1. INTRODUCTION
The Aristotelian Πολιτεῖαι collected information on the history and organization of reportedly 158 city-states. Of these only the Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία survives almost in its entirety on two papyri.Footnote 1 All that remains of the other constitutions is the epitome by Heraclides Lembus (second century b.c.e.)Footnote 2 and about 130 fragments. This article will look at the transmission of Heraclides’ epitome (itself preserved as excerpts) and explore the possibility of identifying further fragments of the original text.
2. THE TRANSMISSION OF HERACLIDES’ EPITOME
In all manuscripts, Heraclides’ epitome is transmitted together with Aelian's Varia historia.Footnote 3 The stemma codicum for these two works consists of two families. For one of the two families the hyparchetype survives in Parisinus suppl. gr. 352 (formerly Vaticanus gr. 997) (V). The other family goes back to a now lost paper codex which was preserved in the Vatican Library (x) and is assumed to have been destroyed in the sack of Rome in 1527.Footnote 4 For the texts of Aelian and Heraclides four copies of this lost manuscript survive, which thus allow us to reconstruct its text: Laurentianus 60.19 (d), Ambrosianus C 4 sup. (gr. 164) (g), Parisinus gr. 1693 (a) and Parisinus gr. 1694 (b). The manuscripts of both families indicate that, already in the archetype, the title of Heraclides’ work was ἐκ τῶν Ἡρακλείδου περὶ πολιτειῶν. In other words, what survives are merely extracts from Heraclides’ original text.Footnote 5 This is further shown by the occasional use of ὅτι to introduce new extracts, a feature common in excerpts.Footnote 6
One of the key questions is to what extent the extracts reflect Heraclides’ original text and especially how much has been omitted.Footnote 7 Comparison with the transmission of Aelian's Varia Historia offers us a few hints. The scribe of the archetype copied the full text of Aelian's Varia Historia for the first two books, but from the third book onwards started making excerpts from the text. This can be seen from quotations and extracts of Aelian in later writers. Stobaeus and the Suda quote Aelian's Varia Historia eight times with text not preserved in direct transmission:
– Ael. VH F 1 Domingo-Forasté = Stob. 3.17.28
– Ael. VH F 2 Domingo-Forasté = Stob. 4.25.38
– Ael. VH F 3 Domingo-Forasté = Stob. 4.55.10
– Ael. VH F 4 Domingo-Forasté = Stob. 2.31.38
– Ael. VH F 5 Domingo-Forasté = Suda α 4140 s.v. ἀσέλγεια
– Ael. VH F 6 Domingo-Forasté = Suda δ 1478 s.v. δώς
– Ael. VH F 7 Domingo-Forasté = Suda φ 445 s.v. φιλωθέντες
– Ael. VH F 8 Domingo-Forasté = Suda κ 146 s.v. κάκη
The Suda further includes a large number of citations of Aelian without a book title (FF 28–351 Domingo-Forasté), many of which are likely to derive from the original version of Aelian's Varia Historia.Footnote 8 In addition, Stobaeus’ quotations of text preserved in direct transmission often provide a more complete version of the text.Footnote 9 Comparison with the text of Aelian thus shows that the interventions by the scribe range from the transposition and omission of a few words to the omission of larger sections; occasionally, he rephrases the text.Footnote 10 Since, in the archetype, Aelian seems to have preceded Heraclides, the scribe probably continued excerpting when copying Heraclides’ text, this time indicating that he is making excerpts rather than copying the original text by giving it the title ἐκ τῶν Ἡρακλείδου περὶ πολιτειῶν.
3. ADDITIONAL FRAGMENTS OF HERACLIDES’ EPITOME
The observation in the preceding section that the transmitted text of Heraclides’ epitome consists of excerpts raises the question whether additional fragments exist outside of the medieval text, as is the case for Aelian's Varia Historia. Among the fragments of Heraclides as collected by Müller, five fragments are included as belonging to Heraclides’ lost Ἱστορίαι, a historical work in at least 37 books. Three of these fragments explicitly cite the title and the book number.Footnote 11 The two other fragments cite only Heraclides’ name and, as I will argue, are more likely to be fragments of Heraclides’ Περὶ πολιτειῶν.
3.1. Heraclides on the foundation of Rome
The first fragment is found in Festus’ De verborum significatu, in Servius auctus and in Solinus’ Collectanea rerum memorabilium, and deals with the foundation of Rome.
