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Chaeremon (Philosopher)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Of Alexandria (1st century A.D.), Stoic philosopher and grammarian. He was superintendent of the portion of the Alexandrian library that was kept in the temple of Serapis, and as custodian and expounder of the sacred books (LEpoypa u uarei s, sacred scribe) belonged to the higher ranks of the priesthood. In A.D. 49 he was summoned to Rome, with Alexander of Aegae, to become tutor to the youthful Nero. He was the author of a History of Egypt; of works on Comets, Egyptian Astrology, and Hieroglyphics; and of a grammatical treatise on Expletive Conjunctions (avvSEVµoi. rapairAnpwµareKoi). Chaeremon was the chief of the party which explained the Egyptian religious system as a mere allegory of the worship of nature. His books were not intended to represent the ideas of his Egyptian contemporaries; their chief object was to give a description of the sanctity and symbolical secrets of ancient Egypt. He can hardly be identical with the Chaeremon who accompanied ( c. 26 B.C.; Strabo xvii. p. 806) Aelius Gallus, praefect of Egypt, on a journey into the interior of the country. Fragments in C. Muller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iii. 495-499.