Archestratus
(Ἀρχέστρατος).
1. One of the ten στοατηγοί who were appointed to supersede Alcibiades in the command of the Athenian fleet after the battle of Notium, B. C. 407. Xenophon and Diodorus, who give us his name in this list, say no more of him; but we learn from Lysias that he died at Mytilene, and he appears therefore to have been with Conon when Callicratidas chased the Athenian fleet thither from Ἐκατόννησοι (Xen. Hell. 1.5.16; Diod. 13.74, 77, 78; Lys. Ἀπολ. δωροδ. p. 162; Schn. ad Xen. Hell. 1.6.16; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. iv. p. 119, note 3.)
2. A member of the βολή at Athens, who during the siege of the city after the battle of Aegospotami, B. C. 405, was thrown into prison for advising capitulation on the terms required by the Spartans. (Xen. Hell. 2.2.15.)
3. The mover of the decree passed by the Athenians at the instigation of Agnonides, that an embassy should be sent to the Macedonian king Arrhidaeus Philip, and the regent Polysperchon, to accuse Phocion of treason, B. C. 318. (Plut. Phoc. 100.33.) Schneider (ad Xen. Hell. 2.2.15), by a strange anachronism, identifies this Archestratus with the one mentioned immediately above. [E.E]
(Ἀρχέστρατος).
1. Of Gela or Syracuse (Athen. 1.4d), but more usually described as a native of Gela, appears to have lived about the time of the younger Dionysius. Works Art of Cookery
Archestratus travelled through various countries in order to become accurately acquainted with every thing which could be used for tht table; and gave the results of his rescarches in an Epic poem entitled the Art of Cookery, which was celebrated in antiquity, and is constantly referred to by Athenaeus. In no part of the Hellenic world was the art of good living carried to such an extent as in Sicily (the Siculae dapes, Hor. Carrm. 3.1. 18, became. proverbial); and Terpsion, who is described as a teacher of Archestratus, had already written a work on the Art of Cookery. (Athen. 8.337b.)
The work of Archestratus is cited by the ancients under five different titles,--Γαστρολογία, Γαστρονομία, Ὀψοποιΐα, Δειπνολογία, and Ἡδυπάθεια.
Ennius wrote an imitation or translation of this poem under the title of Carmina Hedypathelica or Hedypathica. (Apul. Apol. p. 484, Oudend.) Archestratus delivered his precepts in the style and with the gravity of the old gnomic poets, whence he is called in joke the Hesiod or Theognis of gluttons, and his work is referred to as the " Golden Verses," like those of Pythagoras. (Athen. vii. pp. 310,a. 320,f.) His description of the various natural objects used for the table was so accurate, that Aristotle made use of his work in giving an account of the natural history of fishes. Edition
The extant fragments have been collected and explained by Schneider, in his edition of Aristotle's Natural History (vol. i. pp. lv.--lxxv.), and also by Domenico Scina, under the title of " I frammenti della Gastronomia di Archestrato raccolti e volgarizzati," Palermo, 1823, 8vo.
2. The author of a work Περὶ Αὺλητῶν (Athen. 14.634d.) seems to be a different person from the one mentioned above.
(Ἀρχέστρατος). A poet of Gela, in Sicily, who flourished about B.C. 318, and composed the humorous didatic poem Ἡδυπάθεια (Good Cheer), supposed to describe a gastronomic tour round the then known world, with playful echoes of Homer and the dogmatic philosophers. The numerous fragments display much talent and wit. It was imitated in Latin by Ennius (q.v.).
- Apollod. E.7.29