A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Ἔφιππος), of Olynthus, a Greek historian of Alexander the Great.

It is commonly believed, though no reason is assigned, that Ephippus lived about or shortly after the time of Alexander. There is however a passage in Arrian (Arr. Anab. 3.5.4) which would determine the age of Ephippus very accurately, if it could be proved that the Ephippus there mentioned is identical with the historian. Arrian says, that Alexander before leaving Egypt appointed Aeschylus (the Rhlodian) and Ephippus τὸν Χαλκιδέως, superintendants (ἐπίσκοποι) of the administration of Egypt. The reading τὸν Χαλκιδεως, though adopted by the recent editors of Arrian, is not in all MSS., and some editions read Χαλκιδόνα or Χαλκηδόνα; but if we might emend Χαλκιδέαα, we should have reason for supposing that the person mentioned by Arrian is the same as Ephippus of Olynthus, for Olynthus was the principal town in Chalcidice, and Ephippus night just as well be called a native of Olynthus as of Chalcidice. If the Ephippus then in Arrian be the same as the historian, he was a contemporary of Alexander and survived him for some time, for he wrote an account of the king's burial.

[L.S]