Life of Oppian

The life of Oppian by Constantine Manasses, in metrical political verses.

Oppian the poet was a Cilician by birth, from the most illustrious city called Anazarbus, born of thrice-blessed and distinguished parents, his father Agesilaus and his mother Zenodote, his father being full of wisdom and the greater education, and especially also the higher. And so he flourished in the times of the emperor Severus, Severus who fathered Marcus Antoninus. When this one visited the lands of the Cilicians—for it was the prevailing custom then for monarchs to frequently travel through all the lands under them, so that they might be set right by them, if anything should go amiss—and when the whole race of Cilicians had flocked together for his escort, and all were going to meet him, the great Agesilaus was left behind and alone; for he was occupied with books night and day, hunting the finest of all learning, and training his son for the same hunts. Therefore the ruler grew angry, he summons the lover of wisdom—for he considered it an insult that this man too had not become one of his escort—and he places him in exile on the island of Melite, which the wide-gaping sea of Adria surrounds. There, being with him, Oppian, at thirty years of age, wrote the fishing in the sea, after it that of the wild beasts, then that of the birds with many others, in thin and short-sectioned books, over which all-conquering time triumphed, having completely spared only these two, the one on hunting and the one on the sea. And when he set sail to Rome, to the elder Rome, he met with the emperor of the Romans, Antoninus—for Severus had departed the earth, having left his life—and he handed him the books he had labored on, he received such affection from the emperor, that he was commanded to reveal the desire in his heart; and he seeks the return of his father from the island, he successfully obtains his wish, he receives his father, and gold is counted out to him by the emperor, who set the price of one line at one stater. And let these things for me stop here on their forward course; for I omit many things, fleeing the length of the account: that he died with his father after returning to Anazarbus, when a pestilential disease and plague ravaged the city; that upon his death the people set up a costly statue, having inscribed a praise in elegiacs; that he happens to use maxims very fittingly, and shows matters in a new light by comparison; and lastly, that there is much smoothness in his words, which he possesses like a flower productive of clarity, and that he knows the density of his enthymemes, a thing difficult for orators and altogether laborious.

Vita Oppiani

Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ Μανασσῆ γένος ̓Οππιανοῦ διὰ στίχων πολιτικῶν ἐμμέτρων.

̓Οππιανὸς ὁ ποιητὴς Κίλιξ μὲν ην τὸ γένος ἐκ λαμτροτάτης πόλεως Ναζάρβου καλουμένης, τρισευδαιμόνων γεγονὼς περιφανῶν γονέων, ̓Αγησιλάου μὲν πατρὸς μητρὸς δὲ Ζηνοδότης, σοφίας οντος τοῦ πατρὸς εμπλεω καὶ παιδείας τῆς μείζονος καὶ μάλιστα καὶ τῆς ὑψηλοτέρας. ηκμαζε δ' ουν ἐν τοῖς καιροῖς τοῦ κράτορος Σεβήρου, Σεβήρου τοῦ γεννήσαντος τὸν Μάρκον ̓Αντωνῖνον. ουπερ ἐπιδημήσαντος τοῖς τῶν Κιλίκων οροις εθος γὰρ ην ἐπικρατοῦν τότε τοὺς μοναρχοῦντας, ἁπάσας περιέρχεσθαι τὰς ὑπ' αὐτοὺς συχνάκις, ιν' ἀνορθοῖντο παρ' αὐτῶν, αν ὑποσκάζωσί τι, καὶ συρρυέντος εἰς ταὐτὸ γένους παντὸς Κιλίκων πρὸς τὴν ἐκείνου προπομπήν, καὶ πάντων ὑπαντώντων, ὁ μέγας ̓Αγησίλαος ἐλέλειπτο καὶ μόνος· βίβλοις καὶ γὰρ ἐσχόλαζε νύκτωρ καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν θηρώμενος τὰ κάλλιστα πάντων τῶν μαθημάτων, καὶ σκυλακεύων τὸν υἱὸν ἐς τὰς ὁμοίας θήρας. θυμοῦται τοίνυν ὁ κρατῶν, μετάπεμπτον ποιεῖται τὸν τῆς σοφίας ἐραστήνυβριν καὶ γὰρ ἡγεῖτο τὸ μὴ καὶ τοῦτον προπομπὸν ἐκείνου καθεστάναι, καὶ τίθησιν ἐξόριστον εἰς τὴν Μελίτην νῆσον, ην ἀμφικλύζει πέλαγος εὐρυχανδὲς ̓Αδρίου. ενθα συνὼν ̓Οππιανὸς αὐτῷ τριακοντούτης τὴν τῶν ἰχθύων εγραψεν αγραν τὴν ἐναλίαν, τὴν τῶν θηρίων μετ' αὐτήν, ειτα τὴν τῶν ὀρνέων σὺν αλλοις πλείοσι, λεπταῖς καὶ βραχυτμήτοις βίβλοις, ωνπερ κατεκαυχήσατο χρόνος ὁ πανδαμάτωρ, τούτων τῶν δύο τέλεον φεισάμενος καὶ μόνων τῶν εἰς τὰ κυνηγέσια καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἐναλίαν. ἐπεὶ δ' εἰς ̔Ρώμην ἀναχθείς, τὴν πρεσβυτέραν ̔Ρώμην, τῷ βασιλεῖ συνήντετο ̔Ρωμαίων ̓Αντωνίνῳ ὁ γὰρ Σεβῆρος ῳχετο γῆθεν λιπὼν τὸν βίον, καὶ βίβλους ἐνεχείρισεν αὐτῷ τὰς πονηθείσας, τοσαύτην τὴν ἀγάπησιν εσχε πρὸς βασιλέως, ὡς κελευσθῆναι ζήτησιν τὴν πρὸς θυμῶν ἐκφῆναι, ὁ δὲ ζητεῖ τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς καταγωγὴν ἐκ νήσου, κατευστοχεῖ τοῦ θελητοῦ, λαμβάνει τὸν γενέτην, ἀπαριθμεῖται καὶ χρυσὸς αὐτῷ πρὸς βασιλέως, ἑνὸς στατῆρος ωνιον ενα τιθέντος στίχον. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐνταῦθά μοι στήτω τοῦ πρόσω δρόμου· τὰ γὰρ πολλὰ παρίημι μῆκος ἐκφεύγων λόγου, οτι τεθναίη σὺν πατρὶ στραφεὶς ἐν τῇ Ναζάρβῳ, λοιμώδους νόσου καὶ φθορᾶς τὴν πόλιν βοσκηθείσης, οτι θανόντος αγαλμα πολυτελὲς ὁ δῆμος εστησαν ἐπιγράψαντες επαινον ἐλεγείοις, οτι τυγχάνει προσφυῶς πᾶνυ τοι γνωματεύων, τὰ πράγματα δ' ὑπόψια δείκνυσι παραβάλλων, καὶ τελευταῖον ὡς πολὺ τὸ λεῖον ἐν τοῖς λόγοις, ο τοῦ σαφοῦς σκευαστικὸν οιά περ ανθος εχει, ἠδ' οιδε τὴν πυκνότητα τὴν τῶν ἐνθυμημάτων, ο δυσχερὲς τοῖς ῥήτορσι καὶ παντελῶς ἐργῶδες.