Socrates of Rhodes (Σωκράτης ὁ Ῥόδιος)

Life Socrates of Rhodes was a Greek historian of the 1st century BCE. His ethnonym indicates he was from the island of Rhodes. No details of his personal life survive beyond his identity as a contemporary historian of the late Roman Republic [1][2].

Works His only known work is a lost history of the period, preserved only in fragments and a summary by the 9th-century Byzantine patriarch Photius in his Bibliotheca (Codex 92) [1][2]. Photius’s summary indicates the history covered approximately 60–30 BCE, focusing on the conflict between Octavian and Mark Antony and culminating in the Battle of Actium. It is sometimes referred to as Historical Notes [1][2].

Significance Socrates provides a significant, though fragmentary, Greek perspective on the final civil war of the Roman Republic. His detailed and sometimes sensational accounts, including descriptions of Antony and Cleopatra, were used by later historians like Plutarch [1][2]. His work is an important historiographical link for this transitional period.

Sources 1. Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0615%3Asection%3D1 2. ToposText (Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation): https://topostext.org/people/1415