1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Phlegon

PHLEGON, of Tralles in Asia Minor, Greek writer and freedman of the emperor Hadrian, flourished in the 2nd century A.D. His chief work was the Olympiads, an historical compendium in sixteen books, from the 1st down to the 229th Olympiad (776 B.C. to A.D. 137), of which several chapters are preserved in Photius and Syncellus. Two small works by him are extant: On Marvels, containing some ridiculous stories about prophecies and monstrous births, but instructive as regards ancient superstitions; On Long-lived Persons, a list of Italians who had passed the age of 100, taken from the Roman censuses. Other works ascribed to Phlegon by Suïdas are a description of Sicily, a work on the Roman festivals in three books, and a topography of Rome.

Fragments in C. Müller, Frag. hist. graec. iii.; of the Marvels and Long-lived in O. Keller, Rerum naturalium scriptores, i. (1877), see also H. Diels, "Phlegons Androgynenorakel" in Sibyllinische Blätter (1890).