person
Philistus of Syracuse
Philistus
also: Philistum, Philisto
Sicilian Greek historian (c. 430-356 BC) and partisan of the Syracusan tyrants Dionysius I and II; author of a history of Sicily admired by Cicero as a compact Thucydides. In Q.fr 2.11 Cicero praises his close, sharp, brief style.
Reading notes
- Ad Quintum Fratrem 2.11 §4 almost a Thucydides in miniature
Philistus of Syracuse, the Sicilian historian whom Quintus has been reading, modelled his dense, compressed style on Thucydides; Cicero rates him far above Callisthenes, the historian of Alexander.