From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordSymposiarchos means the person directing a drinking party.
- In this workThe dinner host delays wine until the council servant arrives and appoints him master of the feast.
- In this editionThe story’s explanation that the host “plainly” appointed the official belongs to the narrative’s inferential framing.
- A place to readSupplies the entire dinner, office, command, and prosecution sequence.
Meaning
Symposiarchos means the person directing a drinking party. In this story he is also a servant or attendant of the council. Dikastērion is the court into which the dispute is subsequently taken.
Use in the book
The dinner host delays wine until the council servant arrives and appoints him master of the feast. His order that guests either drink or have wine poured over their heads becomes, in Timaeus’ account, an incipient tyranny. Empedocles initially remains quiet, then brings both host and feast-master before a court and secures their condemnation and death. The narrative’s movement from a social ritual to a political prosecution is its distinctive feature. The authority to regulate convivial conduct becomes a sign of a broader threat when exercised coercively. This does not mean every symposium office was tyrannical, or that the anecdote supplies a reliable account of Acragantine criminal law. Rather, the story interprets a familiar social hierarchy as a test of civic character and makes Empedocles’ vigilance the beginning of his public career.
Places to read
- A 1 §§ 64–66 (biography)2Diogenes Laertius VIII 64, reporting Timaeus. Supplies the entire dinner, office, command, and prosecution sequence.
Translation in this edition
The story’s explanation that the host “plainly” appointed the official belongs to the narrative’s inferential framing. The account gives no indictment text or legal procedure beyond the brief court-and-condemnation statement.