Claudius Iolaus°

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CLAUDIUS IOLAUS°

CLAUDIUS IOLAUS ° (or Julius ), Phoenician historian of unknown date. The passage preserved from his writings in the sixth-century geographical lexicon of Stephanus of Byzantium gives the etymology of the name Judea as deriving from the legendary hero Oudaios (Οὑδαῖος), one of the men "sown" (spartoi) by Cadmus ("the man of the East," Heb. Kedem), who fought as the ally of Dionysius and is connected with the origins of Thebes. (This may explain the connection alleged by the Maccabees between the Jews and the Spartans.) Since the fragment mentions *Caesarea, the author cannot have antedated Herod the Great.

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