Reconstructing Pliny’s Comment on Apion Plistonices (Nat. praef. 25)

Abstract The passage concerning the grammarian Apion Plistonices in the preface to Pliny’s Natural History ( praef. 25) is corrupt. The present article attempts to restore the wanting title of Apion’s book, conjecturing that this was Apion’s well-known Αἰγυπτιακά , a history of Egypt. The article also deals with numerous other text-critical and interpretative problems that have confronted scholars working on praef. 25 from the late fifteenth century.