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Acusilaus: Testimonia

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These are ancient testimonies about Acusilaus of Argos, one of the earliest Greek prose writers, rather than fragments of his own work. The Suda calls him the oldest historian, the son of Cabas, and reports that he wrote Genealogies from bronze tablets his father was said to have dug up at their house. Further testimonies come from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Josephus, Clement of Alexandria, Cicero, Diogenes Laertius and the rhetorician Menander.

Together they show how later antiquity saw Acusilaus: as one of the historians who wrote before the Peloponnesian War, as a writer who put Hesiod into prose, as a source followed by Plato, and, for some, as one of the Seven Sages. They also record that his work was still the subject of commentary in the time of the emperor Hadrian.

About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: FGrHist 2 T 1–12). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).

Ancient Greek · History
Testimonia
Acusilaus · every word parsed
T 1
SUID. s. Ἀκουσίλαος· Κάβα υἱός· Ἀργεῖος ἀπὸ Κερκάδος πόλεως οὔσης Αὐλίδος πλησίον. ἱστορικὸς πρεσβύτατος. ἔγραψε δὲ Γενεαλογίας ἐκ δέλτων χαλκῶν, ἃς λόγος εὑρεῖν τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ ὀρύξαντά τινα τόπον τῆς οἰκίας αὐτοῦ.
T 2
DIONYS. HAL. De Thuc. 5: ἀρχαῖοι μὲν οὖν συγγραφεῖς … πρὸ τοῦ Πελοποννησιακοῦ πολέμου· … ὅ τε Ἀργεῖος Ἀκουσίλαος·
T 3
JOSEPH. c. Apion. I 13 (EUSEB. PE X 7 p. 478 AB): οἱ μέντοι τὰς ἱστορίας ἐπιχειρήσαντες συγγράφειν παρʼ αὐτοῖς, λέγω δὲ τοὺς περὶ Κάδμον τε τὸν Μιλήσιον (III) καὶ τὸν Ἀργεῖον Ἀκουσίλαον καὶ μετὰ τοῦτον εἴ τινες ἄλλοι λέγονται γενέσθαι, βραχὺ τῆς Περσῶν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα στρατείας τῶι χρόνωι προύλαβον.
T 4
MENAND. Π. ἐπιδεικτ. 6. III 338, 4 Sp: οἱ μέν γε νομίζοντες οὐδὲν διαφέρειν καὶ τὰς γενεαλογίας μύθους εἶναί φασιν, οἷον εἰ βούλει, ὅσα γε Ἀκουσίλεως καὶ Ἡσίοδος καὶ Ὀρφεὺς ἐν ταῖς Θεογονίαις εἰρήκασιν. εἰσὶ μὲν γὰρ γενεαλογικαὶ αὗται, οὐδὲν δὲ ἧττον μυθικαί.
T 5
CLEM. ALEX. Strom. VI 2, 26, 7 p. 443, 2 Stäh: τὰ δὲ Ἡσιόδου μετήλλαξαν εἰς πεζὸν λόγον καὶ ὡς ἴδια ἐξήνεγκαν Εὔμηλός (III) τε καὶ Ἀκουσίλαος οἱ ἱστοριογράφοι.
T 6
JOSEPH. c. Apion. I 16 (EUSEB. PE X 7 p. 478 D): περίεργος δʼ ἂν εἴην ἐγὼ τοὺς ἐμοῦ μᾶλλον ἐπισταμένους διδάσκων ὅσα μὲν Ἑλλάνικος (4 T 18) Ἀκουσιλάωι περὶ τῶν γενεαλογιῶν διαπεφώνηκεν, ὅσα δὲ διορθοῦται τὸν Ἡσίοδον Ἀκουσίλαος.
T 7
SUID. s. Ἑκαταῖος Μιλήσιος (1 T 1)· … πρῶτος δὲ ἱστορίαν πεζῶς ἐξήνεγκε, συγγραφὴν δὲ Φερεκύδης (I 3). τὰ γὰρ Ἀκουσιλάου νοθεύεται.
T 8
CICERO De or. II 53: hanc similitudinem scribendi multi secuti sunt, qui sine ullis ornamentis monumenta solum temporum hominum locorum gestarumque rerum reliquerunt; itaque qualis apud Graecos Pherecydes (3 T 8) Hellanicus (4 T 14) Acusilas fuit aliique permulti, talis noster Cato et Pictor et Piso …
T 9
DIONYS. HAL. De Thuc. 5.
T 10
CLEM. ALEX. Strom. I 21, 103, 1 p. 66, 10 Stäh.: ὁ Πλάτων ἐν Τιμαίωι κατακολουθήσας Ἀκουσιλάωι …
T 11a
DIOG. LAERT. I 41: Δικαίαρχος (IV) δὲ τέσσαρας ὡμολογημένους (sc. σοφούς) ἡμῖν παραδίδωσιν· Θαλῆν Βίαντα Πιττακόν Σόλωνα. ἄλλους δὲ ὀνομάζει ἕξ, ὧν ἐκλέξασθαι τρεῖς· Ἀριστόδημον Πάμφυλον Χίλωνα Λακεδαιμόνιον Κλεόβουλον Ἀνάχαρσιν Περίανδρον. ἔνιοι προστιθέασιν Ἀκουσίλαον Κάβα ἢ Σκάβρα Ἀργεῖον. (42) Ἕρμιππος δʼ ἐν τῶι Περὶ τῶν σοφῶν (IV) ἑπτακαίδεκά φησιν … Σόλωνα Θαλῆν Πιττακόν Βίαντα Χίλωνα 〈Μύσωνα〉 Κλεόβουλον Περίανδρον Ἀνάχαρσιν Ἀκουσίλαον Ἐπιμενίδην Λεώφαντον Φερεκύδην Ἀριστόδημον Πυθαγόραν Λᾶσον … Ἀναξαγόραν.
T 11b
CLEM. ALEX. Strom. I 14, 59, 5 p. 38, 7 Stäh (THEODORET. Graec. aff. curr. 5, 63): οἱ δὲ Ἀκουσίλαον τὸν Ἀργεῖον ἐγκατέλεξαν τοῖς ἑπτὰ σοφοῖς· ἄλλοι δὲ Φερεκύδην τὸν Σύριον.
T 12
SUID. s. Σαβῖνος· σοφιστής· γεγονὼς ἐπὶ Ἀδριανοῦ Καίσαρος. ἔγραψεν … εἰς Θουκυδίδην καὶ Ἀκουσίλαον καὶ ἄλλους ὑπομνήματα.
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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Liddell, Scott & Jones (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: odyCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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