Festus 17 p. 329 Lindsay (p. 269 Mueller, p. 364 Thewr) = Heraclides Lembus, FHG III.168 F 1 = Arist. F 609(3) Rose3 = F 702.1 Gigon = FGrHist 840 F 13b:
Lembos qui appellatur Heraclides existimat, reuertentibus ab Ilio Achiuis, quosdam tempestate deiectos in Italiae regiones secutos Tiberis decursum peruenisse, ubi nunc sit Roma; ibique propter taedium nauigationis, inpulsas captiuas auctoritate uirginis cuiusdam tempestiuae nomine Rhomes, incendisse classem; atque ab ea necessitate ibi manendi urbem conditam ab is, et potissimum eius nomine eam appellatam, a cuius consilio eas sedes sibi firmauissent.Footnote 12
Lembus, who is named Heraclides,Footnote 13 thinks that, when the Achaeans were returning home from Troy, some of them were hurled into the regions of Italy; they followed the course of the Tiber and arrived at the location where Rome is now. And there, because they were tired of sailing around, the captive women, persuaded by a certain girl at marriageable ageFootnote 14 called Rhome, burnt down the fleet. And since they were forced to stay there, the Achaeans founded a city; most notably, (Heraclides says that) the city was called after that woman, by whose advice they had fixed this location as their home.
Serv. Dan. Aen. 1.273 = FGrHist 840 F 40d = Arist. F 702.2 Gigon:Footnote 15
Heraclides ait Romen, nobilem captiuam Troianam, huc appulisse et taedio maris suasisse sedem, ex cuius nomine urbem uocatam.Footnote 16
Heraclides says that Rhome, a noble captive Trojan woman, disembarked here and, because she was tired of the sea, advised this place as their home; the city was called after her.
Solin. 1.2 = Arist. F 702.3 Gigon:
Heraclidi placet, Troia capta quosdam ex Achiuis in ea loca ubi nunc Roma est deuenisse per Tiberim, deinde suadente Rome nobilissima captiuarum quae his comes erat, incensis nauibus posuisse sedes, instruxisse moenia et oppidum ab ea Romen uocauisse.Footnote 17
Heraclides thinks that, after Troy was taken, some of the Achaeans, sailing along the Tiber, arrived at that location where Rome is now. Next, on the advice of Rhome, the most noble of the captive women who accompanied them, after the ships were burnt down, the Achaeans established their home there, built walls and called the city Rome after her.
All three texts are part of a list of stories about the foundation of Rome,Footnote 18 which seems to go back to a common source.Footnote 19 The attribution of the three fragments to Heraclides’ Περὶ πολιτειῶν is suggested by a parallel with a fragment of Aristotle, cited in Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Antiquitates Romanae.
Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.72.3–4 = Arist. F 609(1) Rose3 = F 700 Gigon = FGrHist 840 F 13a:
Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ ὁ φιλόσοφος Ἀχαιῶν τινας ἱστορεῖ τῶν ἀπὸ Τροίας ἀνακομισαμένων περιπλέοντας Μαλέαν, ἔπειτα χειμῶνι βιαίῳ καταληφθέντας τέως μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν πνευμάτων φερομένους πολλαχῇ τοῦ πελάγους πλανᾶσθαι, τελευτῶντας δ’ ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὸν τόπον τοῦτον τῆς Ὀπικῆς, ὃς καλεῖται Λατίνιον ἐπὶ τῷ Τυρρηνικῷ πελάγει κείμενος. ἀσμένους δὲ τὴν γῆν ἰδόντας ἀνελκῦσαί τε τὰς ναῦς αὐτόθι καὶ διατρῖψαι τὴν χειμερινὴν ὥραν παρασκευαζομένους ἔαρος ἀρχομένου πλεῖν· ἐμπρησθεισῶν δὲ αὐτοῖς ὑπὸ νύκτα τῶν νεῶν οὐκ ἔχοντας ὅπως ποιήσονται τὴν ἄπαρσιν, ἀβουλήτῳ ἀνάγκῃ τοὺς βίους, ἐν ᾧ κατήχθησαν χωρίῳ, ἱδρύσασθαι. συμβῆναι δὲ αὐτοῖς τοῦτο διὰ γυναῖκας αἰχμαλώτους, ἃς ἔτυχον ἄγοντες ἐξ Ἰλίου· ταύτας δὲ κατακαῦσαι τὰ πλοῖα φοβουμένας τὴν οἴκαδε τῶν Ἀχαιῶν ἄπαρσιν, ὡς εἰς δουλείαν ἀφιξομένας.Footnote 20
Aristotle the philosopher recounts that some of the Achaeans returning home from Troy, as they were sailing around Malea, were suddenly taken by a violent storm. For a long time, they wandered around many places of the sea, carried around by the winds. Eventually they arrived at that place in the land of the OpiciFootnote 21 which is called Latinium and is situated near the Tyrrhenian Sea. Happy to see land, they pulled their ships ashore at that location and spent the winter season there, preparing to sail at the beginning of spring. But when their ships were set on fire at night, not knowing how they could set sail, they were forced against their will to settle their abode in the place where they had disembarked. This happened to them because of female prisoners, whom they happened to be carrying along from Troy. These women had burnt down the ships out of fear for the Achaeans’ return home, believing that they would be carried into slavery.
