Phili'nus
（
*Fili=nos).
1. A Greek of Agrigentum, accompanied Hannibal in his campaigns against Rome. and wrote a history of the Punic wars, in which he exhibited, says Polybius, as much partiality towards Carthage, as Fabius did towards Rome. His hatred against Rome may have been excited, as Niebulr has remarked (
Hist. of Rome, vol. iii. p. 573), by the unfortunate fate of his native town, which was stormed by the Romans in the first Punic war. How far the history of Philinus came down is uncertain; he is usually called by most modern writers the historian of the first Punic war; but we have the express testimony of Cornelius Nepos (
Annib. 13) that he also gave an account of the campaigns of Hannibal; and we may therefore conclude that his work contained the history of the second as well as of the first Punic war. (Corn. Nep.
l.c. ; Plb. 1.14,
3.26;
Diod. 23.8,
24.2,
3.) To this Philinus Müller (
Fragm. Hist. Graec. p. xlviii.) assigns a work
Περὶ Φοινίκης, which Suidas (
s. v. Φιλίσκος ἢ Φίλιστος) erroneously ascribes to Philistus.
