Editing Tryphiodorus (section)

== Life ==

There is little known about the life of Triphiodorus other than two entries in the Byzantine encyclopedia the ''[[Suda]]'' (T 1111 and 1112), thought to refer to the same individual. The ''Suda'' provides his place of birth, that he was a grammarian and epic poet, but not when he lived. Traditionally he was dated to the fifth century because he was thought to imitate the ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' of [[Nonnus of Panopolis]] (then dated to the fourth or fifth century), and he was in his turn imitated by [[Coluthus]] (he lived under emperor [[Anastasius I (emperor)|Anastasius I]]). However, the publication in the 1970s of a fragment of papyrus from [[Oxyrhynchus]] (''P. Oxy.'' 41.2946), containing lines 391-402 of ''The Sack of Troy'' and dated to the third or early fourth century,<ref>cgi-bin library, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140426215511/http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?a=q&r=1&hs=1&e=p-000-00---0POxy--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-about---00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&t=0&q=2946 163.1.169.40]</ref> has made most scholars place him in the third century (see the editions of [[Enrico Livrea |Livrea]]<!-- {{Q|93237073}} -->, Gerlaud and Dubielzig).

Triphiodorus' pagan name cannot be considered proof that he was a [[pagan]], and nothing in his poem allows us to call him a [[Christians|Christian]]: the reference in lines 604–5 to children paying with their lives for the sins of their parents is not decisive, having classical parallels such as Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' 3.298-301.