[Allen Tice]

Someday there will be two tiny translations of mine from Archaic and Hellenistic Greek in the Classical Outlook (published by the American Classical League). "Phocylides" (born ~ 550 BC) is the 'author of record', but the actual Phocylides is definitely not the author of at least one of these for sure (post 325 BC Hellenistic metrics in the original).

There was more than one imitator of Phocylides, and the later imitator I translate might even be poking fun at another, tedious imitator.

The other one I translate could be genuinely archaic, but it lacks what some still think is the acme of authorship proof: an authorial statement in the text that so-and-so wrote it. Alas, that kind of 'proof' is child's play to pirate.

(Here is another great book, by the way: The Yogi Book: I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said.)

It's interesting how well-intentioned or ill-intentioned or just lame-intentioned forgeries show up in the oldest, most revered, stuff. By "forgeries", I include what might be called pious frauds that are labelled as the work of a grand name to give them gravitas they wouldn't have otherwise and to assimilate them into the canon of that name. Anyone interested can send me an email personal message and I'll reply with at least three other examples that might surprise you from three different traditions. Some, of course, are aware that Plato's name was exploited this way. There are names of revered fish perhaps bigger than that of Plato on the list of the abused.