Thesis (doctoral)--University of Erlangen. / Vita.

Thesis--Berlin.

The work of Athenaios Mechanicus is a little known treatise on siege machinery entitled ∏ερì Μηχαѵηµάτωѵ . Although this work, along with others on the same topic, is contained in several manuscripts, during the last 250 years very little study has been devoted to it. There have been three editions (Thévenot, 1693; Wescher; 1867; and Schneider 1912) and two translations, one in French (De Rochas, 1884) and one in German (Schneider, 1912). Schneider has also written a commentary. Biographical information is very slight and scholars who have tried to date the work have arrived at widely varying conclusions (third century B.C. to third century after Christ). In this thesis my objects have been: a) to provide an English translation of the work based on Wescher’s text, b) to provide a brief résumé of the opinions advanced concerning the biography of Athenaios and his relationship to Vitruvius, c) to write a brief commentary on selected topics arising from the text. / Arts, Faculty of / Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of / Graduate

Diss.--Göttingen. / Vita. Bibliography: p. iii-vii.

The main aim of this thesis is to present a lucid summary and a critical evaluation of the (often ambiguous) ancient testimonies concerning the Greek culinary art from the classical up to the imperial era. The sources are divided in two groups. The first one is made up from prosaic works, i. e. cookbooks themselves, specialised treatises and some medical tractates concerned with dietetics and proprieties of foodstuffs. The second group consists of poems on gastronomic themes. A serious problem is constituted by considerable fragmentariness of the extant sources, which in some cases prevents us from making any definite judgments on the sources' content. Attention is paid also to food as such and the diet composition at the time, the whole theme being set in wider social framework. The thesis also incorporates a translation of and commentary on several selected extant receipts.

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