Menander of Ephesus (Greek: Μένανδρος; fl. c. early 2nd century BC) was the historian whose lost work on the history of Tyre was used by Josephus, who quotes Menander's list of kings of Tyre in his apologia for the Jews, Against Apion (1.18).
"This Menander wrote the Acts that were done both by the Greeks and Barbarians,[1] under every one of the Tyrian kings, and had taken much pains to learn their history out of their own records." All records having been lost, this second-hand report is the basis for the traditional king-list. Menander, living in a city with a considerable population of Hellenized Jews,[2] also seems to have written on the history of the Jews, often cited by Josephus.[dubious – discuss]
- ^ The reference to the acts of "both by the Greeks and Barbarians" is a clear allusion to Herodotus, who uses the same expression in the introduction to his own work.
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: "Ephesus".