Échos d’Ephore dans l’œuvre historique et ethnographique de Nicolas de Damas

Eforo di Cuma nella storia della stotriografia greca

Edith Parmentier (1)

1 CERHIO - Centre de Recherches Historiques de l'Ouest

The paper begins by introducing Nicolaus of Damascus, Herod the Great's secretary and author of a voluminous historical compilation comprising 144 books (FGrHist 90) from which more than 10 fragments have been identified as citations of Ephorus concerning the mythical (Return of the Heraclidae) and archaic Greece (tyranny). The article goes on to demonstrate that this already well known catalogue can be further completed with other echos, paraphrases or citations of Ephorus concerning Athens (the destitution of Hippomenes the Archon), Crete (its legislation and education system and practices) as well as the ways of life (mores) of Barbarians: Galactophagoi Scythians, Sarmatians and Mossynoikoi of the Pontus region, or to the West: Celtics and Iberians. Finally, we show that this repertory of fragments from Ephorus in Nicolaus of Damascus' Histories and Customs enriches the current Ephorus corpus by providing new fragments of Ephorus' work as well as adding to our current representation of his thought. In particular, these new fragments further the discovery of Ephorus'interest in geography and ethnography.

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Humanities and Social Sciences; History

Edith Parmentier. Échos d’Ephore dans l’œuvre historique et ethnographique de Nicolas de Damas. La Parola del passato : rivista di studi antichi, 2014, Eforo di Cuma nella storia della storiografia greca, a cura di Pia De Fidio-Clara Talamo, 58-59, pp.819-838. ⟨hal-02536630⟩