Epistles of Phalaris

File:Francisci Aretini in Phalaridis tyranni agrigentini Epistolas.jpg]]

The Epistles of Phalaris or Letters of Phalaris is a collection of 148 ancient Greek letters, all but one attributed to Phalaris, the Greek tyrant of Akragas in the 6th century BC. One is attributed to Abaris and addressed to Phalaris.{{citation |ref={{harvid|Marquis|2014}} |author=Émeline Marquis |title=The Tyrant's Network: Appearances of Characters in the Letters of Phalaris |journal=CHS Research Bulletin |volume=2 |issue=2 |year=2014 |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:MarquisE.The_Tyrants_Network_Appearances_of_Characters.2014}}. The letters are pseudepigrapha or forgeries{{efn|{{harvp|Busuttil|1967}} writes: "probably, these Letters were written to serve as models for students of rhetoric, or as an intellectual pastime: the author showed how cleverly he could take on Phalaris's side. It was never his idea to deceive nor was it his fault if others were taken in completely. . . The author of these letters could have had materials now lost. While a spurious document is of no value for the points it seeks to establish, it may be of value for incidental points. Therefore also these Letters could accidently preserve some scrap of truth."}} composed sometime between the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD. They portray Phalaris as a friend of poets and philosophers rather than a cruel tyrant.{{citation |title=Phalaris, Epistles of |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198606536.001.0001/acref-9780198606536-e-3697 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to the Book |author=Robert L. Pounder |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |access-date=29 March 2025}}.

The unknown author or authors may be known as Pseudo-Phalaris.{{citation |title=Un tyran exemplaire: lecteurs et traducteurs des Lettres de Pseudo-Phalaris au Quattrocento |author=Susanna Gambino Longo |journal=Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance |volume=83 |issue=2 |year=2021 |pages=333–358 |jstor=45390371}}.

Date and authorship

The date and circumstances of composition of the letters are disputed. They may be the work of a single author, but most scholars consider them the product of many, "the collection ... having been formed progressively by the addition of letters from different origins and authors".

It has been argued that the first letters were written in Sicily in the 4th century BC, with the collection being finalized in the Roman Empire. Another theory puts their composition around AD 190, being influenced by the satirical treatises of Lucian purporting to rehabilitate Phalaris's reputation. Another, detecting Byzantine clausulae in the Epistles, dates the collection to the 4th century AD.{{citation |author=Donald A. Russell |title=The Ass in the Lion's Skin: Thoughts on the Letters of Phalaris |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=108 |year=1988 |pages=94–106|doi=10.2307/632633 |jstor=632633 }}.

Transmission history

File:Pseudo-Phalaris Bibliotheca Fictiva nr. 7535810.jpg]]

There are 132 manuscripts of the Epistles, although the number of letters found in any given manuscript varies from one to 139. The order of letters also varies. The earliest manuscript is from the 10th century, the latest from the 18th.{{citation |author=Émeline Marquis |title=The Letters of Phalaris, between Manuscripts and Editio Princeps |journal=Bulletin of the John Rylands Library |year=2023 |issue=1 |volume=99 |pages=57–70|doi=10.7227/BJRL.99.1.6 |url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04376365 }}. The earliest writer to quote the letters, however, is Stobaeus in the late 5th or early 6th century. They are mentioned by Photius in the 9th century and by the Suidas in the 10th. They are quoted extensively by John Tzetzes in the 12th century.{{citation |author=J. Busuttil |year=1967 |title=The Letters of Phalaris to the Maltese |journal=Journal of the Faculty of Arts |volume=3 |issue=3 |ref={{harvid|Busuttil|1967}} |pages=220–233 |url=https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/39415/1/JFA%2C_3%283%29_-_A6.pdf}}.

A copy of the Epistles was brought to Italy in 1427 by Francesco Filelfo. The first to suspect their authenticity was Poliziano, who thought they were a work of Lucian. A first translation into Latin was made before 1449 by {{ill|Francesco Griffolini|la|Franciscus Aretinus}}.{{citation |author=Lauri Tudeer |title=The Epistles of Phalaris: Preliminary Investigation of the Manuscripts |publisher=Suomalainen Tiedeakatemian |year=1931}}, pp. 116–117. This was printed at Rome in 1468 or 1469. The editio princeps (first printed edition) of the Greek text was published in Venice in June 1498. It contained only 139 letters. A full edition appeared from the Aldine Press in April 1499. The letters take up 38 and a half leaves in that edition. Neither the number nor the order in the Aldine edition matches any known manuscript. It is a composite based on many manuscripts. Its editor was Marcus Musurus. The numbering of the letters used by scholars today is based on the order created by Musurus.

