DEXIPPUS, PUBLIUS HERENNIUS

born c. 210 died after 270 Roman historian and Athenian statesman, one of the principal authorities for the history of the mid-3rd century AD. The Bibliotheca, a 9th-century encyclopaedia by Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, credits Dexippus with three major works: a four-book history of the diadochoi (successors) of Alexander the Great, a history of the struggle of Rome against the Goths after AD 238, and a 12-book annalistic chronicle from legendary times to AD 270. Although none of these survive, numerous fragments have been recognized in the compilations of later historians. Several Athenian inscriptions attest to the high public offices held by Dexippus, his father, and his children. He himself relates (in fragment 28) how he rallied about 2,000 of his fellow citizens to repel a Gothic attack on Athens, probably about 267.