Heraclides Lembus

Heraclides Lembus (Greek: Ἡρακλείδης Λέμβος Hērakleidēs Lembos) was an Ancient Greek statesman, historian and philosophical writer.

Heraclides was an Egyptian civil servant who lived during the reign of Ptolemy VI Philometor (2nd century BC). The Suda mentions a Heraclides of Oxyrhynchus, but according to Diogenes Laërtius he originated from Callatis or Alexandria. He was also named the son of Sarapion ('Lembus' is a nickname meaning 'cockboat').

He is said to have negotiated the treaty that ended Antiochus IV's invasion of Egypt in 169 BC. That Agatharchides of Cnidus became known by being his secretary is further evidence to his importance in the Ptolemaic administration.

His works (mainly excerpts and epitomes from earlier writers) survive only in fragments.

As a historian Heraclides has been discounted, as the selection criteria in his excerpts show a certain inclination towards the weird and sensational, e.g.:

Pantaleon, who was overbearing and severe, ruled among them [the Elians]. He castrated ambassadors who had come to him, and compelled them to eat their testicles.

His prime merit lies in the faithful transmission of otherwise lost sources (e.g. the missing first part of the Constitution of the Athenians).

The Histories were, presumably, criticised by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in The Arrangement of Words with regard to his Asiatic style.

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