Simon of Athens was an

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

writer on horses and horsemanship of the fifth century BC. He is the earliest known

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

writer on the subject;

Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...

described him as , "the first to have written on riding". His writings are quoted by

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, wikt:Ξενοφῶν, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Anci ...

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

Micon Micon the Younger of Athens, simply Micon or Mikon ( el, Μίκων) was an ancient Greek painter and sculptor from the middle of the 5th century BC. He was closely associated with Polygnotus of Thasos, in conjunction with whom he adorned the Stoa ...

, who lived at about that time. Simon is the earliest writer of ancient Greece known to have written on horses and horsemanship, and was described by

as , "the first to have written on riding". According to

, Simon dedicated a

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

statue of a horse, on a plinth decorated with reliefs of his deeds, in the

Eleusinion Eleusinion was a sanctuary in Athens, Greece, dedicated to Demeter and Kore (Persephone). The temple was built in the early 5th-century BC. It was located at the base of the Acropolis. Below it was a spring called ''Enneakrounos'' (Nine Jets). ...

in the

Agora of Athens The ancient Agora of Athens (also called the Classical Agora) is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora, located to the northwest of the Acropolis and bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill kn ...

Works

Simon's writings are quoted by Xenophon, who refers to him both in the '' Hipparchikós'' () and in '' Perì hippikēs'' (, "on horsemanship"). A fragment attributed to him is contained in the Byzantine ''

Hippiatrica The ''Hippiatrica'' (Greek: Ἱππιατρικά) is a Byzantine compilation of ancient Greek texts, mainly excerpts, dedicated to the care and healing of the horse.. The texts were probably compiled in the fifth or sixth century AD by an unknow ...

'', an assemblage of Greek texts on

horse care There are many aspects to horse management. Horses, ponies, mules, donkeys and other domesticated equids require attention from humans for optimal health and long life. Living environment Horses require both shelter from natural elements like ...

and horse medicine dating from the fifth or sixth century AD; it deals with the characteristics of a good horse, and is entitled , or roughly "on the ideal horse". Another fragment is included in the ''Onomasticon'' of

Julius Pollux Julius Pollux ( el, Ἰούλιος Πολυδεύκης, ''Ioulios Polydeukes''; fl. 2nd century) was a Greek scholar and rhetorician from Naucratis, Ancient Egypt.Andrew Dalby, ''Food in the Ancient World: From A to Z'', p.265, Routledge, 2003 E ...

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

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

Charles Victor Daremberg Charles Victor Daremberg (14 March 1817, Dijon – 24 October 1872) was a French librarian, medical historian and classical philologist. He began his medical studies in Dijon, later relocating to Paris, where he served as librarian of the Aca ...

discovered a single chapter in the library of

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

. All the extant fragments of Simon's writings were published by Franz Rühl in 1912. 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. The attribution to him in the ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

'', a compendious Byzantine

lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...

, of a work on horse medicine is probably an error, as the passage attributed to him – on the recognition of veins – is in fact taken from the of

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus Publius (or Flavius) Vegetius Renatus, known as Vegetius (), was a writer of the Later Roman Empire (late 4th century). Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what is contained in his two surviving works: ''Epitoma rei militaris'' (also re ...

. Elsewhere in the ''Suda'' Simon's work is referred to as a , or roughly "wonderful book of horse examination".

Life

Works

References

Further reading