Hecataeus of Abdera

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See Hecataeus of Miletus for the earlier historian.

Hecataeus of Abdera (or of Teos), Greek historian and Sceptic philosopher, flourished in the 4th century BC. He accompanied Ptolemy I Soter in an expedition to Syria, and sailed up the Nile with him as far as Thebes (Diogenes Laertius ix. 6I). The result of his travels was set down by him in two works, Aegyptiaca and On the Hyperboreans, which were used by Diodorus Siculus. According to the Suda, he also wrote a treatise on the poetry of Hesiod and Homer. Regarding his authorship of a work on the Jews (utilized by Josephus in Contra Apionem), it is conjectured that portions of the Aegyptiaca were revised by a Hellenistic Jew from his point of view and published as a special work.

Fragments in C. W. Mullers Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum.

References

"The Messenger of God in Hecataeus of Abdera", Francis R. Walton, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 48, #4 (Oct., 1955), p.255-257.
[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, edited by William Smith (1890)]

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