APELLICON, a wealthy native of Teos, afterwards an Athenian citizen, a famous book collector. He not only spent large sums on his library, but stole original documents from the archives of Athens and other cities of Greece. Being detected, he fled, but returned when Athenian (or Aristion), an opponent of the Romans, had made himself tyrant of the city with the aid of Mithradates. He died a little later, probably in 84 B.C.
Apellicon purchased from the family of Neleus of Skepsis in the Troad manuscripts of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus (and their libraries), which Theophrastus himself had given to his pupil Neleus. They had been concealed in a cellar and were in a dilapidated condition. Apellicon filled in the lacunae, and brought out a new, but faulty, edition. In 84 Sulla removed Apellicon's library to Rome (Strabo xii. p. 6o9 ; Plutarch, Sulla, 26). Here the mss. were handed over to the grammarian Tyran nion, who took copies of them, on the basis of which the peri patetic philosopher Andronicus of Rhodes prepared an edition of Aristotle's works. Apellicon's library contained a remarkable old copy of the Iliad.