Phlegon of Tralles

Who is Phlegon of Tralles?

Phlegon of Tralles was a Greek writer and freedman of the emperor Hadrian, who lived in the 2nd century AD.

His chief work was the Olympiads, an historical compendium in sixteen books, from the 1st down to the 229th Olympiad, of which several chapters are preserved in Eusebius' Chronicle, Photius and George Syncellus.

Two short works by him are extant:

On Marvels, a paradoxographical work containing stories about ghosts, prophecies by heads, monstrous births, hemaphrodites and giant skeletons.

On Long-lived Persons, a list of Italians who had passed the age of 100, taken from the Roman censuses.

Other works ascribed to Phlegon in the Suda are a description of Sicily, a work on the Roman festivals in three books, and a topography of Rome:

"Phlegon of Tralles, freedman of Augustus Caesar, but some say of Hadrian: historian. He wrote Olympiads in 16 books. Up to the 229th Olympiad they contain what was done everywhere. And these in 8 books: Description of Sicily; On long-lived and marvelous persons, On the feasts of the Romans 3 books, On the places in Rome and by what names they are called, Epitome of Olympic victors in 2 books, and other things.