Phylarque

Phylarchos or Phylarque (in Greek old Φύλαρχος / Phúlarkhos ), born with Naucratis v. 210 av. J. - C., Greek historian.

Phylarque is the author of a historical treaty in 28 pounds reporting the events in Greece since the invasion of the Peloponnese by Pyrrhus until the death of Cléomène III, King de Sparte of 235 with 219. The treaty had to take the continuation of the work of Hieronymos de Cardia.

Polybe ( Stories , III, 56) the judge very severely, showing it to make history with feeling and of launching “uncontrolled assertions, advanced with light”: “on any occasion, endeavors to offer to our imagination scenes of horror. ”

It is probable that it is the bias pro Spartan of Phylarque which upset Polybe thus, Athenian pro . Plutarque takes as a starting point the part on Cléomène and Aratos for its parallel Vies , even if it uses this source with prudence. He declares thus, about the death of Thémistocle:

“One should not either believe Phylarque, which introduces into the history a kind of two ex machina , as in a tragedy: he utilizes I do not know which Démoclès and Démopolis, wire of Thémistocle, to cause a debate and to inspire by the emotion. It is a forged history of all parts, no one cannot be unaware of it. ”

( Life of Thémistocle , XXXII, 4, transl. Anne-Marie Ozanam)

Trogue Pompée also uses it as source.

There remains to us work of Phylarque only fragments. A part is preserved to us by Athénée, in its Banquet of the sophists . It constitutes an invaluable source on the history and civilization Spartans.

In Philology, it is often indicated under the abbreviation “Phylarq. ”

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