Philistus
（
Φίλιστος). A Greek historian of Syracuse, born about B.C.
435. He encouraged the elder Dionysius, by advice and assistance, in securing and maintaining
the position of despot in his native State; but was himself banished by Dionysius in 386, and
lived a long while at Adria in Epirus, busied with historical studies. Recalled by Dionysius
the younger, he counteracted the salutary influence of Dion and Plato at that tyrant's court,
and brought about the banishment of both. As commander of the fleet against Dion and the
revolted Syracusans, he lost a naval battle, and in consequence either committed suicide or
was cruelly murdered by the angry populace (356 B.C.). He left an historical work, begun in
his exile, called
Sicelica (
Σικελικά), a
history of Sicily in thirteen books. Books i.-vii. dealt with the events of the earliest times
to the capture of Agrigentum by the Carthaginians in 406; viii.-xi., with the rule of the
elder Dionysius; xii. and xiii., with that of the younger. The last portion, which remained
incomplete owing to his death, was finished by his countryman Athanas. Only unimportant
fragments of this have survived. According to the judgment of the ancients, he imitated
Thucydides somewhat unsuccessfully, and betrayed in his work the one-sided attitude natural to
his political views (
Dion, 36;
Ad Cn. Pompeium, 5). The
fragments of Philistus are edited by C. Müller in his
Frag. Hist.
Graec. (Paris, 1841).
