Baton of Sinope
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Baton of Sinope | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3rd century AD Sinope (modern-day Turkey) |
| Died | Unknown |
| Occupation |
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Baton of Sinope (Ancient Greek: Βάτων ὁ Σινωπεύς, romanized: Bátōn ho Sinōpéus, fl. late 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek historian and grammarian of the Hellenistic period.
Baton was apparently active in the second half of the third century BC, as we can deduce from the fact that Eratosthenes of Cyrene polemicized against him.[1] Polybius[2] also polemicized against his overly dramatic description of the death (in 214 BC) of the Syracusan tyrant Hieronymus.
Another piece of chronological evidence is offered by Plutarch,[3] who writes in his Life of Agis:
Baton of Sinope says that Agis was unwilling to give battle although Aratus urged it; but Baton has not read what Aratus wrote [in his memoirs, now lost] about this matter, urging in self-defence that he thought it better, now that the husbandmen had gathered in almost all their crops, to suffer the enemy to pass by, instead of risking everything in battle.
Since Aratus' memoirs were published only after Aratus' death in 213 BC, Baton's unfamiliarity with the book might indicate that he wrote sometime prior to 213 BC.