used to come to him whenever he called it by its name, and suffered him to ride upon its back, and at last was supposed to have pined away with grief on account of his death. (Penny Cyclop, s. v.) In point of style and language, as well as poetical embellishment, the " Halieutica" are so much su- perior to the " Cynegetica," that Schneider (as we have seen) considers this fact to furnish one of the strongest proofs in favour of his hypothesis ; and it is probable that the greater part of the praise that has been bestowed upon Oppian in a poetical point of view should be considered as referring to this poem only. A paraphrase of the "Halieutica" in Greek prose, bearing the name of Eutecnius, is still in existence in several European libraries, but has never been published. (See Lambec. Bibl. Vindob. vol. ii. p. 260, &c. vii. 488, &c. ed. Kollar.) The two poems attributed to Oppian have generally been published together. The only separate edition of the Greek text of the " Halieutica" is the " editio princeps," by Phil. Junta, Florent. 1515, 8vo,, a book that is valuable not only for its rarity, but also for the correctness of the text. A Latin translation in hexameter verse by Laur. Lippius was published in 1478, 4to. Florent. (of which not uncommon volume a particular account is given by Bibdin in his Biblioth. Spencer, vol. ii. p. 183), and several times reprinted. It was translated into English verse by—Diaper and J. Jones, Oxford, 8vo. 1722; into French by J. M. Limes, Paris, 8vo. 1817, and into Italian by A. M. Salvini, Firenze, 8vo. 1728.
II. The author of the "Cynegetica," (
Greek characters),
was a native of Apameia or Pella in Syria, as he
himself plainly tells us in the following passage,
where, speaking of the river Orontes, he says:—
(Greek characters) (ii. 125, &c.)
And again, after speaking of the temple of Memnon in the neighbourhood of Apameia, he proceeds:—
(Greek characters) (ii. 156.)
In order to avoid the conclusion to which these
passages lead respecting the birth-place of their
author, it has been proposed to alter in the former,
(Greek characters) into (Greek characters), and, in the latter, (Greek characters) into
(Greek characters); but these emendations, which are purely
conjectural, have not been received into the text
by any one but the proposer. The author addresses his poem to the emperor Caracalhi, whom
he calls (i. 3)
(Greek characters)
and the tenth and eleventh lines have been brought forward as a presumptive evidence that he wrote it after Caracalla had been associated with his father in the empire, A.D.198, and before the death of the latter, A.D. 211.
The "Cynegetica" consist of about 2100 hexameter lines, divided into four books. The last of
these is imperfect, and perhaps a fifth book may
also have been lost, as the anonymous author of
the Life of Oppian says the poem consisted of that
number of books, though Suidaa mentions only
four. There is probably an allusion in this poem
to the "Halieutica" (i. 77—80), which has been
thought to imply that both poems were written by
the same person; but this is not the necessary explanation of the passage in question, which may
merely mean (as Schneider suggests) that the
writer of the "Cynegetica" was acquainted with
the other poem, and meant his own to be a sort of
continuation of it. It has also been supposed that
in two other passages (i. 27,31) the author alludes
to some of his own earlier poems. There are certainly several points of similitude between this
poem and the "Halieutica"; for here, too, the
author's knowledge of natural history appears to
have been quite equal to that of his contemporaries
(though not without numerous fables), while the
accuracy of some of his descriptions has been often
noticed. The following zoological points are
perhaps the most interesting. He says expressly
that the tusks of the elephant are not teeth, but
horns (ii. 491, &c.), and mentions a report that
these animals are able to speak'(ii, 540); he states
that there is no such thing as a female rhinoceros,
but that all these animals are of the male sex (ii.
560); that the lioness when pregnant for the first
time brings forth five whelps at a birth, the second
time four, the next three, then two, and lastly only
one (iii. 58); that the bear brings forth her cubs
half-formed and licks them into shape (iii. 159);
that so great is the enmity between the wolf and
the lamb, that even after death if two drums be
made of their hides, the wolf's hide will put to
silence the lamb's (iii. 282); that the hyaenas annually change their sex (iii. 288); that the boar's
teeth contain fire inside them (iii. 379); that the
ichneumon leaps down the throat of the crocodile,
while lying asleep with its mouth wide open, and
devours its viscera (iii. 407). He thinks it necessary to state expressly that it is not true that there
are no male tigers (iii. 357). He gives a very
spirited description of the giraflfe (iii. 461), "the
exactness of which," says Mr. Holme (Trans, of the Ashmolean Society, vol. ii.), "is in some points
remarkable; particularly in the observation that
the so-called horns do not consist of horny substance (Greek characters)), and in the allusion to the
pencils of hair ((Greek characters)) with which they
are tipped." He adds, "That the animal must have
been seen alive by Oppian is evident from his re-
mark on the brilliancy of the eyes and the halting
motion of the hinder limbs" (Penny Cyclop.). In
style, language, and poetical merit, the "Cynegetica" are far inferior to the "Halieutica." Schneider,
indeed, calls the poem " durum, inconcinnum, forma
tota incompositum, et saepissime ab ingenio, usu,
et analogia Graeci sermonis abhorrens" (Pref. to
second ed. p. xiv.), and thinks that when Dan.
Heinsius spoke of the Latinisms that deformed
Oppian 's style (Dissert, de Nonni "Dionys." ap.
P. Cunaei Animadvers. p. 196), he was alluding
especially to the " Cynegetica." The earliest edition
of the Greek text of this poem, apart from the
"Halieutica," appeared in 1549, 4to. Paris, ap.
Vascosanum. It was also published by Belin de
Ballu, Argentor. 1786, large 8vo, Gr. et Lat.,with
learned notes, too often deformed by personal controversy with Schneider. The editor intended to
publish the "Halieutica" in a second volume, but
of this only forty pages were printed, which are
rarely to be met with. It was translated into
Latin verse by Joannes Bodinus, Paris, 1555, 4to.;
