Damastes of Sigeum was a 5th-century BCE Greek historian and geographer, a contemporary of Herodotus. Ancient sources indicate he was a student of the historian Hellanicus of Lesbos. He came from Sigeum in the Troad, placing him within the Ionian intellectual tradition.
His fragmentary works include Events Concerning Greece and Persia, a historical account; On Poets and Sophists, a biographical catalogue; and Circuit of the Earth (or Periegesis), a geographical treatise.
Damastes is a minor logographer of the pre-Thucydidean tradition. His fragments place him among the early Greek historians and geographers, blending myth, genealogy, and history. Later authors like Strabo and Harpocration cite him for details on genealogies and place names.
Available Works
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