{{Short description|Ancient Greek geographer}}
'''Scymnus of Chios''' ({{langx|grc|Σκύμνος ὁ Xῖος}}; fl. c. 185 BC) was a [[Greece|Greek]] [[geographer]] from the island of [[Chios]]. It was thought he was the author of the ''Periodos to Nicomedes'', a work on [[geography]] written in [[Classical Greek]]. It is an account of the world (περιήγησις, ''[[wikt:periegesis|periegesis]]'') in 'comic' [[iambic trimeter]]s which is dedicated to a King Nicomedes of [[Bithynia]]. This is either [[Nicomedes II of Bithynia|Nicomedes II Epiphanes]] who reigned from 149 BC for an unknown number of years or his son, [[Nicomedes III of Bithynia|Nicomedes III Euergetes]].<ref name=hunter /> ==Attribution and publication of the Periegesis== It was first published at [[Augsburg]] in 1600. Because it was found together with the ''Epitomes'' of [[Marcian of Heraclea|Marcianus of Heraclea]] it was first published under his name. Because this was clearly a mistake [[Lucas Holstenius]] and [[Isaac Vossius]] were the first to attribute it to Scymnus of Chios because he was cited more than once by late grammarians as the author of a ''Periegesis''. It continued to pass under his name until 1846 when [[Augustus Meineke]], in republishing the extant fragments, showed clearly that there were no grounds for ascribing them to that Scymnus. The real work of Scymnus of Chios appears to have been in [[prose]] and the few statements cited from him have no resemblance to the ''Periodos to Nicomedes''.<ref name=bunbury /> Since then work has been attributed to [[Pseudo-Scymnus]].
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=bunbury>{{cite book|last=Bunbury|first=E. H.|authorlink=Edward Bunbury|year=1879|title=A History of ancient geography among the Greeks and Romans from earliest ages till the fall of the Roman Empire|volume=2|publisher=John Murray|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ahistoryancient04bunbgoog/page/n8 69]–74|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryancient04bunbgoog}}</ref> <ref name=hunter>{{cite book|last=Hunter|first=Richard|year=2006|chapter=The Prologue of the Periodos to Nicomedes ('Pseudo-Scymnus')|editor1-first=M. A.|editor1-last=Harder|editor2-first=R. F.|editor2-last=Regtuit|editor3-first=G. C.|editor3-last=Wakker|title=Groningen Workshops on Hellenistic Poetry: Beyond the Canon|series=Hellenistica Groninga|volume=11|publisher=Peters Publishers|location=Leuven|isbn=9789042918139|pages=123–140}}</ref> }}
==Further reading== *[[Aubrey Diller]], ''The Tradition of the Minor Greek Geographers'' (1952)
==External links== *[http://topostext.org/work.php?work_id=130 Partial English translation] by [[John Brady Kiesling]] at [http://topostext.org ToposText] *{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Scymnus|volume=24|page=519}}
{{Authority control}} [[Category:Ancient Greek geographers]] [[Category:Ancient Chians]] [[Category:2nd-century BC Greek writers]] [[Category:Peripluses]] [[Category:2nd-century BC geographers]]