Cleidemus
Κλείδημος
(Κλείδημος), an ancient Athenian author. Meursius is inclined to believe (Peisistr. 100.2), that the name, where it occurs in Plutarch, Athenaeus, and others, has been substituted, by an error of the copyists, for Cleitodemus, who is mentioned by Pausanias (10.15) as the most ancient writer of Athenian history.
Works
We find in Athenaeus the following works ascribed to Cleidemus:--
1. Ἐξηγητικός.
(Athen. 9.410a.) This is probably the same work which is referred to by Suidas (s. v. Ὕης). Casaubon (ad Athen. l.c.) and Vossius (de Hist. Graec. p. 418, ed. Westermann) think that it was a sort of lexicon; but it seems rather to have been an antiquarian treatise, in verse, on religious rites and ceremonies. (Comp. Ruhnken, ad Tim. s. v. Ἐξηγηταί.) We cannot fix the exact period at which Cleidemus flourished, but it must have been subsequently to B. C. 479, since Plutarch refers to his account of the battle of Plataea. (Plut. Arist. 19.)
2. Ἀτθίς
(Athen. 6.235a.), the subject of which seems to have been the history and antiquities of Attica. It is probably the work quoted by Plutarch (Plut. Thes. 19, 27), who mentions prolixity as the especial characteristic of the author.
3. Πρωτογονία
also apparently an antiquarian work. (Athen. 14.660a.)
4. Νόστοι
A passage from the eighth book of which is referred to by Athenaeus (xii. p. 609c.), relating to the first restoration of Peisistratus and the marriage of Hipparchus with Phya. (Comp. Hdt. 1.60.)
Further Information
See further references in Vossius (l.c.).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.