confirm. Other critics, as Ruhnken, believe that Apollonius lived after the time of Apion, and that our Apollonius in his Homeric Lexicon made use of a similar work written by Apion. This opinion seems indeed to be the more probable of the two.

Works

Homeric Lexicon

The Homeric Lexicon of Apollonius to the Iliad and the Odyssey, which is still extant, is to us a valuable and instructive relic of antiquity, if we consider the loss of so many other works of the same kind. It is unfortunately, however, very much interpolated, and must be used with great caution.

Editions

The first edition of it was published by Villoison from a MS. of St. Germain belonging to the tenth century. (Paris, 1773, 2 vols. fol., with valuable prolegomena and a Latin translation. It was reprinted in the same year at Leipzig, in 2 vols. 4to.)H. Tollius afterwards published a new edition with some additional notes, but without Villoison's prolegomena and translation. (Lugd. Bat. 1788, 8vo.) Bekker's is a very useful edition, Berlin, 1833, 8vo.

Expressions Peculiar to Herodotus

This Apollonius is probably the same as the one who wrote explanations of expressions peculiar to Herodotus. (Etymol. M. s. vv. κωφὸς and σοφιστής.)