Source edition
Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a satirical prose piece written in response to a request from the author's friend Celsus, exposing the life and nefarious deeds of Alexander of Abonoteichus, a notorious charlatan who deceived countless people in second-century Asia Minor. Possessing extraordinary intelligence and cunning, Alexander establishes an oracle dedicated to a newborn god named Glycon using a giant snake fitted with a mechanical head. Through sophisticated tricks like opening sealed letters undetected and fabricating ambiguous oracles, he successfully deceives all strata of society, from gullible commoners to the influential Roman senator Rutilianus. However, he fiercely targets those who expose his fraud, including Epicureans, Christians, and the author himself, even plotting the author's assassination. The narrative describes how the author sets traps to unveil Alexander's trickery, the author's narrow escape from death, and finally, Alexander's miserable demise and the subsequent dispute over his succession.