Le philosophe Ménédème d’Érétrie et les Ptolémées : une réalité historique derrière le récit légendaire des origines de la Septante chez le Pseudo-Aristée
Authors: Knoepfler Denis 
Published: February 2025

The historians of the Septuagint have remained uncertain about whether the intervention of Menedemos of Eretria (on the island of Euboea) as a spokesman for Greek philosophers at the banquet offered by King Ptolemy to the seventy-two translators of the Hebraic Pentateuch relied on facts or, as most scholars believe, on pure fiction. Indeed, the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates has long been considered to lack historical value. However, a fresh reexamination of the problem is now justified by the progress made in the study of Menedemos’ life, thanks to several discoveries. This article first presents (§ I) the ancient and byzantine texts that, in the wake of Pseudo-Aristeas (ca. 150 B.C.), mention the presence of Menedemos with King Ptolemy Philadelphos and Demetrios of Phaleron at the time of the foundation of the Library of Alexandria. The article then (§ II) examines the reasons that made the author of the Letter select Menedemos for such a mission — a surprising choice at first glance . It appears that the philosopher enjoyed great prestige among the intellectuals of Alexandria. Several biographical and poetical works present him in a favorable light, depicting him as a lover of tragic poetry, a wise man accomplished in the art of debate and politics, who enjoyed influential connections with several kings, thus making him the ideal speaker for debating the duties of kingship with the Jewish interpreters and the Ptolemaic king. In a following section (§ III) the author deals with chronology, showing why the supposed obstacle to accepting the presence of Menedemos in Alexandria around 280 should be removed. The date of Menedemos’ death in 287, accepted without discussion by several modern scholars, is an accidental corruption (which occurred in 1951) of the date of 278, which has been commonly accepted in historical and philosophical works. However, the date of 278 results from a long-obsolete reconstruc-tion of Menedemos’ life, as shown by the examination of the first studies questioning the authenticity of the Letter of Aristeas
in the 17 th century (§ IV). Indeed, it was believed that his birth, around 370 allowed him to be student of Plato in ca. 350. This extended his life until the brutal end of his career in 278, marked by a decree honoring King Antigonos Gonatas, after which he died in exile at the age — arbitrarily reached by conjecture ! — of 94. A birth around 350 (thus discarding any link with Plato) would set his death shortly after 278, at the age of 74 years old — in accordance with most of the older editions of Diogenes Laertius. The following section (§ V) offers a revised chronology of Menedemos’ political career. Based on inscriptions — discovered themselves at the very end of the 19 th century — throwing new light on the composition of the Delphic Amphictiony after 280, K.J. Beloch first concluded (1904) that Menedemos exiled himself to Macedonia in 274/3 (and died shortly after), when Eretria managed to escape Antigonos’ control thanks to the successes of his rival Pyrrhos. Several significant pieces were later added to this dossier. In 1927 Beloch was forced to admit that Eretria’s independence must have taken place earlier, while the year 274/3 marked only a political upheaval with the replacement of Menedemos as Euboean representative to the Amphictiony by his opponent Aischylos. Forced to exile himself a little after that event, Menedemos would have died around 265. Although this ingenious reconstruction was widely followed after its publication, it cannot be accepted because an inscription revisited in 1956 proved that Menedemos was still active in Delphi around 269/8. Moreover, new evidence was provided in 1991 thanks to the critical edition of Diogenes Laertius’ Life of Menedemos
(§ VI) by the author of the present article. This study demonstrated that the
Burbonicus testimony, neglected in the past three centuries, provided a reliable lifetime of 84 years rather than 74 years for the philosopher. Therefore, no obstacle prevents us from recognizing that Menedemos, who was born around 345 and died ca. 262 in Macedonia, was able to travel to Alexandria at the age of 65. In fact (§ VII), according to his biography, Menedemos established links with the Ptolemaic kings and was even accused of handing over Eretria to Ptolemy in 288-287 when the Ptolemaic fleet took control of the Cyclades and intervened in Attica. Moreover, it is towards the end of the 280s that one must date his embassy, well attested, “ to King Ptolemy ”. This mission can now be identified with the delegation sent by the Eretrians (as well as the Athenians) to Alexandria for the first celebration of the festival of the Ptolemaieia
in 282 (rather than in 278). Therefore, it is probably as architheôros (“leader of the sacred embassy”) — a title held by the Athenian Kallias based on the decree voted in his honor — that Menedemos met Ptolemy Philadelphos. This would account for the role Menedemos played during the alleged reception of the Jewish interpreters in 283/2 staged by Pseudo-Aristeas (second year of the 124 th Olympiad). The appendix (after the publication of a new inscribed fragment discovered in Eretria and proving the existence of a monument dedicated to “ King Ptolemy ”) deals with the forepart of an altar of Arsinoe Philadelphos discovered in 1989 during the excavation of a Hellenistic house. Eretria is the westernmost Aegean polis to provide, along with cities of Cyprus, a fragment of this type (whose nature was brought to light by L. Robert). This document of exceptional historical value shows that Eretria was temporarily in the Ptolemaic sphere of influence shortly after 270. The vicissitudes of Eretrian history, recorded in the Life of Menedemos , suggest that the cult of Arsinoe was instituted in Alexandria from the summer of 270, and not in July 268 (still considered by many scholars to be the date of the Queen’s death according to Erhard Grzybek’s 1990 chronology). While a Ptolemaic flotilla dropped anchor in the harbor of Eretria at the beginning of 269 and the authorities were invited to adopt the new royal cult, Menedemos was accused of handing over the city to his “student” the King of Macedonia and was forced to flee to the Amphiareion at Oropos. Nevertheless, before the autumn of the same year, Eretria fell into the hands of Antigonos. This was the casus belli sparking the Chremonidean War, which was declared by Athens against Macedon in September of 269 (according to the new date suggested by S. Byrne and M. Osborne for the Athenian archon Peithidemos), and with the explicit support of Ptolemy Philadelphos, acting on behalf of his sister-wife (already deceased, in all likelihood). So ended at Eretria one of the brightest periods of its history, the so-called “Age of Menedemos”.