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orion-list a test of the Nicolaus of Damascus proposal
If I understand Russell's proposal correctly, Pliny used,
as his source on Essenes, an author listed for Book 5 who
had copied an earlier text by Nicolaus. Russell also
emphasized that Book 7 (with cannibals; people immune to
snakebite, etc.) is actually more in character with
Nicolaus' book on customs than is Book 5. (Agrippa, of
course, could think of a group perpetuated without sex as
remarkable.}
Russell offered the names of ten authors from Book
5 who
might have been a tradent for Nicolaus. It occurred to me
that such a tradent should, on Russell's view, also appear
in the list of authors for Book 7. But nine of the ten
names he offered as possibilities do not appear in the Book
7 list. (And Pliny used lots of authors, but not Nicolaus.)
The tenth name, Nymphodorus, which does appear in the lists
for both Books 5 and 7, was, according to Oxford Classical
Dictionary (3rd ed., 1996) was a
"Syracusan author of the Hellenistic period." Therefore, he
lived too early to have copied Nicolaus for Pliny.
So a test of the ten names selected by Russell show none of
them qualify as likely candidates to do what he proposed
they might have done.
Some things are not difficult to know: Pliny provides
Agrippa, who was in the right place at the right time.
----------------------
stephen goranson
goranson@duke.edu
For private reply, e-mail to stephen goranson <goranson@duke.edu>
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