Ephippus from Olynthus

Ephippus of Olynthus was an ancient Greek historian . He lived in the 4th century BC. Chr.

Ephippus came from the city of Olynth , which was founded by the Macedonian king Philip II , the father of Alexander the great , in 348 BC. Chr. Was destroyed, which is why his birth is to be set before this time. It is unclear whether he took part in the Alexanderzug , as equating the historian with other well-known people of this name is problematic.

Ephippus wrote a work entitled On the Death of Hephaistion and Alexander or On the Burial of Alexander and Hephaistion , of which only a few fragments have survived. This work differs from the writings of other Alexander historians in that it only dealt with the final phase of the life of the Macedonian king. From the few fragments it is evident that Ephippus drew an extremely hostile picture of Alexander, which may be due to Alexander's condemnation of Callisthenes of Olynthus . His work was evidently a diatribe. In the fragments of the pamphlet, Alexander is accused of excessive alcohol consumption and denounced his ostentatiousness. There was open fear at court that the king was murderous and insane.

The credibility of Ephippus is controversial due to the obvious tendency of his work, although not all of his statements can be generally disqualified as untrue. The fact that the atmosphere at Alexander's court can hardly be regarded as harmonious is also covered by other sources, even if these are based on a tradition that is rather negative compared to Alexander. The work of Ephippus was used by Athenaios in the following period .

Text output

• The Fragments of the Greek Historians No. 126

literature

• Waldemar Heckel : Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire . Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2006, p. 118
• Klaus Meister : The Greek historiography . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1990, p. 112f.
• Lionel Pearson: The Lost Histories of Alexander the Great . Blackwell, Oxford 1960, pp. 61-67 ( online version ).