Phaenias of Eresus (c. 375-300 BC) was a member of Aristotle's school, the "Peripatos" or "Lyceum," and a friend and compatriot of Aristotle's successor, Theophrastus. Phaenias's scholarly interests stretched from strictly philosophical treatises to chronology and the history of philosophy and poetry; to the lives, fortunes, and manners of death of tyrants; to biographical and historical themes and details of famous Athenians; to botanical and zoological issues; and even entertaining, "novelistic" stories and strange reports (Mirabilia).

This volume includes new scholarship,...