places Athe ̄nagoras at the Persian court before the expedition against Egypt by Artaxerxe ̄s
III “O ̄khos,” 357 BCE.
RE S.5 (1931) 46 (#12), W. Kroll.
PTK
Athe ̄naios Mechanicus (30 – 20 BCE?)
Wrote a work on siege machinery, On Machines. Its dating is uncertain, but current consensus
places it in the second half of the 1st c. BCE and identifies the dedicatee of the treatise,
“Marcellus,” as M. Claudius Marcellus (42– 23 BCE), A’ nephew and son-in-law.
The treatise was perhaps prepared for his departure to Spain with Augustus. Athe ̄naios
himself is identified as a Peripatetic philosopher who lived and held public positions in
Rome in this period (S 14.5.4).
On Machines opens with an introduction on the need to speak briefly and avoid theoretical
digressions (3.1–7.7). The main part of the treatise contains descriptions of a number of
devices for attacking cities: D’ portable siege towers, rams and tortoises, i.e. sheds for
covering and moving siege machinery; the probably impossible monumental ram-tortoise
by H; and E’ helepolis (7.8–27.6). These descriptions are followed by a
shorter section on more unfortunate devices: some that are scaled wrongly, and K’
sea-saw tube for scaling walls, which Athe ̄naios regards as pure imagination (27.7–29.2).
Last he includes devices of his own invention, such as devices for making a tortoise change
direction, so it is less easy to hit (31.6–38.13).
The first section on machines is closely related to V’ descriptions of siege
machinery in On Architecture (10.13–16). Both are thought to have drawn on the artillery
specialist A; Athe ̄naios states that he is “relating in full” everything he learned
from him. The style of the treatise is seemingly nuts-and-bolts and includes details and
measurements, but the material does not appear organized. Athe ̄naios’ descriptions are often
hard to interpret, because of his vagueness and frequent hapax legomena in describing his own
inventions. It is likely that Athe ̄naios, despite his emphasis on practical application, drew his
material mainly from technical literature and teaching rather than direct experience.
Ed.: D. Whitehead and P.H. Blyth, Athenaeus Mechanicus, On Machines (2004).
Marsden (1969); BNP 2 (2003) 243–244 (#5), D. Baatz.
Karin Tybjerg
Athe ̄naios of Attaleia (or Tarsos?) (30 – 70 CE)
Greek physician from Attaleia (G, Ars medica [1.306 K.], Elem. Hipp. 1 [1.457 K.], Temp.
1 [1.522 K.]; Dign. Puls. 1 [8.787 K.]; etc.; -G, D 19.347, 356, 392
K.) or Tarsos (C A, Acut. 2.6 [CML 6.1.1, p. 134], reading Tharsus).
Traditionally dated to the 1st c. CE, Kudlien (1962) dates him to the 1st c. BCE on the basis
of his doctrine, likely derived from P A (see Gale ̄n, Morb. Diff. 6.842
K.), whose student he may have been (Gale ̄n, On Cohesive Causes 2 = CMG S. Orient. 2,
pp. 54–57; cf. p. 134), or whose philosophy he simply may have followed (Gale ̄n, Elem. Hipp.
1 [1.469 K.]; -G, I 14.698 K.). The 1st c. CE date would better
explain C’ omission of the Pneumaticists in his overview of contemporary philo-
sophical approaches to medicine (1.pr.), and accord with the date of Athe ̄naios’ first
known follower (i.e., A).
ATHE ̄NAIOS MECHANICUS