Julius Pollux was a Greek scholar and teacher of the 2nd century CE. Born in Naucratis, a Greek city in Egypt, he studied under the rhetorician Adrian of Tyre. His career was advanced by the emperor Commodus, who appointed him to a prestigious public professorship in rhetoric at Athens. This position aligned him with the Second Sophistic, an intellectual movement focused on reviving classical Greek oratory.

Pollux's significance stems from his sole surviving work, the Onomasticon. This extensive Greek thesaurus is organized thematically rather than alphabetically. Its subject-based chapters cover a wide array of topics, such as the human body, ships, music, and legal institutions. The work was intended as a practical resource for orators and students seeking to employ the pure, classical vocabulary of Attic Greek, a central aim of the contemporary Atticist movement.

Beyond its original purpose, the Onomasticon is now prized as a major historical and philological resource. It offers unique glimpses into the daily life and material culture of the ancient world. The text also preserves quotations and references from numerous earlier Greek authors and works that are otherwise lost, making it an invaluable source for classical scholarship.