JUSTIN’S EPITOME OF THE PHILIPPIC HISTORIES OF POMPEIUS TROGUS
Gnaius Pompeius Trogus wrote, late in the 1st century BC, a universal history in forty-four books, which he called Historiae Philippicae et Totius Mundi Origines et Terrae Situs (Philippic Histories and the Origin of the Whole World and the Places of the Earth). It is lost, but it was paraphrased in the 2nd century AD by an otherwise unknown M. Junianius Justinus as the Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi (Epitome of the Philippic Histories of Pompeius Trogus).
Presented here are all references Greek love in all the books; (there are none in the prologues). The translation is by J. C. Yardley for the Loeb Classical Library 557, published by the Harvard University Press in 2024. The Latin forms he uses for Greek names have been replaced by transliterated Greek ones.
VIII 6 iv-viii
On how Philip II King of the Macedonians seduced his wife’s brother Alexander, a beautiful boy, and later, in 342 BC, established him as King of Epirus in place of his uncle. See Philip II (382-336 BC), King of the Macedonians for this story.
IX 6 i-viii
On how Philip II King of the Macedonians was assassinated at Aigai in 336 BC by Pausanias for having honoured rather than punished the man who had raped him. See Philip II (382-336 BC), King of the Macedonians for this story.
Describing a happening in October 324 BC, while Alexander the Great and his army were at Ecbatana.
| In the course of this one of his friends died, Hephaistion, who was very dear to the king, at first for his good looks and boyish charms, and later for his devotion to him. Breaking with regal decorum Alexander long mourned for him and he built him a tomb costing twelve thousand talents and ordered him posthumously worshipped as a god.[1] | [xi] Dum haec aguntur, unus ex amicis eius Hephaestion decedit, dotibus primo formae pueritiaeque, mox obsequiis regi percarus. [xii] Quem contra decus regium Alexander diu luxit tumulumque ei duodecim milium talentum fecit eumque post mortem coli ut deum iussit. |
XXII 1 1-v
On how Agathokles, tyrant of Sicily, had, during his pubescence, prostituted himself to men. This passage is presented in the article on Agathokles (ca. 361-289 BC), King of Sicily.
Recounting events during the reign 222-204 BC of King Ptolemy IV “Philopator”, and writing of his mistress, Agathokleia, a Greek courtesan:
| After that the license increased and the whore’s effrontery could no longer be confined within the palace walls, as she became all the more shameless with the king’s daily debaucheries that were shared with her brother Agathokles, a good-looking boy prostituting himself for advancement. There was also their mother Oinanthe, who by the allure of her two children had the king under her thumb. So not content with just having the king under them they were also now appropriating the kingdom, now appearing in public, now being saluted, now being attended by a retinue. Agathokles, always at the king’s side, would be the one ruling the state, while tribunates, governorships and military commands were dispensed by the women, and in his kingdom no one had less power than the king himself, when he meanwhile died and left a five-year-old son whom he had had by his sister Eurydike.[2] | [i] Dehinc crescente licentia iam nec parietibus regiae domus contineri meretricis audacia potest, [ii] quam proterviorem sociata cum Agathocle fratre, ambitiosae pulchritudinis scorto, cotidiana regis stupra faciebant. [iii] Accedebat et mater Oenanthe, quae geminae subolis inlecebris devinctum regem tenebat. [iv] Itaque non contenti rege iam etiam regnum possident, iam in publico visuntur, iam salutantur, iam comitantur. [v] Agathocles regis lateri iunctus civitatem regebat, tribunatus et praefecturas et ducatus mulieres ordinabant; nec quisquam in regno suo minus poterat quam rex ipse, [vi] cum interim relicto quinquenni ex Eurydice sorore filio moritur. |
Ptolemy Philopator died in the summer of 204 BC, when Agathokles became joint guardian of the boy King Ptolemy V and thus effective co-ruler of Egypt. In October the next year, the people of Alexandria rose up against him and he and his mother and sisters were killed by a mob.
[1] Hephastion was Alexander’s closest friend, about whom he felt very strongly indeed. Inevitably therefore, in the last half-century, gays have claimed them as (adult) lovers. This has either been held in doubt or fiercely rejected by historians on the grounds that, if true, it is inexplicable that the ancient sources did not say so. Arrian says nothing about it in his Anabasis of Alexander, though Hephaistion is frequently mentioned. Likewise Plutarch, whose biography of Alexander describes him as the lover of the Persian boy Bagoas. Curtius Rufus did the same, adding Parmenion’s son Hektor, “in the fine flower of his youth”, as an earlier boy loved by Alexander.
Under the circumstances, not nearly enough attention has been made to this important passage of Justin’s Epitome. Hephaistion, who was the same age as Alexander, “had been brought up with him” (Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander III 12 xvi), so when Justin’s Epitome says he had been dear to him “at first for his good looks and boyish charms” [emphasis added], he is clearly referring to when they were both boys, and when he continues “and later for his devotion to him”, he is also making clear that the basis of his devotion had shifted once Hephaistion was no longer a boy. This fits well with the fact that, Hephaistion aside, Alexander is not recorded as romantically entangled with anyone before he became King, but with plenty thereafter. Had he really remained Hephaistion’s lover when they were men, Justin’s Epitome, with its clear hostility to Alexander, would have been the last source to say otherwise, as it would have made Hephaistion a kinaidos (a despised sexual invert).
Alexander’s only known sexual tastes were conventional (women and boys) and there are no grounds for supposing Hephaistion a kinaidos. Rather, they enjoyed a strong and lifelong bond originally forged through pederasty, a rather common phenomenon in ancient Greek literature. One might venture to suggest something on these lines to explain the similarly-debated friendship of Alexander’s revered ancestor Achilles with Patroklos except that there is no ancient source like Justin to spell it out.
[2] The husband of Oinanthe and father of Agathokles was another Agathokles, who himself was the grandson of Agathokles (ca. 361-289 BC), King of Sicily, much involved in Greek love and hence the subject of an article on this website. Polybios, The Histories XV 25-34 gives a much more detailed account of the fall of the youngest Agathokles and his family, but his account of their rise is lost, so Justin is the sole surviving source for Agathokles having prostituted himself. The fullest surviving account of this family early in Ptolemy IV’s reign is in Plutarch’s Life of Kleomenes, which mentions Agathokleia, but not Agathokles, after describing how Ptolemy, following his succession, plunged into wantonness with women and κιναίδους. κιναίδους meant males who took the passive sexual role with men, which was despised, and was not used of boys. Hence Justin is the only surviving source for Ptolemy having a liaison with a boy.