Simon of Athens

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Simon of Athens
Born
Simon
Nationality
Athenian
Known forfragments on horsemanship

Simon of Athens was an

horsemanship of the fifth century BC. He is the earliest known ancient Greek writer on the subject; Pliny described him as primus de equitatu scripsit, "the first to have written on riding". His writings are quoted by Xenophon
.

Life

It is not known when Simon lived. However, it cannot have been much before 460 BC, as he is known to have criticised a work of the Athenian painter

horsemanship, and was described by Pliny as primus de equitatu scripsit, "the first to have written on riding".[1]: 4 [3]

According to Xenophon, Simon dedicated a bronze statue of a horse, on a plinth decorated with reliefs of his deeds, in the Eleusinion in the Agora of Athens.[1]: 4 

Works

Simon's writings are quoted by Xenophon,

horse care and horse medicine dating from the fifth or sixth century AD; it deals with the characteristics of a good horse, and is entitled περί ἰδέας ἱππικῆς, or roughly "on the ideal horse". Another fragment is included in the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux.[1]
: 4 

His works were believed otherwise lost until, in 1853, the French

philologist Charles Victor Daremberg discovered a single chapter in the library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[5]: 352  All the extant fragments of Simon's writings were published by Franz Rühl in 1912.[6]

Simon is mentioned three times in the Hippiatrica: there are two passing mentions of him as an authority like Xenophon, and an account of his criticism of Micon's painting.

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus.[1]: 4  Elsewhere in the Suda Simon's work is referred to as a ίπποσκοπικόν βιβλίον θαυμάσιον, or roughly "wonderful book of horse examination".[1]
: 4 

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780199277551
    .
  2. ^ Charles Anthon (1853). A Manual of Greek Literature from the Earliest Authentic Periods to the Close of Byzantine Era. New York: Harper & Brothers.
  3. ^ Pliny the Elder, Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff (editor) (1906). Naturalis Historia…, liber xxxiv (in Latin). Lipsiae: Teubner.
  4. ^ Morris Hicky Morgan (1893). The Art of Horsemanship ... Translated, with chapters on the Greek riding-horse and with notes. Boston: Little & Co. Cited in: Keith Stewart Thomson (1987). Marginalia: How to Sit on a Horse. American Scientist 75 (1): 69–71. (subscription required)
  5. ISBN 9782738120335
    .
  6. ^ Franz Ruehl (1910, 1912). Xenophontis Scripta Minora. Fasciculus prior, Oeconomicum, Convivium, Hieronem, Agesilaum, Apologiam Socratis continens. Post Ludovicum Dindorf edidit Th. Thalheim; Fasciculus posterior opuscula politica, equestria, venatica continens ... Edidit F. Ruehl. Accedunt Simonis De re equestri quae supersunt (2 volumes, in Latin and Ancient Greek). Leipzig: Teubner.

Further reading

  • Antonio Sestili (2006). L'equitazione nella Grecia antica: i trattati equestri di Senofonte e i frammenti di Simone (in Italian). Scandicci (Firenze): Firenze Atheneum.
    ISBN 9788872552933
    .
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