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Crates (Krates), of Mallus in Cilicia, the son of Timocrates, is said by Suidas
to have been a Stoic philosopher, but is far better known as one of the most distinguished
of the ancient Greek grammarians. He lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor,
and was contemporary with Aristarchus, in rivalry with whom he supported the fame
of the Pergamene school of grammar against the Alexandrian, and the system of
anomaly (anomalia) against that of analogy (analogia). He is said by Varro to
have derived his grammatical system from a certain Chrysippus, who left six books
peri tes anomalias. He was born at Mallus in Cilicia, and was brought up at Tarsus,
whence he removed to Pergamus, and there lived under the patronage of Eumenes
II. and Attalus II. He was the founder of the Pergamene school of grammar, and
seems to have been at one time the chief librarian. About the year 157 B. C.,
shortly after the death of Ennius, Crates was sent by Attalus as an ambassador
to Rome, where he introduced for the first time the study of grammar. The results
of his visit lasted a long time, as may be observed especially in the writings
of Varro. An accident, by which he broke a leg, gave him the leisure, which his
official duties might otherwise have interrupted, for holding frequent grammatical
lectures (akroaseis). We know nothing further of the life of Crates.
In the grammatical system of Crates a strong distinction was made
between criticism and grammar, the latter of which sciences he regarded as quite
subordinate to the former. The office of the critic, according to Crates, was
to investigate everything which could throw light upon literature, either from
within or from without; that of the grammarian was only to apply the rules of
language to clear up the meaning of particular passages, and to settle the text,
the prosody, the accentuation, and so forth, of the ancient writers. From this
part of his system, Crates derived the surname of Koitikos. This title is derived
by some from the fact that, like Aristarchus, Crates gave the greatest attention
to the Homeric poems, from his labours upon which he was also surnamed Homerikos.
His chief work is entitled Diorthosis Iliados kai Odusseias, in nine books, by
which we are probably to understand, not a recension of the Homeric poems, dividing
them into nine books, but that the commentary of Crates itself was divided into
nine books.
The few fragments of this commentary, which are preserved by the Scholiasts
and other ancient writers, have led Wolf to express a very unfavourable opinion
of Crates. As to his emendations, it must be admitted that he was far inferior
to Aristarchus in judgment, but it is equally certain that he was most ingenious
in conjectural emendations. Several of his readings are to this day preferred
by the best scholars to those of Aristarchus. As for his excursions into all the
scientific and historical questions for which Homer furnishes an occasion, it
was the direct consequence of his opinion of the critic's office, that he should
undertake them, nor do the results of his inquiries quite deserve the contempt
with which Wolf treats them. Among the ancients themselves he enjoyed a reputation
little, if at all, inferior to that of Aristarchus. The school which he founded
at Pergamus flourished a considerable time, and was the subject of a work by Ptolemy
of Ascalon, entitled peri tes Krateteiou haireseos. To this school Wolf refers
the catalogues of ancient writers which are mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus
(en tois Pergamenois pinaxi, ii.), who also mentions the school by the name of
tous ek Pergamou grammatikous. They are also called Krateteioi. Among the catalogues
mentioned by Dionysius there can be no doubt that we ought to include the lists
of titles (anagraphai) of dramas, which Athenaeus (viii. p. 336, c.) states to
have been composed by the Pergamenes.
Besides his work on Homer, Crates wrote commentaries on the Theogony
of Hesiod, on Euripides, on Aristophanes, and probably on other ancient authors,
a work on the Attic dialect (peri Attikes dialektou), and works on geography,
natural history, and agriculture, of all which only a few fragments exist. Some
scholars, however, think, that the Crates of Pergamus, whose work on the wonders
of various countries is quoted by Pliny (H. N. vii. 2) and Aelian (H. A. xvii.
9), was a different person. The fragments of his works are collected by C. F.
Wegener (De Aula Attalica Litt. Artiumque Fautrice, Havn. 1836). There is also
one epigram by him in the Greek Anthology upon Choerilus. This epigram is assigned
to Crates on the authority of its title, Kratetos grammatikou. But Diogenes Laertius
mentions an epigrammatic poet of the name, as distinct from the grammarian.
(Suidas, s. v. Krates, Aristarchos; Diog. Laert. iv. 23; Strabo; Athen. xi.; Varro,
de L. L. viii. 64, 68, ix. 1; Sext. Empir. adv. Math. i. c. 3.79, c. 12. 248;
Sc/hol. in Hom. passim; Plin. H. N. iv).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Dionysades or Dionysides (Dionusiades, Dionusides). Of Mallus in Cilicia, a tragic poet, of whom nothing more is known. (Suid. s. v.)
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