Scymnus of
Chios ( grc-gre, Σκύμνος ὁ Xῖος; fl. c. 185 BC) was a
Greek geographer. It was thought he was the author of the ''Periodos to Nicomedes'', a work on
geography written in
Classical Greek. It is an account of the world (περιήγησις, ''
periegesis'') in 'comic'
iambic trimeters which is dedicated to a King Nicomedes of
Bithynia
Bithynia (; Koine Greek: , ''Bithynía'') 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, Pa ...
. This is either
Nicomedes II Epiphanes who reigned from 149 BC for an unknown number of years or his son,
Nicomedes III Euergetes
Nicomedes III Euergetes ("the Benefactor", grc-gre, Νικομήδης Εὐεργέτης) was the king of Bithynia, from c. 127 BC to c. 94 BC. He was the son and successor of Nicomedes II of Bithynia.
Life
Memnon of Heraclea wrote that Nico ...
.
It was first published at
Augsburg 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 Lukas Holste, sometimes called 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 ...
and
Isaac Vossius 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, 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 and the few statements cited from him have no resemblance to the ''Periodos to Nicomedes''.
Since then work has been attributed to
Pseudo-Scymnus.
References
Further reading
*
Aubrey Diller, ''The Tradition of the Minor Greek Geographers'' (1952)
External links
Partial English translationby
John Brady Kiesling a
ToposText*
{{Authority control
Ancient Greek geographers
Ancient Chians
2nd-century BC Greek people
2nd-century BC writers
Peripluses
2nd-century BC geographers