Antiochus of Syracuse

Antiochus of Syracuse was an ancient Greek historian of the second half of the 5th century BC

About his life is only known that he has witnessed the year 423 BC. It can be based on this date but still hold that Antiochus of Syracuse was a contemporary of the Peloponnesian War, and thus of Thucydides.

Antiochus collected various local historical traditions (Sicily, southern Italy area) and before that probably mainly orally transmitted foundation narratives, sighted this critical ( mythology hardly matters ) and processed them into two major works, of which we know only fragments: Sikelika ( 9 books, probably detailed and equipped with the name of the colony founders settlement history of Sicily from the time of King Kokalos until the Peace of Gela 424/423 BC) and " About Italy " ( 1, settlement history, historical and geographical description of southern Italy and Sicily ).

The ancient contemporaries and historians appreciated his works there because of their accuracy, therefore quotes Sikelika find in Pausanias (x. 11, § 3), Clement of Alexandria and Theodoret, quotes from " About Italy " in Strabo and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( I. 12, 22, 35, 73)

The fragments are collected in: The fragments of Greek historians (No. 555 ) or in Brill 's New Jacoby (No. 555, there with an English translation, commentary and biographical sketch of Nino Luraghi ).