Lucian of Samosata, Adversus indoctum et libros multos ementem, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 20

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[20] The only remaining reason is that you have been convinced by your toadies that you are not only handsome and charming but a scholar and an orator and a writer without peer, and you buy the books to prove their praises true. They say that you hold forth to them at dinner, and that they, like stranded frogs, make a clamour because they are thirsty, or else they get nothing to drink if they do not burst themselves shouting.

To be sure, you are somehow very easy to lead by the nose, and believe them in everything; for once you were even persuaded that you resembled a certain royal person in looks, like the false Alexander, the false Philip (the fuller), the false Nero in our grandfathers’ time, and whoever else has been put down under the title “false.”¹

Adversus indoctum et libros multos ementem. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

The Ignorant Book Collector (English) (Lucian, Vol. 3. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.)

Editions (1)

Πρὸς τὸν ἀπαίδευτον καὶ πολλὰ βιβλία ὠνούμενον Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 3. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.) — 20 focus

[20] λοιπὸν οὖν δὴ ἐκεῖνο, πεπεισμένον ὑπὸ τῶν κολάκων ὡς οὐ μόνον καλὸς εἶ καὶ ἐράσμιος ἀλλὰ σοφὸς καὶ ῥήτωρ καὶ συγγραφεὺς οἷος οὐδʼ ἕτερος, ὠνεῖσθαι τὰ βιβλία, ὡς ἀληθεύοις τοὺς ἐπαίνους αὐτῶν. φασὶ δὲ σὲ καὶ λόγους ἐπιδείκνυσθαι αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ δείπνῳ κἀκείνους χερσαίων βατράχων δίκην διψῶντας κεκραγέναι, ἢ μὴ πίνειν, ἢν μὴ διαρραγῶσι βοῶντες.

καὶ γὰρ οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅπως ῥᾷστος εἶ τῆς ῥινὸς ἕλκεσθαι, καὶ πιστεύεις αὐτοῖς ἅπαντα, ὅς ποτε κἀκεῖνο ἐπείσθης, ὡς βασιλεῖ τινι ὡμοιώθης τὴν ὄψιν, καθάπερ ὁ ψευδαλέξανδρος καὶ ὁ¹ ψευδοφίλιππος ἐκεῖνος κναφεὺς καὶ ὁ κατὰ τοὺς προπάτορας ἡμῶν ψευδονέρων καὶ εἴ τις ἄλλος τῶν ὑπὸ τῷ ψευδο² τεταγμένων.

Translations (1)

Remarks Addressed To an Illiterate Book-fancier Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 20 focus

[20] Only one possible explanation remains: your toadies have made you believe that in addition to your charms of person you have an extraordinary gift for rhetoric, history, and philosophy; and you buy books merely to countenance their flatteries. It seems that you actually hold forth to them at table; and they, poor thirsty frogs, must croak dry-throated applause till they burst, or there is no drink for them. You are a most curiously gullible person: you take in every word they say to you. You were made to believe at one time that your features resembled those of a certain Emperor. We had had a pseudo-Alexander, and a pseudo-Philip, the fuller, and there was a pseudo-Nero as recently as our own grandfathers’ times: you were for adding ene more to the noble army of pseudos.

Notes on the current edition

The Ignorant Book Collector

Balas, in the second century B.c., claimed to be the brother of Antiochus V. Eupator on account of a strong resemblance in looks, and took the name of Alexander. At about the same time, after the defeat of Perses, Andriscus of Adramyttium, a fuller, claimed the name of Philip. The false Nero cropped up some twenty years after Nero’s death, and probably in the East, as he had strong support from the Parthians, who refused to surrender him to Rome.

Lucian of Samosata Adversus indoctum et libros multos ementem 20

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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