Demetrius of Magnesia

Demetrius of Magnesia (Greek: Δημήτριος; 1st century BC) was a Greek grammarian and biographer, and a contemporary of Cicero and Atticus.[1] He had, in Cicero's recollection, sent Atticus a work of his on concord, (Greek: Περὶ ὁμονοίας), which Cicero also was anxious to read. A second work of his, which is often referred to, was of an historical and philological nature, and treated of poets and other authors who bore the same name (Greek: Περὶ ὁμωνύμων ποιητῶν καὶ συγγραφέων).[2] This important work, to judge from what is quoted from it, contained the lives of the persons, and a critical examination of their merits. For example, Demetrius is cited by Diogenes Laertius as a key source in his biography of the historian Xenophon, providing information about Xenophon that would otherwise be unknown.[3]

Notes
  1. Cicero, ad Atticum, viii. 11, iv. 11
  2. Diogenes Laërtius, i. 38, 79, 112, ii. 52, 56, v. 3, 75, 89, vi. 79, 84, 88, vii. 169, 183, viii. 84, ix. 15, 27, 35, x. 13; Plutarch Vit. X. Orat, Demothenes 15, 27, 28, 30; Harpocrat. Ispios, and many other passages; Athenaeus, xiii.; Dionys. Deinarch. 1.
  3. D. H. Kelly, Xenophon’s Hellenika: a Commentary (ed. J. McDonald), Amsterdam, 2019, pp. 45-7.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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