Timotheus of Miletus (Τιμόθεος ὁ Μιλήσιος) was a Greek historian of the late 5th and early 4th centuries BCE, a contemporary of the historian Androtion who lived during the reign of the Persian king Artaxerxes II Mnemon [1]. A native of Miletus, he wrote in the Ionic dialect.

His known work is On Kings (Περὶ Βασιλέων), a history of the Persian Empire in at least ten books that spanned from Cyrus the Great to at least Artaxerxes II [1]. The work is now lost, surviving only in fragments cited by later authors like Plutarch, who used it for details on Persian customs and history [2].

Timotheus represents the Ionian tradition of ethnography and Near Eastern history. His On Kings was a significant source on Persia for later classical writers, contributing to the Greek understanding of the Achaemenid Empire alongside figures like Ctesias of Cnidus.

Sources 1. Suda, entry Tau, 621 (via Suda On Line): https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/tau/621 2. Plutarch, Life of Artaxerxes, 1.3, 6.9, 13.3-4, 27.5 (cited in secondary scholarship; the fragments of Timotheus are collected in Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 115). The use of Timotheus by Plutarch is noted in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics entry on Ctesias, which lists Timotheus among the Greek historians of Persia: https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-1927 3. Encyclopædia Britannica (entry on Greek historiography references historians of Persia, though Timotheus is not named specifically): https://www.britannica.com/topic/historiography/Greek-historiography 4. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (entry on Timotheus of Miletus): https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dtimotheus-bio-15