Historical Fragments Anonymous On the Surveyor of Syria in Greek

The work On the Surveyor of Syria is known only as a title preserved in the Suda, a 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, within its entry for the historian Arrian. The encyclopedia lists it among writings of uncertain authorship sometimes attributed to Arrian. No fragments or content from the work itself survive. The title indicates the lost text likely concerned an administrative official, a land surveyor or geōmetrēs, in the Roman province of Syria. It may have addressed topics related to provincial bureaucracy, land measurement, taxation, or regional geography. The work is entirely lost, with its title transmitted solely through this single Byzantine reference. Its significance is purely historiographical, serving as a minor record of the vast number of ancient writings that have not survived into the modern era.