Aretades of Cnidus (Ἀρητάδης ὁ Κνίδιος)

Life Aretades was a historian from the city of Cnidus in Caria. He is believed to have been active sometime between the 4th and 2nd centuries BCE, though his precise dates are unknown. No further biographical details survive.

Works His sole attested work is On the Tyrants in Sicily (Περὶ τῶν ἐν Σικελίᾳ τυράννων), which is now lost. It survives only through fragments and later testimony. Photius records that it was a concise, single-volume history covering Sicilian tyrants from Phalaris of Acragas to Dionysius II of Syracuse [1].

Significance Aretades is a minor historian whose significance rests entirely on this fragmentary work. It served as a source for later compilers like Photius and the Suda [2], and is occasionally referenced in modern scholarship on the historiography of Sicilian tyranny. The work’s extremely fragmentary state limits its independent value.

Sources 1. Photius, Bibliotheca, codex 176 (The Tertullian Project): https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/photius_03bibliotheca.htm#176 2. Suda lexicon, entry Aretades (Suda On Line): https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/alpha/3938