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{{short description|1st century CE grammarian and sophist}}
{{about|the ancient Egyptian grammarian|the late antique Egyptian family|Apion (family)|the 6th century Byzantine jurist|Strategius Apion|the genus of beetles|Apion (beetle)}}

'''Apion''' ({{langx|el|Ἀπίων}}; fl. 1st century CE), also called Apion Pleistoneices ({{langx|el|Ἀπίων Πλειστονίκου}}, ''Apíōn Pleistoníkēs'') and Apion Mochthos (μόχθος) was a Greek or [[Egyptian Greeks|Graeco-Egyptian]] scholar of [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic Egypt]], born in the [[Kharga Oasis|El Kargeh]] oasis. He studied under [[Didymus Chalcenterus]] and later succeeded [[Theon (1st century BC)|Theon]] as head of the [[Alexandria|Alexandrian]] school{{Clarification needed|reason=What is the "Alexandrian school" referenced? No wikilink.|date=May 2025}}. Apion gained recognition as a lecturer, speaking in [[Rome]] and elsewhere.{{Sfn|Forbes|Wilson|2015}}

In 40 CE, he was part of a delegation sent by the Greek community of Alexandria to the Roman Emperor Gaius ([[Caligula]]) following [[Alexandrian riots (38 CE)|anti-Jewish riots]]. The Jewish historian [[Josephus]] criticized Apion extensively in Book 2 of his [[polemic]] ''[[Against Apion]]'' ([[Latin|Lat]]: ''Contra Apionem'').{{Sfn|Forbes|Wilson|2015}}

Apion wrote extensively about his native Egypt. Details of his life come almost exclusively from other ancient sources, most prominently [[Pliny the Elder]], [[Aulus Gellius]], as well as the 10th century [[Byzantine literature|Byzantine]] [[encyclopedia]] the ''[[Suda]]''. According to Aulus Gellius, wrote a version of the folk tale "[[Androcles|Androcles and the Lion]]" (''Noctes Atticae'' 5.14). Pliny related that Apion claimed to have summoned the spirit of Homer to determine the poet’s origins (''Natural History'' 30.6.18). He wrote an alphabetic glossary of [[Homer|Homeric]] themes—a work, like others of its kind, based on the scholarship of [[Aristarchus of Samothrace]] (c. 220 – c. 143 BCE); it survives only in [[Literary fragment|fragments]] and through the writings of [[Apollonius the Sophist]].{{Sfn|Forbes|Wilson|2015}}

According to the ''Suda'', he was dubbed "''Mochthos"'' (μόχθος), a word meaning "toil, labor, hardship, or trouble" in reference to his tireless work habits.

==Works==
Apion wrote several works, none of which has survived. The well-known story "[[Androcles|Androclus and the Lion]]", which is preserved in [[Aulus Gellius]],<ref>Aulus Gellius. ''Attic Nights'' V.xiv''</ref> is from his work: ''Aegyptiaca/''Αἰγυπτιακά ''("Wonders of Egypt")''. The surviving fragments of his work are printed in the ''Etymologicum Gudianum'', ed. Sturz, 1818.

*''Upon Homer'', whose poems seem to have formed the principal part of his studies, for he is said not only to have made the best recension of the text of the poems, but to have written explanations of phrases and words in the form of a dictionary (Λέξεις Ὁμηρικαί), and investigations concerning the life and native country of the poet. The best part of his Λέξεις Ὁμηρικαί are supposed to be incorporated in the Homeric Lexicon of Apollonius.<ref>Villoison, Proleg. ad Apollon. p. ix. &c.</ref> Apion's labors upon Homer are often referred to by Eustathius and other grammarians.
*A work on Egypt (Αἰγυπτιακά) consisting of five books, which was highly valued in antiquity, for it contained descriptions of nearly all the remarkable objects in Egypt. It also contained numerous attacks upon the Jews.<ref>Euseb. ''Praep. Evang.'' 10.10</ref><ref>Gel. 5.14</ref><ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' 37.19</ref>
*A work in praise of Alexander the Great.<ref>Gel. 6.8</ref>
*Histories of separate countries. (Ἱστορία κατὰ ἔθνος, [[Suda]] ''s. v.'' Ἀπίων.)
*On the celebrated glutton [[Marcus Gavius Apicius|Apicius]].<ref>Athen. 7.294, xv. p. 680</ref>
*''On the language of the Romans'' (Περὶ τῆς ‛Ρωμαίων διαλέκτου).<ref>Athen. 7.294, xv. p. 680</ref>
*''De metallica disciplina''.<ref>Plin. ''Elench.'' lib. xxxv</ref>
*''Androclus and the Lion'' and ''The Dolphin near Dicaearchia''. The greatest fragments of the works of Apion are the story about Androclus and his lion, and about the dolphin near Dicaearchia.

==Epigrams==
In the ''[[Suda]]'' we find references to an Apion as a writer of [[Epigram|epigrams]] (''s. vv.'' Ἀγύρτης, σπιλάδες, σφάραγον, and τρίγληνα), but whether he is the same as the grammarian is uncertain.

==See also==
*''[[Against Apion]]''

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===

* {{cite dictionary |last1=Forbes |first1=Peter Barr Reid |last2=Wilson |first2=Nigel |entry=Apion |dictionary=Oxford Classical Dictionary |date=December 22, 2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=19 May 2025 |entry-url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-585}}

===Further Reading===
*Barclay, J.M.G. “The Politics of Contempt: Judaeans and Egyptians in Josephus’s ''Against Apion'',” in J. M. G. Barclay, ''Negotiating Diaspora: Jewish Strategies in the'' ''Roman Empire,'' 109-111''.'' London, 2004. 
*[[Cynthia Damon|Damon, Cynthia]], "'The Mind of an Ass and the Impudence of a Dog:' A Scholar Gone Bad," in Ineke Sluiter and Ralph M. Rosen (eds), ''Kakos: Badness and Anti-value in Classical Antiquity'' (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008) (Mnemosyne: Supplements. History and Archaeology of Classical Antiquity, 307)
*Dawson, David. ''Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria''. University of California Press, 1992.
*Dillery, John. “Putting Him Back Together Again: Apion Historian, Apion Grammatikos.” ''Classical Philology'', vol. 98, no. 4, 2003, pp. 383–90. ''JSTOR'', https://doi.org/10.1086/422373. Accessed 19 May 2025.
*Gruen, Erich S. “Greeks and Jews: Mutual Misperceptions in Josephus’ Contra Apionem.” In ''The Construct of Identity in Hellenistic Judaism: Essays on Early Jewish Literature and History'', 1st ed., 245–64. De Gruyter, 2016. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbkjxph.16.
*Jacobson, Howard. “Apion, the Jews, and Human Sacrifice.” ''The Classical Quarterly'', vol. 51, no. 1, 2001, pp. 318–19. ''JSTOR'', http://www.jstor.org/stable/3556359. Accessed 19 May 2025.

===External links===
{{EB1911 poster|Apion}} 
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/apion-1.html Flavius Josephus of the Antiquity of the Jews. Against Apion.]
*[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1641&letter=A Jewish Encyclopedia on Apion]
*[http://jewishhistorylectures.org/2015/10/28/josephus-against-apion-jewish-history-avenue-j/ Josephus Against Apion] by [[Henry Abramson|Dr. Henry Abramson]]

{{DGRBM|author=LS|title=Apion|volume=1|page=226|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/acl3129.0001.001/241}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apion}}
[[Category:20s BC births]]
[[Category:40s deaths]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek grammarians]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:1st-century Egyptian people]]
[[Category:Homeric scholars]]
[[Category:Ancient Egyptian writers]]