Nikostratos of Trebizond

Nikostratos of Trebizond was an ancient Greek historian . He lived in the 3rd century.

Almost nothing is known about Nikostratos, who came from Trebizond on the Black Sea coast. A note in the church history of Euagrios Scholastikos (late 6th century) shows that he wrote a historical work that has not survived:

In the work of Nikostratos, the Sophist from Trebizond, the events of Philip, Gordian's successor, to Odainathus from Palmyra and the shameful campaign of Valerian against the Persians are presented.

The work accordingly dealt with the period from 244 to the defeat of Valerian against the Sassanids and the battles of Septimius Odaenathus of Palmyra against the Persians at the beginning of the sixties of the 3rd century. In research, the assumption was expressed that Nikostratos glorified Odaenathus in his work and tried to represent him as equal to the Roman emperors, and even superior ruler through his successes against the Persians. This is why his history could have been written around the Palmyra court.

Nikostratos is one of a number of Greek-speaking historians active in the 3rd century, such as Cassius Dio , Herodian , Ephorus the Younger , Philostratos of Athens and Dexippus . Euagrios speaks of a few other historians of this time whose works, such as that of Nikostratus, have not survived - for example of a certain Eusebios , whom some researchers (probably incorrectly) want to equate with Eusebius of Nantes .

Edition with translation

Entry in Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP) .

Bruno Bleckmann , Jonathan Gross: Historians of the Imperial Crisis of the 3rd Century I ( Small and fragmentary historians of late antiquity ). Paderborn 2016, ISBN 978-3-506-78490-2 , pp. 67-73.

literature

Paweł Janiszewski: Nikostratos. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , p. 262
Paweł Janiszewski: The Missing Link. Greek Pagan Historiography in the Second Half of the Third Century and in the Fourth Century AD. Warszawa 2006, pp. 92-96.

Remarks

↑ Euagrios 5:24. See The Fragments of Greek Historians No. 98 and Brill's New Jacoby No. 98, respectively .
^ David S. Potter: Prophecy and history in the crisis of the Roman Empire. A historical commentary on the thirteenth Sibylline oracle . Oxford 1990, p. 71.
↑ Udo Hartmann : The Palmyrenian Partial Kingdom . Stuttgart 2001, p. 306.
↑ See Hartwin Brandt : Dexipp and the historiography of the 3rd century AD . In: Martin Zimmermann (eds.): History and political change in the 3rd century AD.. . Stuttgart 1999, p. 179f.

personal data
SURNAME	Nikostratos of Trebizond
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek historian
DATE OF BIRTH	3rd century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Trebizond
DATE OF DEATH	3rd century

[1] Euagrios 5:24. See The Fragments of Greek Historians No. 98 and Brill's New Jacoby No. 98, respectively .

[2] David S. Potter: Prophecy and history in the crisis of the Roman Empire. A historical commentary on the thirteenth Sibylline oracle . Oxford 1990, p. 71.

[3] Udo Hartmann : The Palmyrenian Partial Kingdom . Stuttgart 2001, p. 306.

[4] See Hartwin Brandt : Dexipp and the historiography of the 3rd century AD . In: Martin Zimmermann (eds.): History and political change in the 3rd century AD.. . Stuttgart 1999, p. 179f.