Demetrius of Magnesia (Ancient Greek: Δημήτριος; 1st century BC) was a Greek grammarian and biographer, and a contemporary of Cicero and Atticus. He had, in Cicero's recollection, sent Atticus a work of his on concord, (Greek: Περὶ ὁμονοίας), which Cicero also was anxious to read. A second work of his, which is often referred to, was of an historical and philological nature, and treated of poets and other authors who bore the same name (Greek: Περὶ ὁμωνύμων ποιητῶν καὶ συγγραφέων). This important work, to judge from what is quoted from it, contained the lives of the persons, and a critical examination of their merits. For example, Demetrius is cited by Diogenes Laertius as a key source in his biography of the historian Xenophon, providing information about Xenophon that would otherwise be unknown.
Notes
- Cicero, ad Atticum, viii. 11, iv. 11
- Diogenes Laërtius, i. 38, 79, 112, ii. 52, 56, v. 3, 75, 89, vi. 79, 84, 88, vii. 169, 183, viii. 84, ix. 15, 27, 35, x. 13; Plutarch Vit. X. Orat, Demothenes 15, 27, 28, 30; Harpocrat. Ispios, and many other passages; Athenaeus, xiii.; Dionys. Deinarch. 1.
- D. H. Kelly, Xenophon’s Hellenika: a Commentary (ed. J. McDonald), Amsterdam, 2019, pp. 45-7.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)