This story was probably found in Aristotle's section on Rome in the Νόμιμα βαρβαρικά.Footnote 22 Indeed, Heraclides’ epitome seems to have covered both Aristotle's Πολιτεῖαι and his Νόμιμα βαρβαρικά.Footnote 23 The procedure of writing an epitome covering more than one work is also seen in Heraclides’ epitome of the biographer Hermippus of Smyrna, which covered Hermippus’ Περὶ νομοθετῶν, Περὶ ἑπτὰ σοφῶν and Περὶ Πυθαγόρου.Footnote 24 Rose and Gigon were therefore right to include these fragments in their editions of Aristotle.Footnote 25 This also implies that Heraclides’ epitome originally contained a section on the Romans, which the later excerptor surprisingly omitted.Footnote 26
There is one problem, however. There is another fragment of Aristotle, cited in Plutarch's Quaestiones Romanae, which also comments on the foundation of Rome and offers a similar but fundamentally different version of the story.
Plut. Quaest. Rom. 265B–D = Arist. F 609(2) Rose3 = F 701 Gigon = FGrHist 840 F 13c:
διὰ τί τοὺς συγγενεῖς τῷ στόματι φιλοῦσιν αἱ γυναῖκες; (…) ἢ δι’ ἣν Ἀριστοτέλης ὁ φιλόσοφος αἰτίαν ἱστόρηκε; τὸ γὰρ πολυθρύλλητον ἐκεῖνο καὶ πολλαχοῦ γενέσθαι λεγόμενον, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐτολμήθη ταῖς Τρῳάσι καὶ περὶ τὴν Ἰταλίαν. τῶν γὰρ ἀνδρῶν, ὡς προσέπλευσαν, ἀποβάντων ἐνέπρησαν τὰ πλοῖα, πάντως ἀπαλλαγῆναι τῆς πλάνης δεόμεναι καὶ τῆς θαλάττης· φοβηθεῖσαι δὲ τοὺς ἄνδρας ἠσπάζοντο τῶν συγγενῶν καὶ οἰκείων μετὰ τοῦ καταφιλεῖν καὶ περιπλέκεσθαι τοὺς προστυγχάνοντας. παυσαμένων δὲ τῆς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλλαγέντων ἐχρῶντο καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν ταύτῃ τῇ φιλοφροσύνῃ πρὸς αὐτούς.Footnote 27
Why do women kiss their relatives on the mouth? (…) Or is it for the reason which Aristotle the philosopher has recounted? For that well-known deed, which is said to have taken place in many locations,Footnote 28 was dared—it seems—by the Trojan women in Italy as well. When, after disembarking, the men had gone off, the women set the ships on fire, since they wanted to bring an end to their wanderings at sea by any means necessary. Fearing the men, they greeted their relatives and other members of the household by kissing and embracing whoever encountered them. And when the men had put an end to their anger and had been reconciled, the women continued to use this way of greeting them.
Although the story is similar to that of the aforementioned sources, the fundamental difference is that, in Plutarch, it is not Achaeans who wandered around and ended up in Italy, but Trojans; so the Trojan women were not captives. In fact, the custom described by Plutarch, according to which women kiss their male relatives on the mouth by way of greeting, only makes sense if the Trojan women were brought to Italy by their own families. Otherwise, there are no male relatives to kiss, which is the whole point of Plutarch's aition.
