Pompeius Trogus°
POMPEIUS TROGUS°
POMPEIUS TROGUS ° (c. first century b.c.e.), Roman historian of the Augustan age. His comprehensive Historiae Philippicae (perhaps completed in 9 c.e.), concentrating on the Macedonian-Hellenistic empires, is not extant. However, an abstract made by Justin in the third or fourth century c.e., and the prefaces to all 44 books, remain. The Jews are first discussed in Book 36 in the context of events in the reign of *Antiochus Sidetes. The account falls into three sections: antiquities (archaeology); a geographical description of Judea; and the history of the Jewish nation from the Persian period. The first section is a combination of the biblical account, a Damascene account, and the hostile Greek-Egyptian tradition. Pompeius Trogus emphasizes the close connection existing between the priesthood and the monarchy in Jewish affairs, and his work reflects the conditions prevailing under the Hasmonean monarchy. He undoubtedly had access to Greek sources, evidently among them Timagenes. The preface to Book 39 shows that he also extended his history to later developments in Hasmonean Judea.
bibliography:
Reinach, Textes, 250–8; I. Heinemann, Poseidonios' metaphysische Schriften, 2 (1928), 80–81; L. Ferrero, Struttura e metodo dell' Epitome di Giustino (1957), 120–3.
[Menahem Stern]