from the Mountains, Stories from the Sea. The Digressions and Similes of Oppian’s Halieutica and the Cynegetica
(2003); BNP 10 (2007) 164–165, S. Fornaro.
Gianfranco AgostiOppianus of Apameia (198 – 217 CE)
Wrote the didactic poem On Hunting (Kune ̄getikà), distinct from O K
author of On Fishing. Our Oppianus dedicated his poem to Caracalla (212– 217 CE). The
allusion to the capture of Kte ̄sipho ̄n by Seuerus (1.31) dates the poem securely after 198 CE;
it is likely to have been completed after 212 CE or after Caracalla’s tour of Syria in 215 CE.
Oppianus tells he was from Apameia-on-the-Orontes at 2.125–127. His sources include
A’s writings on zoology and cynegetic authors (X, A and
others). The poem (2,144 hexameters) falls into four books: 1. Types of hunting, fishing and
fowling; the hunter and his equipment, horses and dogs; 2. Inventors of hunting; horned
animals; 3. Wild animals; 4. Seasons of hunting and the hunter’s weapons; lion and bear
hunting. The lack of an epilogue and hints about animal instincts in the fourth book suggest
an unfinished work. A major feature of the poem is the importance attached to myths and
paradoxography (e.g., leopards can be captured with water and wine, since they originate in
the Bacchants who killed Pentheus: 4.230–353), and the great number of epic similes (91),
which often tend to the grotesque. In general the style is more forced and obscure than
Oppianus of Kilikia’s (whose work was known to our Oppianus), with considerable neolo-
gisms and occasional metrical inaccuracies.
Ed.: A.W. Mair, Oppian, Colluthus, and Tryphiodorus (Loeb 1928); M.A. Papathomopoulos, Oppianus
Apameensis, Cynegetica. Eutecnius Sophistes, Paraphrasis metro soluta (2003).
Conc.: F. Fajen and M. Wacht, Concordantia Oppianea. Konkordanz zu den Halieutika des Oppian aus Kilikien
(2002).
Comm.: W. Schmitt, Kommentar zum ersten Buch von Pseudo-Oppians Kynegetika (1970).
RE 18.1 (1939) 698–703 (#2), R. Keydell; A.S. Hollis, “[Oppian], Cyn. 2, 100–158 and the
mythical past of Apamea-on-the-Orontes,” ZPE 102 (1994) 153–166; N. Hopkinson, Greek Poetry
of the Imperial Period. An Anthology (1994) 197–198; T. Silva Sánchez, Sobre el texto de los Cynegetica de
Opiano de Apamea (2002); G. Agosta, “Due note testuali al proemio dei Cynegetica (I 26, 32–34),”
Eikasmos 14 (2003) 133–160; E. Giomi, “Ps. Oppiano, ‘Cynegetica’ III 53–55 e la zampa ‘narcotiz-
zante’ del leone,” Maia 55 (2003) 537–543; A.N. Bartley, Stories from the Mountains, Stories from the
Sea. The Digressions and Similes of Oppian’s Halieutica and the Cynegetica (2003); BNP 10 (2007) 163–164,
S. Fornaro.
Gianfranco Agosti
Oppius (100 BCE – 15 CE)
Wrote “On Woodland Trees” (De Siluestribus Arboribus); fragments discuss the chestnut
(M, Sat. 3.18.7) and citrons (19.4). There is no way to be sure with which, if any,
of the several better-known Oppii our author may be identified; but he may be cited in
P’s book on bees, insects, and anatomy (1.ind.11). Other authors quoted by Macrobius
in Book 3 date no later than the age of A.
Speranza (1971) 69–72.
Philip Thibodeau
O ⇒ A
OPPIANUS OF APAMEIA