Timonides of Leucas (Τιμωνίδης ὁ Λευκάδιος)

Life Timonides of Leucas was a 4th-century BCE Greek historian and military officer. He was a close companion and fellow philosophical student of Dion of Syracuse, whom he accompanied on the 357 BCE expedition to overthrow the tyrant Dionysius II [1]. Timonides served as an officer in Dion’s forces and was entrusted with the command of Syracuse during a critical engagement [1]. He later authored a historical account of the campaign.

Works His sole known work, On Dion (or The Dion Expedition), detailed the events of Dion’s Sicilian campaign. The work is now lost, surviving only through fragments and citations in later authors like Plutarch [1].

Significance Timonides’s significance stems from his dual role as an active participant and a primary historian of Dion’s expedition. His eyewitness account was used as a key source by Plutarch and provides a valuable contemporary perspective on the political struggles in Syracuse and the intersection of Platonic circles with practical politics in the 4th century BCE [1].

Sources 1. Plutarch, Life of Dion (Perseus Digital Library): https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0009%3Achapter%3D31