(), son of Euthyphron or Euphron, born at
Heracleia, in Pontus, and said by Suidas to have been descended from Damis, one of those who
originally led the colony from Thebes to Heracleia. He was a person of considerable wealth,
and migrated to Athens, where he became a pupil of Plato, and Suidas says that, during Plato's
absence in Sicily, his school was left under the care of Heracleides. He paid attention also
to the Pythagorean system, and afterwards attended the instructions of Speusippus, and finally
of Aristotle. He appears to have been a vain and luxurious man, and so fat, that the Athenians
punned on his surname,
Diogenes Laertius (5.186, &c.) gives a long list of his writings, from which it appears that he wrote upon philosophy, mathematics, music, history, politics, grammar, and poetry; but unfortunately almost all these works are lost.
There has come down to us a small work, under the name of Heracleides, entitled
Variae Historiae, at Rome
in 1545
Another extant work,
We further read in Diogenes (on the authority of Aristoxenus, surnamed Phalaris, p. 239), to prove that the
fragments attributed to Thespis are really cited from these counterfeit tragedies of
Heracleides. The genuineness of one fragment he disproves by showing that it contains a
sentiment belonging strictly to Plato, and which therefore may naturally be attributed to
Heracleides.
Some childish stories are told about Heracleides keeping a pet serpent, and ordering one of his friends to conceal his body after his death, and place the serpent on the bed, that it might be supposed that he had been taken to the company of the gods. It is also said, that he killed a man who had usurped the tyranny in Heracleia, and there are other traditions about him, scarcely worth relating.
There was also another Heracleides Ponticus of the same town of Heracleia, a grammarian, who lived at Rome in the reign of the emperor Claudius. The titles of many of his works are mentioned by Diogenes and Suidas.
Vossius, de Histor. Graec. p. 78, &c. Köler, Fragmenta de Rebus publicis, Hal. Sax. 1804; Roulez, Commentatio de
Vita et Scriptis Heraclidue Pontic., Lovanii, 1828; Deswert, Dissertatio de Heraclide Pont., Lovanii, 1830.