Author Description

This two-volume edition (with commentary in Latin) of the surviving fragments of the works of minor Greek historians was published by German philologist Ludwig August Dindorf (1805-71) in 1870-1. Brother of the better known scholar K. W. Dindorf, Ludwig collaborated with him for nearly thirty years on an edition of Robert Estienne's Thesaurus linguae graecae, and published on several Greek historians, but led such a reclusive life that his name was sometimes thought to be a pseudonym. Many of the authors in this edition are classed as 'minor' largely because so little of their output has survived. For example, according to later sources, Nicolaus Damascenus (born c.64 BCE) was a friend of Herod the Great, and tutor to the children of Antony and Cleopatra. He wrote a history of the world in 144 volumes, scientific works, and biographies of Augustus and Herod, of which only fragments remain.