Considerazioni intorno ai Memorabilia di Linceo di Samo (con qualche appunto sulla lettera di Ippoloco e i Geloia Apomnēmoneumata di Aristodemo)

Lynceus of Samos is one of the most curious figures in the varied intellectual landscape of the Greek world at the turn of the 4th and 3rd centuries. Among his works ‒ now all lost ‒ stand out the Ἀπομνημονεύματα, a collection of anecdotes whose protagonists are mainly parasites and courtesans, of which Athenaeus has preserved several fragments. The aim of this contribution is to reconstruct, as far as possible, the physiognomy and content of this lost work, and to place it within the historical and cultural context in which it was produced, trying to understand its function and purpose. At the same time, some problems arising from Hippolocus’ letter to Lynceus (in turn extensively quoted by Athenaeus), an important document for the chronology of this author, are examined. Finally, an appendix is devoted to some aspects of the problematic relationship between Lynceus’ Ἀπομνημονεύματα and Aristodemus’ Γελοῖα Ἀπομνημονεύματα