Editing Julius Pollux (section)

== Works ==
Pollux was the author of the ''Onomasticon'' ({{lang|el|Ὀνομαστικόν}}), a Greek [[thesaurus]] or dictionary of [[Attic Greek|Attic]] synonyms and phrases, in ten books, each prefaced with a dedication to the emperor Commodus.{{sfn|Zadorojnyi|2019|p=49}} The work forms part of the [[Atticism|Atticist]] movement of the [[Second Sophistic]], and was intended to provide a full catalogue of the Greek vocabulary derived from classical texts that an accomplished orator could deploy.{{sfn|Zadorojnyi|2019|p=49}} Within this movement, Pollux shows himself "a liberal and inclusive Atticist," willing to admit vocabulary from classical authors in non-Attic dialects (like [[Herodotus]]), from post-classical works (such as [[New Comedy]] and [[Hellenistic]] [[historiography]]), and from contemporary spoken Greek.{{sfn|Zadorojnyi|2019|p=49}} The entries in the work are arranged not alphabetically but according to subject-matter. Pollux claims that the exact order of subjects is random, but contemporary scholarship has discerned organisational patterns based on "the paradigmatic relationships at the heart of Romano-Greek society."{{sfn|König|2007|p=34}} For example, Book 5 is divided into two halves, the first of which deals with words relating to hunting and the second half of which Pollux calls "eclectic" (e.g. the entries in 5.148-5.152 are: ''proischesthai'' "to hold forth", ''grammata en stelais'' "writing on steles", ''diakores'' "satiated", ''anamphibolon'' "unambiguous"), but, within this eclecticism, Zadorojnyi nevertheless notes a tendency to focus on binary oppositions like love and hate, praise and denunciation.{{sfn|Zadorojnyi|2019|p=50}}

It supplies much rare and valuable information on many points of classical antiquity<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Pollux, Julius|volume=22|page=7}}</ref> &mdash; objects in daily life, the theater, politics&nbsp;– and quotes numerous fragments of lost works. Thus, Julius Pollux became invaluable for [[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]]'s ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities]]'', 1842, etc.

Nothing of his rhetorical works has survived, except some of their titles (in the ''[[Suda]]'').