''Cory's Ancient Fragments'' is compendium of

literary fragment A literary fragment is a piece of text that may be part of a larger work, or that employs a 'fragmentary' form characterised by physical features such as short paragraphs or sentences separated by white space, and thematic features such as discon ...

s of texts by ancient writers, collected and published by the British

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

and miscellaneous writer Isaac Preston Cory (1802–1842). The first edition was published in 1826, further followed by a revised edition containing various ancient

king-lists A regnal list or king list is, at its simplest, a list of successive monarchs. Some regnal lists may give the relationship between successive monarchs (e.g., son, brother), the length of reign of each monarch or annotations on important reigns. T ...

(e.g. those recorded by the early

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty *Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining t ...

-era priest and historian

Manetho Manetho (; ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος, ''fl''. 290–260 BCE) was an Egyptian priest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who lived in the early third century BCE, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period. Little is certain about his ...

). A further enlarged edition appeared in 1876, edited by historian E. Richmond Hodges, which added many more ancient fragments.

Fragments (1826, 1832 ed.)

Phoenician

Sanchuniathon Sanchuniathon (; Ancient Greek: ; probably from , " Sakkun has given"), variant ''šknytn'' also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial ...

Babylonian

Berossus Berossus () or Berosus (; ; possibly derived from ) was an early-3rd-century BCE Hellenistic civilization, Hellenistic-era Babylonia, Babylonian writer, priest of Bel (mythology) , Bel Marduk, and Babylonian astronomy, astronomer who wrote i ...

Abydenus Abydenus or Abydenos () was a Greek historian who wrote a history of Assyria and Babylonia entitled ''On the Assyrians''. Only some fragments are preserved by Eusebius in his '' Praeparatio Evangelica'' and the Armenian translation of his '' Chroni ...

Nicolaus of Damascus Nicolaus of Damascus (Greek: , ''Nikolāos Damaskēnos''; Latin: ''Nicolaus Damascenus''; – after 4 AD) was a Greek historian, diplomat and philosopher who lived during the Augustan age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his ...

Alexander Polyhistor Lucius Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor (; flourished in the first half of the 1st century BC; also called Alexander of Miletus) was a Greek scholar who was enslaved by the Romans during the Mithridatic War and taken to Rome as a tutor. After his r ...

Eupolemus Eupolemus () is the earliest Hellenistic Jewish historian whose writing survives from Antiquity. Five (or possibly six) fragments of his work have been preserved in Eusebius of Caesarea's ''Praeparatio Evangelica'' (hereafter abbreviated as ''Pr ...

Thallus Thallus (: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. A thallus usually names the entir ...

Ctesias Ctesias ( ; ; ), also known as Ctesias of Cnidus, was a Greek physician and historian from the town of Cnidus in Caria, then part of the Achaemenid Empire. Historical events Ctesias, who lived in the fifth century BC, was physician to the Acha ...

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

Castor of Rhodes Castor of Rhodes (), also known as Castor of Massalia or Castor of Galatia according to the ''Suda'', or as Castor the Annalist, was a Greek grammarian and rhetorician. He was surnamed Philoromaeus (Φιλορώμαιος, meaning Lover of Rome) a ...

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

Marcus Velleius Paterculus Marcus Velleius Paterculus (; ) was a Roman historian, soldier and senator. His Roman history, written in a highly rhetorical style, covered the period from the end of the Trojan War to AD 30, but is most useful for the period from the death o ...

Egyptian

, Artapanus,

Chaeremon of Alexandria Chaeremon of Alexandria (; , ''gen.:'' ; fl. 1st century AD) was a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher and historian who wrote on Egyptian mythology from a "typically Stoic" perspective. Life According to the Suda, he was the head of the Alexandrian s ...

Manetho copied down from the ancient Egyptian inscriptions a list of eight successive Persian kings, beginning with

Cambyses Cambyses may refer to: * Cambyses I, King of Anshan 600 to 559 BCE * Cambyses II, King of Persia 530 to 522 BCE * Cambyses, ancient name of the Iori river in the South Caucasus * '' Cambyses Romance'', a prose narrative * ''Cambyses'', a tragedy ...

, the son of

Cyrus the Great Cyrus II of Persia ( ; 530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Media ...

, at the request of

Ptolemy Philadelphus Ptolemy II Philadelphus (, ''Ptolemaîos Philádelphos'', "Ptolemy, sibling-lover"; 309 – 28 January 246 BC) was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy I, the Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general ...

(266 BCE – 228 BCE). :Cambyses (Artaxerxes) b. Cyrus = reigned over Persia, his own kingdom, for 5 years, and over Egypt for 6 years. :Darius (II), the son of Hystaspes = reigned 36 years. :Xerxes (Artaxerxes), the Great, b. Darius = reigned 21 years. :Artabanus = reigned 7 months. :Artaxerxes (Cyrus) b. Xerxes the Great = reigned 41 years. :Xerxes = reigned 2 months. :Sogdianus = reigned 7 months. :Darius (III), the son of Xerxes = reigned 19 years. It is to be noted here that between Cambyses' reign and Darius, the son of Hystaspes, there was an interim period whereby the

Magi Magi (), or magus (), is the term for priests in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Per ...

ruled over Persia. This important anecdote is supplied by

who wrote the Magian ruled Persia for 7 months after the death of Cambyses.

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, on the other hand, says they obtained the government of the Persians for a year.

Tyrian

Menander of Ephesus Menander of Ephesus (; fl. c. early 2nd century BC) was the historian whose lost work on the history of Tyre was used by Josephus, who quotes Menander's list of kings of Tyre in his apologia for the Jews, '' Against Apion'' (1.18). "This Menan ...

Indian

Megasthenes Megasthenes ( ; , died 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, indologist, diplomat, ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book '' Indica'', which is now lost, but has been partially reconstructe ...

Cleitarchus Cleitarchus or Clitarchus () was one of the historians of Alexander the Great. Son of the historian Dinon of Colophon, he spent a considerable time at the court of Ptolemy Lagus. He was active in the mid to late 4th century BCE. Quintilian ('' ...

Carthaginian

Hanno the Navigator Hanno the Navigator (sometimes "Hannon"; , ; ) was a Ancient Carthage, Carthaginian explorer (sometimes identified as a king) who lived during the 5th century BC, fifth century BC, known for his Navy, naval expedition along the coast of West A ...

Fragments (1876 ed.)

Hodges added more ancient fragments including a section of "miscellaneous fragments" of ancient writers (e.g.

Sallust Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (, ; –35 BC), was a historian and politician of the Roman Republic from a plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became a partisan of Julius ...

Agatharchides Agatharchides or Agatharchus ( or , ''Agatharchos'') of Cnidus was a Greek historian and geographer (flourished 2nd century BC). Life Agatharchides is believed to have been born at Cnidus, hence his appellation. As Stanley M. Burstein notes, the ...

). However, Hodge removed Cory's original fragments from

neoplatonists Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common i ...

, which he considered to be forgeries..

External links

''Cory's Ancient Fragments'', 1832 ed.
* Classics publications 1826 non-fiction books {{ref-book-stub