In the 17th century, Gilles Ménage again raised doubts about their authenticity. An English translation by Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery, was published in 1695. The work was praised by William Temple. In 1699, Richard Bentley published an influential Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris demonstrating that the epistles were misattributed and had actually been written around the 2nd century AD.{{citation |title=Phalaris, Epistles of |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780192806871.001.0001/acref-9780192806871-e-5918 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to English Literature |edition=7th |editor=Dinah Birch |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |access-date=29 March 2025}}. This caused a controversy over the methods of textual criticism. Boyle wrote a defence of the letters' authenticity in 1698 and Bently responded in 1699. Jonathan Swift's The Battle of the Books derives some of its inspiration from this controversy.

List of epistles

The list is derived from the most recent Greek edition with Latin translation by Rudolf Hercher.{{citation |editor=Rudolf Hercher |editor-link=Rudolf Hercher |orig-year=1873 |year=1965 |title=Epistolographi Graeci |publisher=Adolf M. Hakkert |url=https://archive.org/details/epistolographigr0000unse/ |pages=409–459}}. It is not a critical edition.

At least one of the letters (27) was not originally composed as a letter of Phalaris. It is in fact a letter of Libanius that found its way into the collection. The short letter to Hiero (86) that claims "the elephant pays no attention to the mosquito" was also probably never intended to be read as a letter of Phalaris.

To Lycinus
To the Megaraeans
To Tyrsenus
To Lycinus
To the Leontines
To Zeuxippus
To Euenus{{efn|His son had committed some offence against Akragas's naval captains {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To Sameas
To Cleostratus
To Lacritus{{efn|This was one of Phalaris' friends and generals {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To Megacles
To Aglaus
To Herodicus
To Eumelus
To Teucrus{{efn|This was Phalaris' steward {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To Aristophon
To Amphinomus
To Erythia{{efn|This was Phalaris' wife {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To Paurolas{{efn|This was Phalaris' son {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To Paurolas
To the Messinans
To Androcles
To Pythagoras
To Thorax
To Leon{{efn|This was son-in-law of Phalaris' friend Philodemus {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To Aristophon
To Antimachus
To Aristomenes
To Xenopithes
To the Catanians
To Stesichorus's daughters
To Critodemus
To Ctesippus
To Pollux
To Polygnotus
To Cleomenides
To Gorgias
To Demoteles
To Polystratus
To Paurolas
To Hippolytion
To Hippolytion
To Teucrus
To Nicias
To Adimantus
To the Aegestaeans
To Antisthenes and Theotimus
To Menemachus
To Epistratus
To Onetor
To Eteonicus
To the Megaraeans
To the Leontines
To the Himeraeans
To Timosthenes
To Abaris
Abaris to that tyrant Phalaris
To Polystratus and Daescus
To Nausicles
To Aristolochus
To Epicharmus
To Timosthenes
To Aristolochus
To Amphidamas and Thrasybulus
To Pelopidas
To Teleclides
To Paurolas
To Paurolas
To Erythia
To Polyclitus{{efn|This was Phalaris' physician {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To Polyclitus
To Peristhenes
To Evandrus
To Orsilochus
To Leontides
To Demaratus
To Hegesippus
To Stesichorus
To Stesichorus
To Cleaeneta and Theano{{efn|These are the wife and daughter, respectively, of Phalaris' friend Philodemus {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To the Ennaeans
To Timander
To the Melitaeans
To the Messinans
To Timonax
To Hiero
To Aristaenetus
To the Himeraeans
To Neolaidas
To Mnesicles
To Alcander
To Stesichorus
To the Himeraeans
To Stesichorus
To Autonoë
To Nicophemus
To Lysinus
To Epicharmus
To Cebron
To Euctemon
To Cleobulus
To Cleodicus
To Stesichorus's sons
To the Catanians
To Nicenaetus
To Pollux
To the Engyines
To the Himeraeans
To Stesichorus
To Clisthenes
To Nicippus
To Hieronymus
To Lamachus
To Nicarchus
To Nicaeus
To Cleomedon
To the Melitaeans
To the Camarinaeans
To the Astypalaeans
To Axiochus
To the Himeraeans
To the Athenians
To Lysicles
To Pollux{{efn|{{harvp|Marquis|2014}} assigns this letter to Polyclitus.}}
To Lacritus
To Lacritus
To Epistratus
To Aristophon
To Timolaus
To Phaedimus
To Philodemus{{efn|This was a friend of Phalaris from Syracuse {{harv|Marquis|2014}}.}}
To Agesilaus
To Polymnestor
To Polymnestor
To Teucrus
To Timander
To the Ennaeans
To Lysander
To Arimachus
To Polystratus
To Agemortus
To Teucrus
To Cleaeneta
To Nicocles
To Stesichorus
To Stesichorus
To Stesichorus
To the Ennaeans

Editions

Whately, S., ed. [https://archive.org/details/epistlesphalari00phalgoog The Epistles of Phalaris: Translated into English from the Original Greek]. 2nd ed. London, 1706.
[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A54647.0001.001 Different digitization]

Epistles of Phalaris

Date and authorship

Transmission history

List of epistles

Editions

Notes

References

Further reading