Ophella ̄s of Kure ̄ne ̄ (320 – 310 BCE)
Ruler of Kure ̄ne ̄ 322 – 308 BCE (D S 18.21, 20.40–42), composed a peri-
plous of the exterior, Oceanic, coast of Libya, considered unreliable by S 17.3.3,
but perhaps used by M 1.2 (see A).
RE 18.1 (1939) 630 (#1), E. Honigmann; OCD3 1068, S. Hornblower.
PTK
Ophio ̄n (280 – 250 BCE?)
Listed after D K and before H – sc. T? – as a
foreign authority on pharmacology (P 1.ind.20–21) and linked with E
(22.80). He believed that parsnip was both a diuretic and an aphrodisiac (20.34). Diller
suggests that Ophio ̄n used Diokle ̄s and lived perhaps before Erasistratos.
RE 18.1 (1939) 646 (#3), H. Diller.
GLIM
Oppianus of Anazarbos in Kilikia (176 – 180 CE)
Wrote the didactic poem On Fishing (Halieutikà), dedicated to two Antonini, probably M.
Aurelius and Commodus (176– 180 CE: Hal. 1.3, 66, 78; 2.41, 683; 4.4–5), distinct from
O A author of On Hunting. Athe ̄naios, Deipn. 1 (13b), alludes to
Oppianus as his older contemporary. We have Lives preserved in Byzantine MSS, but they
are not reliable: for example, the Vita A tells that Oppianus – already 30 – accompanied his
father, whom Septimius Seuerus (193– 211 CE) banished, to an island in the Adriatic sea,
where he composed Halieutikà; he later went to Rome, obtaining from Caracalla (211– 217
CE) his father’s restoration and some money.
The poem (3,506 hexameters) divides into five books: 1. Habitat and habit of various
fishes (the author shows remarkable ichthyologic knowledge); 2. The struggle for survival
among sea creatures; 3. The fisherman and fishing seasons; various methods whereby fishes
deceive fishermen; 4. Fish reproduction and ways to capture them; 5. Sea-monsters (dol-
phins, whales, Cetaceans). Oppianus appears to believe in the Stoic doctrine of Divine
Principle (1.409–411), but also in the constant fight between Hate and Love (2.11–39); his
style reflects the influence of popular Stoic philosophical discourse, e.g. in the use of
developed similes. He finds parallels between the struggle for life in the sea and among
human beings; he exalts the Caesars as divine peacemakers. Oppianus’ Halieutikà, perhaps
the best poem from the first two centuries of the Imperial Age, is highly refined metrically
and stylistically, especially in his use of similes and rhetorical devices. The sources can be
traced back to A and T and to Hellenistic scholars, including
L B and A M.
Ed.: A.W. Mair, Oppian, Colluthus, and Tryphiodorus (Loeb 1928), F. Fajen, Oppianus, Halieutica. Einführung,
Text, Übersetzung in deutscher Sprache, ausführliche Kataloge der Meeresfauna (1999).
Conc.: F. Martín García and Á. Ruiz Pérez, Oppiani Cilicis Halieuticorum concordantiae (1999).
RE 18.1 (1939) 698–703 (#1), R. Keydell; N. Hopkinson, Greek Poetry of the Imperial Period. An Anthology
(1994) 185–186; E. Rebuffat, “Poiêtês epeôn.” Tecniche di composizione poetica negli Halieutica di Oppiano
(2001); S. Martínez, “Opiano en la poesía bizantina. Lección y leyenda,” Prometheus 29 (2003)
259 – 268; T. Silva Sánchez, “Opiano, ¿un poeta o dos?” AC 72 (2003) 219–230; A.N. Bartley, Stories
OPPIANUS OF ANAZARBOS IN KILIKIA