Menodotus the Historian (Μηνόδοτος ὁ ἱστορικός) was a Greek author of the 2nd century CE. No details of his life, origins, or education survive. He is known solely as a historian, with his dating inferred from his citation alongside the contemporaneous writer Aristocles of Messene [1].

His only attested work is the History of the Tyrants of Pergamum (Τυραννίδες τῶν ἐν Περγάμῳ τυράννων), which is not extant. It survives in fragments preserved by the later biographer Diogenes Laërtius, who used it as a source for information on philosophers connected to Pergamum, such as the skeptic Timon of Phlius [1][2].

Menodotus’s significance lies entirely in his role as a fragmentary source for later compilers. His work provided biographical and historical details for Diogenes Laërtius’s Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, making him a minor source for the history of Pergamum and certain Hellenistic philosophers [1][2].

Sources 1. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (Perseus Digital Library): https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0258:book=9:chapter=12&highlight=menodotus 2. ToposText: https://topostext.org/people/1430