Opuscula de rebus mirabilibus et de longaevis

Phlegon of Tralles, a learned freedman of Hadrian’s, was a prolific
writer, but only two of his works have – though not entirely – survived:
Peri thaumasion (‘On marvellous things’) and Peri makrobion (‘On
long-lived persons’). The former is probably the main extant
paradoxographic collection from classical antiquity, mostly famous for
some memorable ghost stories (one of which inspired Goethe); the latter
reviews long-lived individuals from both archival and literary sources.
Both are extensively interespersed with oracles, Sibylline and others.
These works were hitherto available in unsatisfactory editions.
Stramaglia’s new edition relies on a fresh, meticulous collation of the
codex unicus (Heidelberg, Palat. Gr. 398); takes complete account of
scholarship from the editio princeps (1568) onwards; establishes the
text according to a sounder evaluation of Phlegon’s language and style;
and includes not only a detailed apparatus criticus, but also – for the
first time – an apparatus auxiliarius providing loci similes vel
paralleli, as well as close bibliographical references and elucidations
of obscure or abstruse passages.