Table Of ContentT cambridge greek and latin classics
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The Characters of Theophrastus is a collection of thirty E
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short character-sketches of various types of individuals
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who might be met in the streets of Athens in the late fourth
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century bc. It is a unique work which has had a profound
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influence on European literature. This edition aims to A
make it accessible to students, by offering a radically S
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improved text and a commentary which brings out the
U THEOPHR A ST US
meaning and nuances of the dazzling but sometimes
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difficult Greek, and offers full elucidation of the often
enigmatic references to contemporary social practices and
K historical events. There is also a full introduction, which C C H A R AC T ER S
Y H
M discusses the antecedents and affiliations of the work, its
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date, its purpose, and its literary qualities.
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EDITED BY JAMES DIGGLE
CAMBRIDGE GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS
General Editors
P. E. Easterling
Regius Professor Emeritus of Greek, University of Cambridge
Philip Hardie
Fellow, Trinity College, and Honorary Professor of Latin Emeritus,
University of Cambridge
†Neil Hopkinson
Richard Hunter
Regius Professor of Greek Emeritus, University of Cambridge
S. P. Oakley
Kennedy Professor of Latin, University of Cambridge
Oliver Thomas
Associate Professor in Classics, University of Nottingham
Christopher Whitton
Professor of Latin Literature, University of Cambridge
Founding Editors
P. E. Easterling
†E. J. Kenney
THEOPHRASTUS
C H A R AC T E R S
edited by
james diggle
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education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108831284
doi: 10.1017/9781108937818
© James Diggle 2022
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2022
Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
names: Theophrastus, author. | Diggle, James, editor.
title: Characters / Theophrastus ; edited by James Diggle.
Other titles: Characters. English
description: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. | Series: Cambridge
Greek and Latin classics | Includes bibliographical references and index.
identifiers: lccn 2021053672 (print) | lccn 2021053673 (ebook) | isbn
9781108831284 (hardback) | isbn 9781108932790 (paperback) | isbn
9781108937818 (ebook)
subjects: lcsh: Character sketches. | BISAC: HISTORY / Ancient / General
Classification: lcc PA4449.E5 C5 2021 (print) | lcc PA4449.E5 (ebook) | ddc
888/.0108--dc23/eng/20220114
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053672
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053673
isbn 9781108831284 Hardback
isbn 9781108932790 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
CONTENTS
Preface page vii
Abbreviations and Reference Works viii
Introduction
1 Theophrastus and His Times 1
2 The Nature and Purpose of the Characters 2
(a) Title 2
(b) Antecedents and Relations 3
(c) Later Peripatetics 5
(d) Roman Developments 7
(e) The Purpose of the Characters 7
(f) Authenticity and Integrity 9
(g) Integrity and Style 11
(h) Literary Influence 16
3 Date 16
4 Transmission 19
SIGLA 22
ΘΕΟΦΡΑΣΤΟΥ ΧΑΡΑΚΤΗΡΕΣ ΗΘΙΚΟΙ 23
Commentary 63
Bibliography
1 Selected Texts and Commentaries 225
2 Works Cited 226
Indexes
1 Subjects 239
2 Selected Greek Words and Phrases 249
3 Passages Discussed 250
v
PREFACE
The Characters is a literary work unique in nature and dazzling, though
difficult, in language and style. It is also an important resource for stu-
dents of ancient history and society. In 2004 I published an edition of
this work in the series Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries –
cartis doctis, Iuppiter, et laboriosis, not designed for the faint-hearted. There
is, I believe, a wider audience waiting for something less daunting and
more usable. I am grateful to the editors of Cambridge Greek and Latin
Classics for giving me the opportunity to make the work accessible to that
wider audience. I do not presume to describe this edition as a lepidum
nouum libellum, though half of that description may be justified. Some of
the introductory material remains unchanged; but I have greatly abbrevi-
ated discussion of the work’s date, reduced discussion of the manuscript
tradition to the barest minimum, and omitted discussion of earlier texts
and commentaries. I have made a few changes to the Greek text which I
printed formerly (at ii.2, xiv.5, xv.11, xvi.8; also at xiii.10, where πάντες
οὗτοι was printed by mistake for οὗτοι πάντες), and I have abbreviated the
apparatus criticus. The main changes are in the Commentary. This I have
not only abbreviated radically but also substantially reshaped and rewrit-
ten, introducing more (and briefer) lemmata, more translations, many
basic explanations of matters of fact and language, substituting (where
feasible) less demanding works of reference (such as Smyth for Kühner–
Gerth), and adding references to the Cambridge Greek Lexicon (CGL). I
have severely curtailed textual discussion and the citation of bibliograph-
ical references. And I have taken account of relevant work published in
the past twenty years. My aim throughout has been to enable the student
to understand and enjoy this aureolus libellus (as Casaubon called it), this
golden little book.
I am grateful, for advice and correction, to Richard Hunter and to the
late (and deeply missed) Neil Hopkinson; to Robert Parker, for drawing
my attention to the new inscription mentioned at iii.3; to Bethany Johnson
at Cambridge University Press; and to Mary Morton, vigilant copy-editor.
Queens’ College, Cambridge J.D.
October 2021
vii
ABBREVIATIONS
AND REFERENCE WORKS
Beekes R. Beekes, Etymological dictionary of Greek, Leiden 2010
BNP Brill’s New Pauly (Encyclopaedia of the ancient world:
antiquity), Leiden and Boston 2002–10
CGL The Cambridge Greek lexicon, ed. J. Diggle et al.,
Cambridge 2021
Chantraine P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue
grecque: histoire des mots, Paris 1968–80
CPF Corpus dei papiri filosofici Greci e Latini, Florence
1992–2002
CPG Corpus paroemiographorum Graecorum, eds. E. L. von
Leutsch and F. G. Schneidewin, Göttingen 1839–51
Denniston J. D. Denniston, The Greek particles, 2nd edn, Oxford
1954
DK H. Diels and W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker,
6th edn, Berlin 1951–2
FGE Further Greek epigrams, ed. D. L. Page, Cambridge 1981
FGrHist Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, ed. F. Jacoby,
Berlin/Leiden 1923–58
Goodwin W. W. Goodwin, Syntax of the moods and tenses of the
Greek verb, 2nd edn, London 1889
GP The Greek Anthology: the Garland of Philip, eds. A. S. F.
Gow and D. L. Page, Cambridge 1968
HE The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic epigrams, eds. A. S. F.
Gow and D. L. Page, Cambridge 1965
IG Inscriptiones Graecae, Berlin 1873–
KB R. Kühner and F. Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der
griechischen Sprache, erster Teil: Elementar- und Formenlehre,
Hanover and Leipzig 1890–2
KG R. Kühner and B. Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der
griechischen Sprache, zweiter Teil: Satzlehre, Hanover and
Leipzig 1898–1904
LGPN A lexicon of Greek personal names, ed. P. M. Fraser et al.,
Oxford 1987–
LIMC Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, Zurich and
Munich 1981–2009
LSJ H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek–English
Lexicon, 9th edn, Oxford 1940; Rev. Suppl., ed. P. G.
W. Glare, Oxford 1996
viii
