Heracleides of Oxyrhinchis

Heracleides of Oxyrhynchus (in Egypt) (Ancient Greek: Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ὀξυρυγχίτης) was, according to the Suda, an ancient historian, while Diogenes Laërtius calls him a Callatian, or Alexandrian.^[1] He lived in the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator, that is, the 3rd century BCE.

Works

• Histories (ἱστορίαι) - Heracleides wrote a great work, entitled ἱστορίαι, of which the thirty-seventh book is quoted;^[2]
• Succession (διαδοχή) - Another, under the title διαδοχή, in six books,^[1] which was probably of the same kind, if not identical with his ἐπιτομὴ τῶν Σωτίωνος διαδοχῶν.^[3]
• Abridgement of the Biographical Work of Satyrus - He further made an abridgement of the biographical work of Satyrus.^[4]
• Λεμβυτυκὸς λόγος - Heracleides wrote a work called Λεμβυτυκὸς λόγος, from which he received the nickname of ὁ Λέμβος.^[5][6]

Issues with names

He is often called, after his father, Heracleides, the son of Serapion, and, under this name, the Suda attributes to him also philosophical works. It is not impossible that he may be the same as the Heracleides who is mentioned by Eutocius, in his commentary on Archimedes, as the author of a life of that great mathematician.

Notes

1. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 5.94
2. Athen. 3.98, xiii. p. 578
3. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 5.79
4. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 8.40, 9.25
5. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 5.94
6. Photios I of Constantinople, Bibliotheca 213

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Leonhard Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Heracleides". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 2. p. 390.