Po'lemon
3. Of Athens by citizenship, but by birth either of Ilium, or Samos, or Sicyon, a Stoic philosopher and an eminent geographer, surnamed
ὁ περιηγήτης, was the son of Euegetes, and a contemporary of Aristophanes of Byzantium, in the time of Ptolemy Epiphanes, at the beginning of the second century B. C. (Suid. s.v. Ath. vi. p. 234; Clinton,
F. H. vol. iii.
sub ann. B. C. 199).
In philosophy he was a disciple of Panaetius.
He made extensive journeys through Greece, to collect materials for his geographical works, in the course of which he paid particular attention to the inscriptions on votive offerings and on columns, whence he obtained the surname of
Στηλοκόπας, (Ath.
l.c. ; Casaub.
ad loc.) As the collector of these inscriptions, he was one of the earlier contributors to the
Greek Anthology, and he wrote a work expressly,
Περὶ τῶν κατὰ πόλεις ἐπιγραμμάτων (Ath. x. pp. 436, d., 442, e.); besides which, other works of his are mentioned, upon the votive offerings and monuments in the Acropolis of Athens, at Lacedaemon, at Delphi, and elsewhere, which no doubt contained copies of numerous epigrams. Hence Jacobs infers that, in all probability, his works formed a chief source of the
Garland of Meleager (
Animadv. in Anth. Graec. vol. i. Prooem. pp. xxxiv. xxxv.). Athenaeus and other writers make very numerous quotations from his works, the titles of which it is unnecessary to give at length. They are chiefly descriptions of different parts of Greece; some are on the paintings preserved in various places, and several are controversial, among which is one against Eratosthenes. (Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 184; Vossius,
de Hist. Graec. pp. 159, foil. ed. Westermann; Clinton,
F. H. vol. iii. p. 524, where a list of his works is given.)
