Although the
Philogelos is the oldest surviving joke book, there are known to be prior joke books that have since become lost.
Athenaeus wrote in the
Deipnosophistae that
Philip II of Macedon paid for a social club in
Athens to write down its members' jokes for him, and joke books are mentioned by characters in
Persa and
Stichus, two comedies by the 2nd century BC Roman playwright
Plautus.
Attribution Authorship of the
Philogelos is traditionally attributed to two men, Hierocles and Philagrius (also spelled Hierokles and Philagros), who are otherwise unattested and have no known works. If Hierocles and Philagrius were indeed the creators of the book, it is more likely that they compiled and edited pre-existing jokes, rather than writing all the jokes themselves. The exact time of publication is unknown. According to
William Berg, who published an English translation of it in 2008, the language used indicates that it may have been written in the fourth century AD. Joke #62 mentions the
Secular Games held by
Philip the Arab marking the 1,000th anniversary of the
founding of Rome, implying that the jokes were not compiled until after the year 248 AD. == Contents ==