Diophanes of Nicaea or Diophanes the Bithynian (; grc-gre, Διοφάνης) was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
agricultural writer of the 1st century BC. He was a native of or associated with the city of
Nicaea
Nicaea, also known as Nicea or Nikaia (; ; grc-gre, Νίκαια, ) was an ancient Greek city in Bithynia, where located in northwestern Anatolia and is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and s ...
in
Bithynia (northwestern
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
).
Diophanes abridged into six books the very lengthy farming manual by
Cassius Dionysius, which extended to twenty books. Both works were entitled ''Georgika'' ("Agriculture"). Diophanes dedicated his work to king
Deiotarus
Deiotarus of Galatia (in Galatian and Greek Deiotaros, surnamed Philoromaios ("Friend of the Romans"); 42 BC, 41 BC or 40 BC) was a Chief Tetrarch of the Tolistobogii in western Galatia, Asia Minor, and a King of Galatia ("Gallo-Graecia"). He was ...
of Celtic
Galatia in central Anatolia, southeast of his homeland.
According to
Columella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (; Arabic: , 4 – ) was a prominent writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire.
His ' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the wo ...
an amount equivalent to eight books of Cassius Dionysius' work, two-fifths of the whole, had been translated from a preceding work in
Punic
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...
by
Mago. Diophanes' work in turn must therefore have contained extensive extracts reflecting Punic agricultural practice.
Diophanes' abridgement was more popular in ancient times than Cassius Dionysius' original, but both works are now lost. Diophanes is quoted once by the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
agricultural writer
Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...
, and several times in the
Byzantine Greek compilation ''
Geoponica
The ''Geoponica'' or ''Geoponika'' ( el, Γεωπονικά) is a twenty-book collection of agricultural lore, compiled during the 10th century in Constantinople for the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. The Greek word ''Geoponic ...
''. He was also cited by his fellow-Bithynian Florentinus. This is a partial list of surviving fragments:
*Planting by the phases of the moon.
*How to determine the soil quality of a farm.
*Use of rainwater.
*Predicting the kind and quality of wine that a vineyard will produce.
*Protecting vines from frost and from rust.
*Fencing a vineyard.
*Preparation and use of fermentation vats (''pithoi'').
*Wine new and old, white and red.
*Giving a good aroma to olive oil.
*Growing pistachios.
*Grafting apples.
*Growing pears.
*Suitability of different types of grafting.
*Growing bay from seed.
*Drying
saffron
Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in ...
.
*Killing ''prasokourides'', a pest of
leek crops.
*Dealing with scorpions.
*Honey and how to store it.
*Hunting wolves.
*Adding honey to wine for export.
[''Geoponica'' 7.17.]
See also
* – ancient Greek philosopher, rhetorician, and orator from the 2nd century BC.
Footnotes
{{reflist
1st-century BC writers
Ancient Greek writers
Writers of lost works
Geoponici