Lucian, Alexander, Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator), 9

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[9] The next things to be settled were, first the theatre of operations, and secondly the plan of campaign. Cocconas favoured Chalcedon, as a mercantile centre convenient both for Thrace and Bithynia, and accessible enough for the province of Asia, Galatia, and tribes still further east. Alexander, on the other hand, preferred his native place, urging very truly that an enterprise like theirs required congenial soil to give it a start, in the shape of ‘fat-heads’ and simpletons; that was a fair description, he said, of the Paphlagonians beyond Abonutichus; they were mostly superstitious and well-to-do; one had only to go there with some one to play the flute, the tambourine, or the cymbals, set the proverbial mantic sieve¹ a-spinning, and there they would all be gaping as if he were a God from heaven.

Alexander. Lucian. Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023-08-01.

Current edition Perseus

Alexander the Oracle-monger (English) (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 2. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Editions (1)

Ἀλέξανδρος ἢ Ψευδόμαντις Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).) — 9 focus

[9] τοὐντεῦθεν τὴν σκέψιν ἐποιοῦντο, πρῶτον μὲν περὶ τοῦ χωρίου, δεύτερον δὲ ἥτις ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ ὁ τρόπος ἂν γένοιτο τῆς ἐπιχειρήσεως. ὁ μὲν οὖν Κοκκωνᾶς τὴν Καλχηδόνα ἐδοκίμαζεν ἐπιτήδειον εἶναι καὶ εὔκαιρον χωρίον,¹ τῇ τε Θρᾴκῃ καὶ τῇ Βιθυνίᾳ πρόσοικον, οὐχ ἑκὰς οὐδὲ τῆς Ἀσίας καὶ Γαλατίας καὶ τῶν ὑπερκειμένων ἐθνῶν ἁπάντων· ὁ δὲ Ἀλέξανδρος ἔμπαλιν τὰ οἴκοι προὔκρινεν, λέγων ὅπερ ἀληθὲς ἦν, πρὸς τὴν τῶν τοιούτων ἀρχὴν καὶ ἐπιχείρησιν ἀνθρώπων δεῖν παχέων καὶ ἠλιθίων τῶν ὑποδεξομένων, οἵους τοὺς Παφλαγόνας εἶναι ἔφασκεν ὑπεροικοῦντας τὸ τοῦ Ἀβώνου τεῖχος, δεισιδαίμονας τοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ πλουσίους, καὶ μόνον εἰ φανείη τις αὐλητὴν ἢ τυμπανιστὴν ἢ κυμβάλοις κροτοῦντα ἐπαγόμενος, κοσκίνῳ τὸ τοῦ λόγου μαντευόμενος, αὐτίκα μάλα πάντας κεχηνότας πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ ὥσπερ τινὰ τῶν ἐπουρανίων προσβλέποντας.

Translations (1)

Alexander the False Prophet Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).) — 9 focus

[9] Then they began planning, first about the place, and next, what should be the commencement and the character of the venture. Cocconas thought Chalcedon a suitable and convenient place, close to Thrace and Bithynia, and not far, too, from Asia¹ and Galatia and all the peoples of the interior. Alexander, on the other hand, preferred his own home, saying—and it was true—that to commence such a venture they needed “fat-heads”’ and simpletons to be their victims, and such, he said, were the Paphlagonians who lived up above Abonoteichus, who were for the most part superstitious and rich; whenever a man but turned up with someone at his heels to play the flute or the tambourine or the cymbals, telling fortunes with a sieve, as the phrase goes,² they were all agog over him on the instant and stared at him as if he were a god from heaven.

Notes on the current edition

Alexander

1. I have no information on Coscinomancy or sieve-divination. ‘This kind of divination was generally practised to discover thieves. . . They tied a thread to the sieve, by which it was upheld, then prayed to the Gods to direct and assist them. After which they repeated the names of the person suspected, and he at whose name the sieve whirled round or moved was thought to have committed the fact.’ Francklin’s Lucian.

Lucian Alexander 9

Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator)

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