'''Menecles of Barca''' ({{langx|grc|Μενεκλῆς}}) was a Greek historian of the 2nd century BC.<ref name=KB>Kai Brodersen, [https://doi-org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e732180 "Menecles (2)"], in ''Brill's New Pauly Online'' (Brill, 2006).</ref> None of his works survives complete, but some are known from fragments. The only biographical information imparted by ancient authors is that he was from Barca in north Africa, as mentioned by Athenaios in ''Deipnosophists''.<ref name=MFW>Mary Frances Williams, [http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1873-5363_bnj2_a270 "Menekles of Barka (270)"], in ''Jacoby Online: Brill's New Jacoby'', Second Edition, Part III, edited by Ian Worthington (Brill, 2020).</ref>
The historian from Barca is known to have written a ''History of Libya'' ({{lang|grc|Libykaí Historíai}}) in four books.<ref name=KB/> Other works that are probably by the same Menecles are the ethnographic {{lang|grc|Synagōgḗ}} ('Compilation') and a ''Glossary'' ({{lang|grc|Glōssókomon}}) that gives definitions and etymologies of unusual words.<ref name=KB/><ref name=MFW/> A certain Menecles was the author, reviser or epitomator of the periegetic work ''On Athens'' ({{lang|grc|Perí Athēnṓn}}), but there is no consensus that this was the same person as the historian. Kai Brodersen considers it "doubtful whether [they are] identical",<ref name=KB/> but Mary Frances Williams cautions that "it is wrong to disregard the known Menekles of Barka in favor of an unknown and postulated Menekles the Perieget".<ref name=MFW/>
There are all together 14 fragments that have at times been assigned to Menecles.<ref name=MFW/> Listed by conventional number, topic and source, they are: *F1 – about the port of Piraeus, from a scholium on Aristophanes, ''Peace''<ref name=MFW/> *F2 – about a place in Athens called Hermai, from Harpocration's ''Lexicon of the Ten Orators''<ref name=MFW/> *F3 – about the Hekatompedon, from Harpocration's ''Lexicon of the Ten Orators''<ref name=MFW/> *F4a – about the Kerameikos, from a scholium on Aristophanes' ''Birds''<ref name=MFW/> *F4b – about the Kerameikos, from Harpocration's ''Lexicon of the Ten Orators''<ref name=MFW/> *F5 – about the fate of Queen Pheretima, from the ''Tractatus de mulieribus''<ref name=MFW/> *F6 – about King Battus I of Cyrene consulting the Oracle of Delphi, from a scholium on Pindar's ''Pythian Odes''<ref name=MFW/> *F7 – about the Pygmies, from Athenaios' ''Deipnosophists'' via Eustathius of Thessalonica's ''Commentary on the Iliad''<ref name=MFW/> *F8 – about the etymology of the word ''diakonion'' ({{lang|grc|διακόνιον}}), cited in the ''Suda''<ref name=MFW/> *F9 – about how the Alexandrians "were the teachers of all the Greeks and the barbarians at a time when the entire system of general education had broken down" during the Wars of the Diadochi and how they later suffered under Ptolemy VII, from Athenaios' ''Deipnosophists''<ref name=MFW/> *F10a – about Orestes consulting the Oracle of Delphi, from the ''Etymologicum Genuinum''<ref name=MFW/> *F10b – another about King Battus I of Cyrene consulting the Oracle of Delphi, from a scholium on Pindar's Pythian Odes<ref name=MFW/> *F10c – about Eurypylus as king of Cyrene and Battus I as founder, from John Tzetzes's ''Commentary'' on Lycophron's ''Alexandra''<ref name=MFW/> *F11 – about Heracles supposed expedition to Troy, from a scholium on Homer's ''Iliad''<ref name=MFW/>
F1–F4b are from ''On Athens'' and are attributed to Kallikrates or Menecles, one of whom was the author and the other a reviser or epitomator. It is not known which was which. Some have hypothesized an otherwise unknown writer, Menecles the Periegete, rather than identify this Menecles with the Libyan historian.<ref name=MFW/> ''On Athens'' was completed before Sulla's siege of Athens in 86 BC.<ref>Kai Brodersen, [https://doi-org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e732180 "Menecles (3)"], in ''Brill's New Pauly Online'' (Brill, 2006).</ref>
F5 is attributed to the ''Libyan History''<!-- and F6 presumably comes from the same source-->. F7 is from the {{lang|grc|Synagōgḗ}}. F8 is from the ''Glossary''.<ref name=MFW/>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Cyrenean Greeks Category:2nd-century BC Greek historians Category:Ancient Greek historians known only from secondary sources