Ma'rsyas
2. Of Philippi, commonly called the Younger (
ὁ νεώτερος), to distinguish him from the preceding, with whom he has frequently been confounded.
The period at which he flourished is uncertain: the earliest writers by whom he is cited are Pliny and Athenaeus.
The latter tells us that he was priest of Heracles. (
Athen. 11.467c.)
The works of his which we find cited, are, 1.
Μακεδονικά, whether a geographical or strictly historical treatise is uncertain; it contained at least six books. (Harpocr.
s. v. Λητή.) 2.
Ἀρχαιολογία, in twelve books, mentioned by Suidas; probably, as suggested by Geier, the same with the
Ἀττικὰ attributed by the lexicographer to the elder Marsyas. 3.
Μυθικά, in seven books.
The two last works are erroneously attributed by Suidas, according to our existing text, to a. third Marsyas, a native of Taba, but it has been satisfactorily shown that this supposed historian is no other than the mythical founder of the city of Taba (Steph. Byz.
s. v. Τάβαι), and that the works ascribed to him belong in fact to Marsyas of Philippi.
All the questions concerning both the elder and the younger Marsyas are fully discussed, and the extant fragments of their works collected, by Geier,
Alexandri M. Historiar. Scriptores aetate suppares, Lips. 1844, pp. 318-340. (See also Droysen,
Hellenism. vol. i. pp. 679-682; Bernhardy,
ad Suid. s. v. Μαρσύας.)
[
E.H.B]