The question is therefore whether Dionysius or Plutarch gives the correct Aristotelian version of the story. A priori, Dionysius is expected to be more reliable than Plutarch in citing earlier writers, especially in the first book of the Antiquitates Romanae, to which the fragment of Aristotle belongs. In the first book, Dionysius meticulously cites his sources, often quoting their verba ipsissima and stating the same information twice (viz. a paraphrase, followed by a verbatim quotation).Footnote 29 Plutarch, in contrast, has a more loose way of citing authors.Footnote 30 It is possible that Plutarch is mixing up different traditions, modifying Aristotle or simply misremembering what he read.Footnote 31 Alternatively, it is possible that Aristotle reported a second version of the story (whether in the Νόμιμα βαρβαρικά or elsewhere), as Martínez-Pinna has claimed.Footnote 32 Indeed, discrepancies also recur, for instance, between the Politics and the Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία.Footnote 33 The less likely alternative is to assume that Dionysius draws on Heraclides for the citation of Aristotle, and that the error was introduced by Heraclides, as he occasionally does elsewhere in the epitome.Footnote 34
Before I move on to the next fragment of Heraclides, it is necessary to discuss briefly Basto's views on the relation between Aristotle and Heraclides Lembus with respect to the story of the foundation of Rome.Footnote 35 According to Basto, Heraclides actually combines Aristotle's account with that of Hellanicus, who also has Trojan women set fire to the ships:Footnote 36
Hellanicus Lesbius, FGrHist 4 F 84 = 840 F 8 = Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.72.2:
ὁ δὲ τὰς Ἱερείας τὰς ἐν Ἄργει καὶ τὰ καθ’ ἑκάστην πραχθέντα συναγαγὼν [sc. Ἑλλάνικος] Αἰνείαν φησὶν ἐκ Μολοττῶν εἰς Ἰταλίαν ἐλθόντα μετ’ Ὀδυσσέως οἰκιστὴν γενέσθαι τῆς πόλεως, ὀνομάσαι δ’ αὐτὴν ἀπὸ μιᾶς τῶν Ἰλιάδων Ῥώμης· ταύτην δὲ λέγει ταῖς ἄλλαις Τρωάσι παρακελευσαμένην κοινῇ μετ’ αὐτῶν ἐμπρῆσαι τὰ σκάφη βαρυνομένην τῇ πλάνῃ· ὁμολογεῖ δ᾿ αὐτῷ καὶ Δαμάστης ὁ Σιγειεὺς καὶ ἄλλοι τινές.Footnote 37
The man who compiled the Priestesses at Argos and the events during the tenure of each of them [sc. Hellanicus] says that Aeneas went with Odysseus from the land of the Molossians to Italy; he founded the city and named it after Rhome, one of the Trojan women. This woman, he says, urged the other Trojan women on and, together with them, set the ships on fire, since she was tired of wandering around. Damastes of Sigeum and some other people also agree with him.
Basto considered the following points to be the key differences between Aristotle and Hellanicus:Footnote 38
(1) In Aristotle, the Trojan women are captives of the Achaeans; in Hellanicus, they accompany their families.
(2) In Aristotle, the Trojan women set the ships on fire, because they are afraid at the prospect of being carried off into slavery; in Hellanicus, they do this because they are tired of wandering around at sea.
(3) Aristotle does not specify the exact location or the name of the founder but deliberately speaks only vaguely of the ‘Latin land’ (Λατίνιον), certain Achaeans (Ἀχαιῶν τινας) and Trojan captive women (γυναῖκας αἰχμαλώτους); Hellanicus explicitly names Aeneas and Rhome and specifies that the city which is founded is Rome.
