Phylarchus - His Known Works

His Known Works

The following six works are attributed to Phylarchus by the Suda: —

• Histories (Iστoριαι), in 28 books, of which we have already spoken, and which were by far the most important of his writings. This work is thus described by the Suda: — "The expedition of Pyrrhus of Epirus against the Peloponnese in 28 books; and it comes down to Ptolemy who was called Euergetes, and to the end of Berenice, and as far as Cleomenes the Spartan, against whom Antigonus made war." When the Suda entitles it "the expedition of Pyrrhus, &c." he merely describes the first event in the work. The expedition of Pyrrhus into the Peloponnese was in 272 BC; the death of Cleomenes in 220 BC: the work therefore embraced a period of fifty-two years. From some of the fragments of the work which have been preserved, it has been conjectured by some writers that Phylarchus commenced at an earlier period, perhaps as early as the death of Alexander the Great; but since digressions on earlier events might easily have been introduced by Phylarchus, we are not warranted in rejecting the Suda's express testimony. As far as we can judge from the fragments, the work gave the history not only of Greece and Macedonia, but likewise of Aegypt, Cyrene, and the other states of the time; and in narrating the history of Greece, Phylarchus paid particular attention to that of Cleomenes and the Spartans.
• The story of Antiochus and Eumenes of Pergamum (Tα κατα τoν Aντιoχoν και τoν Περγαμηνoν Eυμενη), was probably a portion of the preceding work, since the war between the Attalid Eumenes I and the Seleucid Antiochus I Soter was hardly of sufficient importance to give rise to a separate history, and that between Eumenes II and Antiochus III the Great was subsequent to the time of Phylarchus.
• Epitome of myth on the apparition of Zeus, was one work, although cited by the Suda as two: the general title was Epitome mythike, and that of the first part Peri tes tou Dios epiphaneias.
• On discoveries, on which subject Ephorus and Philochorus also wrote.
• Digressions.
• Agrapha, not mentioned by the Suda, and only by the Scholiast on Aelius Aristides, was probably a work on the more abstruse points of mythology, of which no written account had ever been given.