Callippides

Callippides (Καλλιππίδης) or Callippos (Κάλλιππος) was apparently an ancient Greek runner, who gave his name to a proverb for those making great efforts but no progress.

Instances

In 45 B.C., Cicero complains in a letter to Atticus that Varro had promised to dedicate a work to him but "Two years have gone by while that Callippides has been running all the time without advancing one cubit."[1] The Roman Emperor Tiberius was said to have made preparations almost yearly for a visit to the provinces and the armies stationed there, which he always cancelled at the last minute, with the result that "he was jokingly referred to as Callippides, who was known in the Greek proverb to run and make not a cubit of progress".[2] The proverb is found with this definition in a Greek proverb collection, but with the name Callippos.[3]

Interpretation

The proverb scholar August Otto writes that Callippos was apparently a runner who despite all his efforts never reached the finish. Otto suggests that since Callipides is the patronymic of Callippos, it can mean "another Callippos", so that the original name would be Callippos, as in the Greek collection, rather than Callipides.[4] Others suggest emending the Greek text to Callippides to agree with the references in Cicero and Suetonius.[5] Some have seen in him not a runner, but the famous fifth century actor Callippides.[6]

Literature
  • E. Leutsch (ed.) Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum (Göttingen, 1851)
  • A. Otto Die Sprichwörter und sprichwörtlichen Redensarten der Römer (Leipzig: Teubner, 1890)

Notes
  1. Cic. Att. 13, 12, 3 "biennium praeteriit cum ille Καλλιππίδης adsiduo cursu cubitum nullum processerit".
  2. Suetonius Tib. 38 "ut … per iocum Callippides vocaretur, quem cursitare ac ne cubiti quidem mensuram progredi proverbio Graeco notatum est".
  3. Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum II 757 (n. 87) Κάλλιππος τρέχει ("Callippus runs").
  4. Otto (1890) 66.
  5. Leutsch (1851) ad loc.; Shackleton Bailey in his commentary to Cic. Att. 13, 12, 3.
  6. See Leutsch (1851) II 757, and Shackleton Bailey in his discussion of Att. 13, 12, 3, both of whom reject the view.
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