Cleitarchus or Clitarchus () was one of the

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

s of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

. Son of the historian Dinon of Colophon, he spent a considerable time at the court of Ptolemy Lagus. He was active in the mid to late 4th century BCE.

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...

(''

Institutio Oratoria ''Institutio Oratoria'' ( English: Institutes of Oratory) is a twelve-volume textbook on the theory and practice of rhetoric by Roman rhetorician Quintilian. It was published around year 95 AD. The work deals also with the foundational education ...

''. x. I. 74) credits him with more ability than trustworthiness, and

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

(''Brutus'', II) accuses him of giving a fictitious account of the death of

Themistocles Themistocles (; ; ) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having th ...

. But there is no doubt that his history was very popular, and much used by

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

, Quintus Curtius,

Justin Justin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Justin (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Justin (historian), Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527) ...

and

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, and the authors of the Alexander romances. His unnatural and exaggerated style became proverbial. His work, the ''

History of Alexander The ''History of Alexander'', also known as ''Perì Aléxandron historíai'', is a lost work by the late-fourth century BC Hellenistic historian Cleitarchus, covering the life and death of Alexander the Great. It survives today in around thirt ...

'', is almost completely lost and has survived only in some thirty fragments preserved by ancient authors, especially by Aelian and

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

. A recent papyrological find from

Oxyrhynchus Oxyrhynchus ( ; , ; ; ), also known by its modern name Al-Bahnasa (), is a city in Middle Egypt located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo in Minya Governorate. It is also an important archaeological site. Since the late 19th century, t ...

(P.Oxy. LXXI 4808) records that he was a tutor () of

Ptolemy IV Philopator Ptolemy IV Philopator (; "Ptolemy, lover of his Father"; May/June 244 – July/August 204 BC) was the fourth pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 221 to 204 BC. Ptolemy IV was the son of Ptolemy III and Berenice II. His succession to the throne was ...

, r.221–205 BCE, and suggests that he wrote in the mid to late 3rd century, not, as was hitherto thought, in the late 4th. Luisa Prandi (2012) has recently restated the case for the "high" dating.

References

* * Luisa Prandi, ''Fortuna e realtà dell'opera di Clitarco'' (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1996) (Historia. Einzelschriften, 104). * Luisa Prandi, ′New Evidence for the Dating of Cleitarchus (POxy LXXI.4808)?′, Histos 6 (2012), 15–26

External links

* Livius.org
Cleitarchus
by

Jona Lendering Jona Lendering (born 29 October 1964) is a Dutch historian and the author of books on antiquity, Dutch history and modern management. He has an MA in history from Leiden University and an MA in Mediterranean culture from the Amsterdam Free Uni ...

Histos
by A.B. Bosworth
Pothos.orgDating Kleitarchos
by Karl Soundy Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 4th-century BC Greek historians Historiography of Alexander the Great Hellenistic-era historians Ptolemaic court {{Greece-historian-stub