Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics by Bart D. Ehrman Read Free Book Online Page A

meant to be taken seriously.” Moreover, “he has his own silly or elaborate jokes.” Syme’s conclusion was that “this man is a kind of rogue scholar.” 37
    In other cases we know full well the author of a book, but it is hard to discern a reason for the pen name. Thus Iamblichus wrote
On the Mysteries
as Abamon, but his reason is itself a mystery. T. Hopfner suggested that Iamblichus wanted to hide from his potentially Christian readers the fact that he and his fellow Neoplatonists were sometimes at odds with one another. The book, after all, is a response to Porphyry’s attack on his former student for his attraction to the occult, in a letter ostensibly addressed to “Anebo,” itself a name that has generated considerable discussion (is it too an invention?). 38 Hopfner’s theory, however, seems rather unlikely, as Clarke, Dillon, and Hershbell point out, given Iamblichus’ virtually complete disregard for Christians otherwise. 39 It may simply be that he recognized Porphyry’s attack leveled at an alias for himself, and he responded in kind, pretending that the fictitious Anebo was his (the fictitious Abamon’s) student as a “poke in the eye” to Porphyry, his own teacher. 40
    There are other instances where a pen name may have been chosen simply to protect the identity of the real author, in cases in which safety or other personal concerns were an issue: Janssen instances Nestorius’ use of the name Heraclides in his
Liber Heraclidis
. 41 At other times the use of a pen name was not innocent at all. That is Plutarch’s suspicion of Xenophon, when he wrote his
Anabasis
in the name of Themistogenes, an alleged general of Syracuse. This pseudonym is often taken to be a simple pen name, chosen for no particular reason. But as Plutarch points out (
Moralia
345e), by discussing his own military activities in the third person, as a purported outsider, Xenophon was able to give himself greater credence and glory than if he had written the account in his own name.
    In yet other instances modern scholars have erred in thinking that a work was produced under a pen name. Aristophanes is sometimes said to have written his early plays pseudonymously, but D. McDowell has argued that in fact, given the mechanics of theatrical production, Aristophanes published them under the names of the persons who directed them, as those who were ultimately responsible for their contents. 42
Homonymity
    Ancient critics recognized full well the problems posed by homonymity, in a world where many names were common and few means were available to distinguish between authors of the same name. No one took the problem more seriously than the first-century BCE Demetrius of Magnesia, who wrote his booknot only to differentiate among homonymous writers, but also to tell anecdotes about them. 43 Diogenes Laertius, our principle source for the book, more commonly refers to it with the shortened title(e.g., 1.38.79; 7.31.169). It is cited by other authors as well, however, including Athenaeus (
Banqueters
13.611B). An entire chapter is preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
    Diogenes himself often deals with the problems of authorship posed by homonymity, reporting, for example, as just one instance, that the critics Panaetius and Sosicrates maintained that of all the writings commonly attributed to Ariston of Chios, the Stoic philosopher, only the letters were authentically his. Another thirteen titles, some in multiple volumes, went under his name, but were in fact written by Ariston the Peripatetic (
Lives
7.163). With respect to the figure with whom we started, Heraclides of Pontus, Diogenes informs us that there were thirteen other literary figures who shared the name, one of them, confusingly enough, also known as Ponticus.
    As one might expect, there are times when ancient critics have difficulty resolving issues of homonymity. And so, Quintilian wavers on the rhetorical writings assigned to Hermagoras:
    There are however books