Phlegon of Tralles
Phlegon, of Tralles in
Asia Minor,
Greek writer and freedman of the emperor
Hadrian, flourished in the
2nd century AD.
His chief work was the Olympiads, an historical compendium in sixteen books, from the 1st down to the 229th Olympiad (776 BC to AD 137), of which several chapters are preserved in Photius and Syncellus. Two small works by him are extant:
- On Marvels, containing some ridiculous stories about ghosts, prophecies and monstrous births, but instructive as regards ancient superstitions
- On Long-lived Persons, a list of Italians who had passed the age of 100, taken from the Roman censuses.
Other works ascribed to Phlegon by
Suidas are a description of
Sicily, a work on the Roman festivals in three books, and a topography of
Rome.
Fragments in C Müller, Frag. hist. graec. iii.; of the Marvels and Long-lived in O Keller, Rerum naturalium scriptores, i. (1877); see also H Diels, "Phlegons Androgynenorakel" in Sibyllinische Bücher (1890).
Reference