mountainman

Diophantus is mentioned by Josephus,
in Chapter 4, JW. Does anyone have any further
information about this Diophantus?

"Alexander protested that this letter
was forged by Diophantus, the king's secretary,
a man without scruples and very clever
at imitating any hand" ..[later we learn he was]..
. "executed for forgery"

-- Josephus' Jewish War, Ch4.

For that matter, what citations are readily available
to demonstrate that the use of master forgery was as
commonplace in antiquity as it is today?

Thanks.

Cheerful Charlie

Donation of Constantine
False decretals.

CC

mountainman

Thanks CC. Most informative.
I am looking for citations on forgery
from the time of early Roman empire
until the time of Constantine. This
list appears to contain:

* Diophantus (master forger, via Josephus)
* The Scriptores of the Historia Augusta

* any others ??

DCHindley

Why not consult Joseph Wheless' _Forgery in Christianity_? It is right in the II library.

http://www.infidels.org/library/hist..._christianity/

DCH

mountainman

Yes, an excellent resource for those unacquainted with forgery
in the literature of the Eusebian purported "christian ecclesiastical
pseudo-history". Thanks for this citation.

However in making responses here I am reminded that the specific
citations that I seek are those by which it may be seen that the
"art of forgery" was alive and well in antiquity as it is today. That
is does not only dwell (and is reported) in the "purportedly
religious texts", but is also reported in other genre and texts.

For example, we have Seutonius, in his The 12 Caesars saying
the following about Titus ...

[He] could compose speeches and verses in Greek or Latin
with equal ease, and actually extemporised them on occassion.
... It often amused him to compete with his secretaries at
shorthand writing, or so I have heard; and he claimed that
he could imitate any handwriting in existence and might have
been the most celebrated forger of all time.

--- Suetonius, Titus 3

We have a certain group of respondents in this forum, not all
of them in any one specific philosophical persuasion, who cannot
understand that forgery in antiquity was understood as a well
paid trade, across the board, in all circles, as it is today.