Philinus of Agrigentum (3rd-century BCE),

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

, was a historian who lived during the

First Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and grea ...

, who is said to have written history from a pro-Carthaginian standpoint. His writings were used as a source by

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...

and

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental universal history '' Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which survive intact, b ...

for their descriptions of the First Punic War.Polybius
1:14-15
/ref> Although Polybius uses Philinus' writings, he also accuses him of being biased and inconsistent. Philinus maintained that the initial Roman intervention in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

at the start of the First Punic War violated a treaty between Rome and Carthage from 306 B.C.E. which recognized Roman sovereignty on the Italian peninsula and Carthaginian control in Sicily. Polybius was unable to find this treaty in the treasury of the aediles in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus alongside other treaties between Rome and Carthage, and claimed that it could not have existed. However, evidence from

Servius Servius may refer to: * Servius (praenomen), a personal name during the Roman Republic * Servius the Grammarian (fl. 4th/5th century), Roman Latin grammarian * Servius Asinius Celer (died AD 46), Roman senator * Servius Cornelius Cethegus, Roma ...

suggests that there may have been a real treaty, thereby potentially exonerating Philinus' account. There is, as yet, little scholarly consensus about this treaty nor has Philinus' account been thoroughly proven or disproven.

Citations

3rd-century BC Greek historians Ancient Acragantines People of the First Punic War Historians from Magna Graecia Historians of Phoenicia Ancient Greek historians known only from secondary sources {{Greece-historian-stub