Ptolemy Chennus orChennos ("quail") (Koine Greek:Πτολεμαῖος ΧέννοςPtolemaios Chennos), was anAlexandrine grammarian during the reigns ofTrajan andHadrian.[1]
According to theSuda,[2] he was the author of an historical drama namedSphinx, of an epic,Anthomeros, in 24 books (both lost) and aStrange History. The last is probably identical with theNew History in six books ascribed byPhotius toPtolemy Hephaestion, of which a summary outline has been preserved in Photius'Biblioteca (cod. 190),[1][3] who observed sarcastically of its credulous author that he found it "a work really useful for those who undertake to attempt erudition in history," for "it abounds in extraordinary and badly imagined information." Photius goes on to say, "In any case, the majority of his stories which are free of things impossible to believe, offer a knowledge above the ordinary, but which is not unpleasing."[4]
It was dedicated to the author's lady, Tertulla, and contained a medley of all sorts of legends and fables belonging to both the mythological and historical periods.[1] An identification withPtolemy-el-Garib has been suggested, but this is no longer accepted.[5]
See editions of Photius's abridgment by Joseph-Emmanuel-Ghislain Roulez (Ptolemaei Hephaestionis Novarum historiarum ad variam eruditionem pertinentium excerpta e Photio, 1834); and inAnton Westermann,Mythographi graeci (1843);Rudolf Hercher,Über die Glaubwürdigkeit der neuen Geschichte des Ptolemaus Chennus (Leipzig, 1856);John Edwin Sandys,History of Classical Scholarship (2nd ed., 1906).[1]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ptolemaeus".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.