Xenophilus (), sometimes Xenophilos of Sardeis, 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 ...
writer who wrote a history of
Lydia
Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis.
At some point before 800 BC, ...
.
[Harry Brewster]
''Classical Anatolia: The Glory of Hellenism''
(Bloomsbury Academic, 1993), pp. 162, 177. His dates are unknown. He was active after about 600 BC.
[Peter Högemann]
"Xenophilus (4)"
in ''Brill's New Pauly Online
The Pauly encyclopedias or the Pauly-Wissowa family of encyclopedias, are a set of related encyclopedias on Greco-Roman topics and scholarship. The first of these, or (1839–1852), was begun by compiler August Pauly. Other encyclopedias in t ...
'' (Brill, 2006). Harry Brewster places him in the 3rd century BC.
[ He may be the Zenophilos () cited as a source in ]Antigonus of Carystus Antigonus of Carystus (; ; ), a Greek writer on various subjects, flourished in the 3rd century BCE. After some time spent at Athens and travelling, he was summoned to the court of Attalus I (241 BCE–197 BCE) of Pergamum. His chief wo ...
's paraphrase of Callimachus
Callimachus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar, and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works, most of which ...
. If so, he lived no later than the first half of the 3rd century (Callimachus' time).[Annalisa Paradiso]
"Xenophilos (767)"
in '' Jacoby Online: Brill's New Jacoby'', Second Edition, Part III, edited by Ian Worthington (Brill, 2020).
His ''Lydian Histories'' (Greek: , ''Lydikaì historíai'') is a lost work, known only from its citation in the anonymous '' Treatise on Famous Women in War''.Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller
Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller (; 13 February 1813 in Clausthal – 1894 in Göttingen) was a German philologist and historian, best known for his Didot family, Didot editions of fragmentary Greek authors.
''Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum''
Müll ...
, ''Fragmenta historicorum graecorum'', Vol. 4 (Paris, 1851)
p. 51
Sadyattes
Sadyattes (; ; reigned 637–) was the third king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Ardys and the grandson of Gyges of Lydia. Sadyattes reigned 12 years according to Herodotus.
Reign Background
Sadyattes came to power during period o ...
, the king of Lydia between about 625 and 600, married his own sister, Lyde, and together they had a son, Alyattes
Alyattes ( Lydian language: ; ; reigned c. 635 – c. 585 BC), sometimes described as Alyattes I, was the fourth king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Sadyattes, grandson of Ardys, and great-grandson of Gyges. He died after a r ...
, who succeeded his father on the throne.[ When Alyattes was violent and rude in his youth, Lyde "requited with noble words and deeds" those he wronged. She feigned illness so that her son would wait on her and he "was restrained and changed so that, as enophilussays, he became the most just and honest of men."][
Given the similarity between the only surviving fragment of Xenophilus' lost history and the corresponding passages in the surviving fragments of the history of ]Nicholas of Damascus
Nicolaus of Damascus (Greek: , ''Nikolāos Damaskēnos''; Latin: ''Nicolaus Damascenus''; – after 4 AD) was a Greek historian, diplomat and philosopher who lived during the Augustan age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his ...
, who used Xanthus' Lydian history as a source, scholars have argued that Xanthus was also Xenophilus' source.[
]
References
{{reflist
Ancient Greek historians known only from secondary sources
Historians from ancient Anatolia
Lydia