Scymnus of

Chios Chios (; , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, tenth largest island in the Medi ...

(; fl. c. 185 BC) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

. It was thought he was the author of the ''Periodos to Nicomedes'', a work on

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

written in

Classical Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archa ...

. It is an account of the world (περιήγησις, '' periegesis'') in 'comic'

iambic trimeter The Iambic trimeter, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic metra (each of two feet) per line. In English poetry, it refers to a meter with three iambic feet. In ancient Greek poetry and Latin po ...

s which is dedicated to a King Nicomedes of

Bithynia Bithynia (; ) was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast a ...

. This is either

Nicomedes II Epiphanes Nicomedes II Epiphanes (Greek: Νικομήδης ὁ Ἐπιφανής "Nicomedes God-Manifest") was the king of Bithynia from 149 to c. 127 BC. He was fourth in descent from Nicomedes I. Nicomedes II was the son and successor of Prusias II and ...

who reigned from 149 BC for an unknown number of years or his son, Nicomedes III Euergetes. It was first published at

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

in 1600. Because it was found together with the ''Epitomes'' of Marcianus of Heraclea it was first published under his name. Because this was clearly a mistake

Lucas Holstenius Lucas Holstenius, born Lucas Holstein (1596 – 2 February 1661), was a German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian, and librarian. Life Born at Hamburg in 1596, he studied at the gymnasium of Hamburg, and later at Leiden University, wh ...

and

Isaac Vossius Isaak Vossius, sometimes anglicised Isaac Voss (1618 in Leiden – 21 February 1689 in Windsor, Berkshire) was a Dutch philologist scholar and manuscript collector. Life He was the son of the humanist Gerhard Johann Vossius. Isaak formed w ...

were the first to attribute it to Scymnus of Chios because he was cited more than once by late grammarians as the author of a ''Periegesis''. It continued to pass under his name until 1846 when

Augustus Meineke Johann Albrecht Friedrich August Meineke (also ''Augustus Meineke''; ; 8 December 179012 December 1870), Germany, German classical philology, classical scholar, was born at Soest, Germany, Soest in the Duchy of Westphalia. He was father-in-law to ...

, in republishing the extant fragments, showed clearly that there were no grounds for ascribing them to that Scymnus. The real work of Scymnus of Chios appears to have been in

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

and the few statements cited from him have no resemblance to the ''Periodos to Nicomedes''. Since then work has been attributed to

Pseudo-Scymnus Pseudo-Scymnus is the name given by Augustus Meineke to the unknown author of a work on geography written in Classical Greek, the ''Periodos to Nicomedes''. It is an account of the world ('' periegesis'') in 'comic' iambic trimeters which is dedic ...

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External links

Partial English translation
by

John Brady Kiesling John Brady Kiesling is a former U.S. diplomat and the author of ''Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower'' (Potomac Books, 2006) and the ToposText classics/archaeology mobile application. Diplomat An archaeologist/ancient historian ...

a
ToposText
* {{Authority control Ancient Greek geographers Ancient Chians 2nd-century BC Greek writers Peripluses 2nd-century BC geographers

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