a celebrated Syracusan, was the son of Archonides or Archomenides, and was born about 435 B.C. His chief fame in ancient times was derived from his character as a historian. In this capacity his conduct was that of an inveterate time-server. He aided Dionysius the Elder in seizing the chief power at Syracuse, and afterwards became one of the most devoted supporters of the tyranny. Nor when the ungrateful despot banished him to Adria was his spirit cured of its servility. He gave vent to the most beseeching complaints in order to move the pity of his former patron. He sought to regain favour by giving, in the History of his country which he was then writing, a virtuous colouring to all the tyrant's unprincipled deeds. When all these devices had failed, and Dionysius the Elder had died in 367 B.C. without pardoning him, he assumed the same cringing attitude towards Dionysius the Younger. The interest of his friends at court was employed to procure his recall. No sooner had that object been attained, than he insinuated himself into the highest place in the young tyrant's confidence. He was continuing to hold that position by pandering to his master's vices, when the revolt of Dion in 356 B.C. brought about his overthrow. The defeat of the naval armament under his command drove him to commit suicide. The fragments of the works, and the facts of the biography of Philistus, are given in an appendix to Göller's De Situ et Origine Syracusarum, 8vo, Leipzig, 1818; and in Diodor's Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Paris, 1841.