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Idomeneus (in Greek Iδoμενευς), of Lampsacus, was a friend and disciple of Epicurus, flourished about 310 - 270 BC. We have no particulars of his life, save that he married Batis, the sister of Sandes, who was also a native of Lampsacus, and a pupil of Epicurus.¹ Idomeneus wrote a considerable number of philosophical and historical works, and though the latter were not regarded as of very great authority², still they must have been of considerable value, as they seem to have been chiefly devoted to an account of the private life of the distinguished men of Greece.

The titles of the following works of Idomeneus are mentioned : 1. History of Samothrace ('Iστoρια των κατα Σαμoθρακην).³ This work is probably the one referred to by the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius. 2. On the Socratics (Περι των Σωκρατικων), of which some fragments survive.⁴

We do not know for certain the title of the work or works of Idomeneus, which contained some account of the following persons :--of the Peisistratidae⁵, of Themistocles6 of Aristides⁷, of Pericles⁸, of Demosthenes⁹, of Aeschines¹⁰, of Hyperides¹¹, and of Phocion.¹² It is not improbable that all these persons were mentioned in one work, to which modern writers have assigned various conjectural titles. The true title of the work is, however, in all probability On the Athenian leaders (Περι των Aθηνησι δημαγωγων).

References

Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Idomeneus", Boston, (1867)

Notes

1 Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, x. 23, 25; Strabo, Geography, xiii. 1; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, vii

2 Plutarch, Lives, "Demosthenes", 23

3 "Idomeneus" from the Suda

4 Diogenes Laertius, ii. 19-20; Athenaeus, xiii. 93

5 Athenaeus, xii

6 Ibid., xii, xiii. 37

7 Plutarch, "Aristides", 10

8 Ibid., "Pericles", 10, 35

9 Ibid., "Demosthenes", 15, 23; Athenaeus, xiii. 63