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Of Chaeronea.[1] Grammarian. He was a slave born in the house of the grammarian Archias of Alexandria,[2] who educated him; he was then bought by Modestus, governor of Egypt,[3] and taught his son Petelinus. He spent time in Rome under Nero and until Nerva; this was the time when Ptolemy son of Hephaestion[4] was alive, and numerous other distinguished figures in education. By constantly buying books he acquired 30,000 volumes, all of them serious and recondite.[5] Physically he was large and dark, like an elephant. He lived in the so-called Phainianokoria,[6] where he bought two houses. He died at the age of 75, having fallen ill with dropsy. He left behind a considerable body of writings.[7]

*)epafro/ditos, *xairwneu/s, grammatiko/s, *)arxi/ou tou= *)alecandre/ws grammatikou= qrepto/s, par' w(=| paideuqei\s w)nh/qh u(po\ *mode/stou, e)pa/rxou *ai)gu/ptou, kai\ paideu/sas to\n ui(o\n au)tou= *pethli=non e)n *(rw/mh| die/preyen e)pi\ *ne/rwnos kai\ me/xri *ne/rba, kaq' o(\n xro/non kai\ *ptolemai=os o( *(hfaisti/wnos h)=n kai\ a)/lloi suxnoi\ tw=n o)nomastw=n e)n paidei/a|. w)nou/menos de\ a)ei\ bibli/a e)kth/sato muria/das trei=s, kai\ tou/twn spoudai/wn kai\ a)nakexwrhko/twn. to\ de\ sw=ma h)=n me/gas te kai\ me/las, w(s e)lefantw/dhs. w)/|kei te e)n toi=s kaloume/nois *fainianokori/ois du/o oi)ki/as au)to/qi kthsa/menos. o# de\ kai\ pe/mpton e)/tos a)/gwn e)teleu/thsen u(de/rw| peripesw/n. suggra/mmata de\ kate/lipen i(kana/.

C1 AD. RE Epaphroditos(5); NP Epaphroditos(3); OCD4 Epaphroditus(2).
[1] In Boeotia.
[2] RE Archias(21); NP Archias(8).
[3] In the OCD (above) and elsewhere, this individual is specified as M. Mettius (sc. Modestus). Since no such prefect of Egypt matches the name, least of all in the relevant period, it might be tempting to think of the scholar-politician Tiberius Claudius Balbillus Modestus, prefect of Egypt 55-59. However, orthodoxy (represented by Braswell & Billerbeck 77, following detailed studies by W. Eck and F. Cairns) prefers to see M. Mettius Modestus as an Egyptian official less exalted than the 'prefect' (eparchos).
[4] [pi 3037] Ptolemy.
[5] See already alpha 1895.
[6] The name occurs only here, in Greek, but K.J. Rigsby and F. Cairns have independently suggested that it is an easy corruption of the Latin Faeniana horrea (i.e. the Neronian 'granaries of Faenius').
[7] Other sources mention commentaries on Homer, Hesiod and Callimachus, and a Lexeis.

B.K. Braswell and M. Billerbeck (eds.), The Grammarian Epaphroditus: testimonia and fragments (Bern 2007)
J. Christes, Sklaven und Freigelassene als Grammatiker und Philologen im Antiken Rom (Wiesbaden 1979) 103-4
E. Luenzner, Epaphroditi grammatici quae supersunt (diss. Bonn 1866)

David Whitehead (added notes and keyword) on 29 March 2001@02:11:08.
David Whitehead (added keyword; restorative cosmetics) on 13 September 2002@04:23:38.
Catharine Roth (added italics) on 29 August 2007@00:34:08.
David Whitehead (another note and keyword; another item of bibliography) on 1 October 2012@06:19:55.
David Whitehead (updated a ref) on 1 August 2014@08:42:06.
David Whitehead (added more notes, expanded another; more keywords) on 21 January 2016@04:06:03.

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