1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Apion

APION, Greek grammarian and commentator on Homer, born at Oasis in Libya; flourished in the first half of the 1st century A.D. He studied at Alexandria, and headed a deputation sent to Caligula (in 38) by the Alexandrians to complain of the Jews: his charges were answered by Josephus in his Contra Apionem. He settled at Rome—it is uncertain when—and taught rhetoric till the reign of Claudius. Apion was a man of great industry and learning, but extremely vain. He wrote several works, which are lost. The well-known story of Androclus and the lion, preserved in Aulus Gellius, is from his Αἰγυπτιακὰ; fragments of his Γλῶσσαι Όμηρικαὶ are printed in the Etymologicum Gudianum, ed. Sturz, 1818.