From this Basto concluded that Heraclides followed Aristotle in making the Trojan women captives of the Achaeans and adopted from Hellanicus the location (Rome), the person setting the ships on fire (Rhome) and the motivation for doing this (weariness of the sea).Footnote 39 However, the argumentum ex silentio that Aristotle leaves the protagonists unnamed is less compelling than Basto claims. In fact, Dionysius cites Aristotle immediately after Hellanicus and may therefore have omitted the names to avoid repetition, citing only the differences (that is, Achaeans vs Trojans). Basto also overemphasized the difference in motivation between Aristotle (fear for slavery) and Heraclides (weariness of the sea). One explanation does not exclude the other. In Plutarch, too, the Trojan women are tired of the sea. In fact, more substantial discrepancies between Festus and Dionysius are also found in their citations of other writers.Footnote 40 Furthermore, from Dionysius’ text, it does not necessarily follow that Aristotle did not mention Rome.Footnote 41 But, even if this was the case, Heraclides need not be drawing on Hellanicus for that but may have substituted ‘Rome’ for ‘Latinion’Footnote 42 himself. Such interventions are not uncommon in epitomes. In fact, Hellanicus is highly unlikely to be a source for Heraclides. In Hellanicus, there is no storm (unlike in Aristotle and Heraclides), but Aeneas comes to Italy with Odysseus (!),Footnote 43 embarking from the land of the Molossians.
3.2. Heraclides on Sparta: a new fragment of Aristotle?
The second fragment traditionally attributed to Heraclides’ Ἱστορίαι is found in Athenaeus and deals with Sparta.
Ath. Deipn. 13.566a = Heraclides Lembus, FHG III.168 F 2:
Ἡρακλείδης δ’ ὁ Λέμβος ἱστορεῖ ὅτι κατὰ τὴν Σπάρτην θαυμάζεται μᾶλλον ὁ κάλλιστος καὶ γυνὴ ἡ καλλίστη, καλλίστας γεννώσης τῆς Σπάρτης τὰς γυναῖκας. διὸ καί φασιν <περὶ> Ἀρχιδάμου τοῦ βασιλέως, γυναικὸς αὐτῷ καλῆς φαινομένης, ἑτέρας δὲ αἰσχρᾶς καὶ πλουσίας, ὡς ἀπέκλινεν ἐπὶ τὴν πλουσίαν, ζημιῶσαι τοὺς ἐφόρους αὐτόν, ἐπιλέγοντας ὅτι βασιλίσκους ἀντὶ βασιλέων τᾷ Σπάρτᾳ γεννᾶν προαιρεῖται.Footnote 44
Heraclides Lembus records that, in Sparta, the most handsome man and the most beautiful woman are admired more, since Sparta produces the most beautiful women. This also why people say about King Archidamus that, when he was shown one beautiful woman and another ugly and rich, and he was inclined toward the rich one, the ephors fined him, saying that he was choosing to beget kinglets for Sparta instead of kings.
Heraclides comments on the fact that handsome men and beautiful women are admired in Sparta.Footnote 45 Athenaeus then adds a story about King Archidamus II,Footnote 46 which he probably adopted from Heraclides as well. The story goes that, when Archidamus had to marry,Footnote 47 he chose a wealthy woman over a beautiful one and was fined by the ephors for doing this. Interestingly, the story recurs in Theophrastus, where Archidamus is fined for marrying a short woman (not a rich one, as in Heraclides).Footnote 48 Indeed, the ephors’ reply that Archidamus would beget small children with herFootnote 49 makes more sense in Theophrastus’ version of the story.
One reason to assign the fragment to Heraclides’ Ἱστορίαι is that the other three fragments of Heraclides in Athenaeus are taken from this work. However, contrary to F 2, Athenaeus explicitly cites the title and the book number for those three fragments.Footnote 50 In fact, the parallel with Theophrastus suggests that, in this case, Aristotle might be the ultimate source for Heraclides. Indeed, a note on women and marriage is found often in Aristotle's ΠολιτεῖαιFootnote 51 and also recurs in Xenophon's Spartan Constitution and Nicolaus of Damascus’ Ἐθῶν συναγωγή.Footnote 52 An alternative context for this fragment may have been a discussion of the relation between the kings and the ephors at Sparta.Footnote 53
4. CONCLUSION
In this article, I have commented on Heraclides’ epitome of Aristotle's Πολιτεῖαι and Νόμιμα βαρβαρικά. I have taken the comparison with Aelian's Varia Historia, which is transmitted alongside Heraclides’ Περὶ πολιτειῶν, as my point of departure in order to show the extent to which the transmitted excerpts reflect Heraclides’ original text. I have then argued that two fragments of Heraclides which are commonly assigned to his Ἱστορίαι are more likely to belong to a more complete version of Heraclides’ original epitome. These two fragments should therefore probably be considered fragments of Aristotle. This also implies that Heraclides’ original work contained a section of Rome, which the later compiler omitted.