Phylo Byblius

PHILO BYBLIUS (HERENNIUS PHILO): Greek grammarian and historian; b. in 63 A.D. (not 42, as was usually given); d. after 141. Knowledge of him comes principally through Suidas, though he is mentioned not infrequently by the Church Fathers, particularly by Origen (Contra Celsum, i. 15; Eng. transl., ANF, iv. 403) and Eusebius (Præparatio Evangelica, i. 9–10; Eng. transl., 2 vols., Oxford, 1903). Suidas makes him an ambassador to Rome in the time of Hadrian, and a friend of Herennius Severus (from whom he took his name Herennius), consul in 141 A.D. Three of the many works ascribed to him are often referred to: "Concerning Cities and the Famous Men they have produced," "Phenician History" or "Things Phenician" (a professed translation of a work by Sanchuniathon, q.v.); and "Concerning Jews," about which it is debated whether it was an independent work or merely an excursus to or a chapter in the "Phenician History," with the probability inclining in favor of the former alternative. The quotations from his "Phenician History" are supposed to make him out to be a Euhemerist;. but it is to be remembered that if this work is really a translation from the putative author, Sanchuniathon, Philo can not be held responsible for the trend of opinion there expressed. Only fragments remain of his works in citations by Eusebius.

Geo. W. Gilmore.

Bibliography: The fragments are collected in C. and T. Muller, Fragmenta historicorum Græcorum, iii. 580–576, 4 vols., Paris, 1841–51. Consult H. Ewald, in the Abhandlungen of the Royal Society of Göttingen, v (1853); E. Renan, in the Mémoires of the Academy of Inscriptions, xxiii. 2 (1858), 241 sqq.; W. von Baudissin, Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, i. 3 sqq.. Leipsic, 1878; Schürer, Geschichte, and Eng. transl., Introduction, §§ 3, 18; and literature under Sanchuniathon.