Thrasyllus of Mendes°

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THRASYLLUS OF MENDES°

THRASYLLUS OF MENDES ° (d. 36 c.e.), mathematician, astrologer, and philosopher, author of a chronicle quoted by *Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis, 136. 3 = Jacoby, fgr h 2 b. 253), which, according to Jacoby, should perhaps be attributed instead to *Ptolemy of Mende. In it he dates the Exodus as occurring during the reign of the legendary Greek king Inachus, 345 years before the Sothiac cycle (i.e., 1676 or 1666 b.c.e.). The use of the Sothiac cycle suggests an Egyptian origin for the chronology. A similar synchronization of Moses and Inachus was made by Ptolemy of Mende, *Apion, *Justus of Tiberias, *Polybius, *Thallus, and *Varro.

[Louis Harry Feldman]