Marsyas ofPella (Ancient Greek:Μαρσύας Περιάνδρου Πελλαῖος;c. 356 BC –c. 294 BC^[citation needed]), son of Periander, was aGreek historian. According to theSuda Encyclopedia, he was a brother ofAntigonus I Monophthalmus, who was afterwards king of Asia, by which anuterine brother alone can be meant, as the father of Antigonus was named Philip. Both of these statements point to his being of noble birth, and appear strangely at variance with the assertion that he was a mere professional grammarianGrammatodidascalus, a statement which Robert Geier^[1] conjectures plausibly enough to refer in fact toMarsyas of Philippi. Suidas, indeed, seems in many points to have confounded the two. The only other fact transmitted to us concerning the life of Marsyas, is that he was appointed byDemetrius Poliorcetes to command one division of his fleet in theBattle of Salamis in Cyprus (306 BC) (Diodorus, xx. 50.). However, this circumstance is alone sufficient to show that he was a person who himself took an active part in public affairs, not a mere man of letters. It is probable that he followed the fortunes of his stepbrother Antigonus.

His principal work was a history of Macedonia,Makedonika, in 10 books, commencing from the earliest times, and coming down to the wars of Alexander in Asia, when it terminated abruptly in 331 BC, with the return of the monarch into Syria, after the conquest of Egypt and the foundation of Alexandria. It is repeatedly cited byAthenaeus,Plutarch,Harpocration,Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus andJustin (historian). Suidas also speaks of a history on the education ofAlexander, (Αλεξάνδρου αγωγή) and a treatise on the history of antiquities ofAthens (Αττικά) in 12 books, which is considered byBernhardy and Geier to be the same withArchaeology ofMarsyas the younger.

• Marsyas of Philippi

• FGrHist 135/6 (Fragments).
• W. Heckel.Marsyas of Pella, Historian of Macedon. Hermes 108 (1980), pp. 444–462.
• R. Laqueur, RE 14.2, cols.1998-1999, s.v. Marsyas 9.

• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology^[usurped] byWilliam Smith (lexicographer)
• Suidas μ 227
• Sources for Alexander the Great ByNicholas G. L. Hammond
• Marsyas of Macedon

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