372 PLINT's IfATTTEAL HISTOBT. [Book IV. 



lian\ Myrsilus^, Alexander Polyhistor*, Thucydides '', 

 Dosiades*, Anaximander ^, Philistides Mallotes', Dio- 

 nysius ^, Aristides ^, Callidemus ^°, Mensechmus ", Agla- 



been ascribed a Description of the Universe, of which a fragment still 

 survives. 



1 Of Tauromenium, in Sicily ; a celebrated historian, who flourished 

 about the year B.C. 300. He was banished from Sicily by Agathocles, 

 and passed his exile at Athens. He composed a History of Sicily, 

 from the earUest times to the year B.C. 264. The value of his history 

 has been gravely attacked by Polybius ; but there is httle doubt that it 

 possessed very considerable merit. Of this, and other works of Timseus, 

 only a few fragments survive. 



2 A Greek historian ; a native of Lesbos. When he hved is imknown. 

 Dionysius, of Hahcamasstis, has borrowed from him a portion of his ac- 

 count of the Pelasgians. He is said to have been the author of the notion 

 that the Tyrrhenians, in consequence of their wanderings after they left 

 their original settlement, got the name of ireXapyoi, or " storks." He is 

 supposed to have written a History of Lesbos, as also a work called 

 " Historical Paradoxes." * See end of B. iii. •* See end of B. iii« 



• * Of this author nothing whatever seems to be known. 



• Of Miletus, bom B.C. 610. One of the earhest pliilosophers of the 

 Ionian school, ^nd said to be a pupil of Thales. Unless Pherecydes of 

 Si-yros be an exception, he was the first author of a philosophical treatise 

 ill Greek prose. Other writings are ascribed to liim by Suidas ; but, no 

 doubt, on insufficient grounds. Of his treatise, which seems to have 

 contained summary statements of his opinions, no remains exist. 



7 Of this writer nothing whatever is known, beyond the fact that, 

 from his name, he seems to have been a native of Mallus, in Cihcia. 



* It seems impossible to say which, out of the vast number of the 

 authors who bore this name, is the one here referred to. It is not im- 

 probable that Dionysius of Chalcis, a Greek historian who Hved before 

 the Christian era, is meant. He wrote a work on the Foundation of 

 Towns, in five books, which is frequently referred to by the ancients. It 

 is not probable that the author of the PeriegesLs, or " Description of the 

 World," is referred to, as that book bears internal marks of having been 

 compiled in the third or fourth century of the Christian era. 



9 Of Miletus. He was the author of the " Milesiaca," a romance of 

 licentious character, which was translated into Latin by L. ComeHus 

 Sisenna. He is looked upon as the inventor of the Greek romance, and 

 the title of his work is supposed to have given rise to the term Milesian^ 

 as appHed to works of fiction. 



1" A Greek author, of whom nothing is known, except that Pliny, 

 and after him Solinus, refer to him as the authority for the statement 

 that Euboea was originally called Chalcis, from the fact of (xaXicds) copper 

 being first discovered there. 



^^ Probably Mensechmus of Sicyon, who wrote a book on Actors, a 

 History of Alexander the Great, and a book on Sicyon. Suidas says 

 that he flourished in the time of the successors of Alexander. 



