Athenaeus

Athenaeus, a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, born at Naucratis in Egypt about the beginning of the third century A.D. Only one work of his has come down to us, and that unfortunately in an incomplete state. It is called Deipnosophistae, and is a rambling account of a dinner party of learned and witty people, who discuss a hundred topics, and interlard their talk with references to and quotations from many authors known to us otherwise only by name. Casaubon devoted his erudition to editing this book.