Annotated Works of Lucian of Samosata

This book is part of series of annotated texts from the author Lucian of Samosata. Each volume contains either one major work of Lucian's or a group of works, usually linked by topic. You are reading the annotated Alexander. Though this is not the most humorous or witty essay, it is perhaps one of the most entertaining pieces of Lucian. It contains an exact and probably true account of a most extraordinary character who figured in his time - the fraud Alexander. It makes one wonder what type of frauds and impostures Lucian was exposed to in the 2nd Century AD. Of all of Lucian's works, Alexander provides the reader with an idea of what sort of person Lucian considered to be spreading lies and obfuscation. Throughout the centuries, there have been glaring frauds and impostures even in the most supposed "enlightened" times. The Snake of Glycon; used to con unsuspecting audiences by AlexanderThis account of one of the most crafty, most audacious, and most successful theurgical imposters that ever was, is in certain regards the most important and instructive of all of Lucian's writings. Alexander of Abonoteichos, with whom we are brought acquainted in it, was a real virtuoso in his art. He possessed several requisite talents. He produced great effects from small means. None of his fellow-labourers have come under my observation, who had so nicely calculated, how far a man may trust to human absurdity, and understood how to derive so much advantage from the weak side of the great mass. Striking resemblances render this extraordinary man and his history doubly interesting at the present day. The consideration of what he with such slender means brought effect, should naturally lead us to the thought of what Alexander in our times with the incomparably greater resources now at his command, might perform. But what sort of Paphlagonians must they be, who, warned by such an example, still suffer themselves to be duped?