Diony'sius or Diony'sius Scytobrachion
34. Of MYTILENE, was surnamed Scytobrachion, and seems to have lived shortly before the time of Cicero, if we may believe the report that he instructed M. Antonius Gnipho at Alexandria (Suet.
de Illustr. Gram. 7), for Suetonius expresses a doubt as to its correctness for chronological reasons. Artemon (apud
Athen. xii. p. 415) states, that Dionysius Scytobrachion was the author of the historical work which was commonly attributed to the ancient historian Xanthus of Lydia, who lived about B. C. 480. From this it has been inferred, that our Dionysius must have lived at a much earlier time.
But if we conceive that Dionysius may have made a revision of the work of Xanthus, it does not follow that he must needs have lived very near the age of Xanthus.
Works
Suidas attributes to him a metrical work, the expedition of Dionysus and Athena (
ἡ Διονύσου καὶ Ἁθηνᾶς στρατία), and a prose work on the Argonauts in six books, addressed to Parmenon.
He was probably also the author of the historic Cycle, which Suidas attributes to Dionysius of Miletus. The Argonautica is often referred to by the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, who likewise several times confounds the Mytilenean with the Milesian (1.1298, 2.207, 1144, 3.200, 242, 4.119, 223, 228, 1153), and this work was also consulted by Diodorus Siculus. (3.52, 66.)
Further Information
See Bernhardy,
ad Dionys. Perieg. p. 490; Welcker,
Der Ep. Cyclus, p. 87.
