Athenaeus of Naucratis

Athenaeus Mechanicus' - the surname differentiates him from better-known homonyms - wrote a treatise on Greek siege-machinery. Uniquely in the genre, it combined general cultural erudition, historical survey, and new proposals. Athenaeus is argued to be a Silician ex-statesman living in Rome in the 20s B.C. and striving, like his contemporary Vitruvius, for imperial patronage there. As regards the treatise itself, it is here evaluated from the perspectives not only of ancient history and philology but also engineering. This highlights the skill of an early-Hellenistic practitioner like Diades, who served Alexander the Great; but it also reveals how, in a later age, workable ideas could no longer be distinguished from wishful thinking - the latter a category to which Athenaeus himself proudly made his own contributions.

"This new critical edition of Athenaeus' Deipnosophists (The Learned Banqueters) replaces that of Kaibel. A separate, parallel edition of the Epitome is included, as is extensive documentation of cognate or derivative material in authors such as Aelian and Eustathius. The text is based on far more extensive manuscript work than Kaibel's edition was, and treats the Epitome manuscripts as substantial and important witnesses to the text. Athenaeus describes a series of dinner parties at which the guests quote extensively from Greek literature. The work (which dates to the very end of the second century CE) is amusing reading and of extraordinary value as a treasury of quotations from works now lost. Athenaeus also preserves a wide range of information about different cuisines and foodstuffs, the music and entertainments that ornamented banquets, and the intellectual talk that was the heart of Greek conviviality."--

In The Learned Banqueters (late-2nd century CE), Athenaeus describes a series of dinner parties at which the guests quote extensively from Greek literature. The work provides quotations from works now lost, and preserves information about wide range of information about Greek culture.

In Deipnosophistae Athenaeus of Naucratis describes a series of banquets held in Rome by Publius Livius Larensis during which the guests quote extensively from various Greek literary works some of which have been lost. The topics include food and foodstuffs, wine, luxury, music, etc. The work also provides an important source of ancient Greek recipes.