Antigonos of Karustos (ca 290 – ca 240 BCE)
The Antigonou Historio ̄n paradoxo ̄n sunago ̄ge ̄ contains 173 paradoxographical excerpts. Four
sections can be discerned according to theme and author: (1) Mirabilia de animalibus
drawn from various authors including Antigonos of Karustos; (2) Mirabilia de animalibus
selected from -A; (3) Mirabilia de uariis rebus (water, human physiology,
botany etc.) from various authors; (4) Mirabilia de aquis et de aliis rebus derived from
K.
Modern judgment of this collection is critical: the structure is weak, the style is dry and its
main contribution is to have preserved a large collection of otherwise unknown citations of
ancient authors. This criticism brings us to the question of the identity of its author.
While for a long time the discussion concentrated on which Antigonos of Karustos wrote
this compilation, Musso (1976: 1–10) convincingly suggested that the Historio ̄n paradoxo ̄n
sunago ̄ge ̄ was in fact a paradoxographical collection composed under Constantine VII Por-
phurogenne ̄tos (905– 959 CE), in the first part of which Antigonos of Karustos’ Peri Zo ̄io ̄n
features prominently and seems to have been the compiler’s main source.
The question of the identity of “Antigonos” still remains. Several men of the same name
and origin are known: a biographer, a sculptor, an art historian and a poet. In all likelihood,
an Antigonos, born in Karustos (Euboia) in the 3rd c. BCE, was a famous biographer,
sculptor, and art historian. This man – an acquaintance of Menede ̄mos of Eretria – lived in
Athens for a long time and worked at the Pergamene court under Attalos I. (The 1st c. BCE
saw a poet of the same name and origin, cited by several authors, among whom Athe ̄naios
3.82.)
The zoological work Peri Zo ̄io ̄n, mentioned in Antigonou Historio ̄n paradoxo ̄n sunago ̄ge ̄, was
probably created by the 3rd c. prose writer rather than the poet.
Ed.: PGR 31 – 109; O. Musso, [Antigonus Carystius], Rerum mirabilium collectio (1985); T. Dorandi, Antigone
de Caryste, Fragments (CUF 1999).
RE 18.3 (1949) 1137–1166 (§10, 1145–49), K. Ziegler; Giannini (1964) 112–116; O. Musso, “Sulla
struttura del cod. Pal. Gr. 398 e deduzioni storico-letterarie,” Prometheus 2 (1976) 1–10; OCD3 106,
A.F. Stewart; BNP 1 (2002) 751 (#7), H.A. Gärtner.
Jan Bollansée, Karen Haegemans, and Guido Schepens
Antigonos of Kume ̄ (325 – 90 BCE)
Agricultural writer, whose work, which may have treated cereals, livestock, poultry, viti-
culture, and arboriculture (cf. P, 1.ind.8, 10, 14–15, 17–18), was excerpted by C
D (V, RR 1.1.8–10, cf. C, 1.1.10).
RE 1.2 (1894) 2422 (#21), M. Wellmann.
Philip Thibodeau
Antigonos of Nikaia (125 – 175 CE)
Wrote a lost astrological treatise in Greek, comprising at least four books. The treatise, used
by H T and – almost certainly – by A A in his
lost The ̄sauroi, contained a biographical interpretation of the horoscope of an unnamed
emperor easily identifiable as Hadrian. He might perhaps be identifiable with a physician
Antigonos of Nikaia whose antidote against poison was cited by pseudo-A P (cf.
A A). Antigonos’ astrological handbook illustrated its methods by
ANTIGONOS OF NIKAIA