Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/388

 380 STRABO. CASAUB. 609. to the principles of the system, and merely occupied them- selves in elaborate discussions on common places. Their suc- cessors however, from the time that these books were pub- lished, philosophized, and propounded the doctrine of Aristotle more successfully than their predecessors, but were under the necessity of advancing a great deal as probable only, on ac- count of the multitude of errors contained in the copies. Even Rome contributed to this increase of errors ; for im- mediately on the death of Apellicon, Sylla, who captured Athens, seized the library of Apellicon. When it was brought to Rome, Tyrannion, 1 the grammarian, who was an admirer of Aristotle, courted the superintendent of the library and obtained the use of it. Some vendors of books, also, employed bad scribes and neglected to compare the copies with the original. This happens in the case of other books which are copied for sale both here and at Alexandreia. This may suffice on this subject. 55. Demetrius the grammarian, whom we have frequently mentioned, was a native of Scepsis. He composed a com- ment on the catalogue of the Trojan forces. He was con- temporary with Crates and Aristarchus. He was succeeded by Metrodorus, 2 who changed from being a philosopher to opinion, namely, that this celebrated distinction of exoteric and esoteric doctrines, which is peculiar to the works of Aristotle, is not founded on any essential difference of doctrine, but rather on a difference of method, so that the word exoteric was applied to works where the opinions of the philosopher were set forth in a manner to be understood by all intelligent readers, whether of his own school or strangers ; and esoteric to those works where his opinions were thoroughly discussed, and in a scientific manner, and which, not being intelligible to every one, required to be ex- plained by the master himself. 1 Tyrannion was a native of Amisus, whose lectures he attended (b. xii. c. iii. 16). He is often quoted among the commentators of Homer. It was he also who gave copies of the works of Aristotle to Andronicus of Rhodes, for whom he made a catalogue of them. 2 Metrodorus was not only a fellow-countryman of Demetrius, who was one of the richest and most distinguished citizens of Scepsis, but also his contemporary and protege. A small treatise of Metrodorus is cited, en- titled TTtpi oXfurrurife which may mean "on anointing with oil," or " on oil used in the public exercises." It seems however very probable that the treatise on the Troad, (TpwVicd,) which Athenaeus attributes to another Metrodorus of Chios, was the work of this Metrodorus of Scep- sis. The place of his birth, which was in the Troad, might have suggested, as it did to his patron, the idea of treating a subject liable to discussion, and to endeavour to throw light upon it by the words of Homer. Add to