Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Menippus

（Μένιππος).

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1.

A Greek philosopher of Gadara in Syria, who flourished about B.C. 250. He was originally a slave, and afterwards an adherent of the Cynic School of philosophy. His writings (now completely lost) treated of the follies of mankind, especially of philosophers, in a sarcastic tone. They were a medley of prose and verse, and became models for the satirical works of Varro (hence called Saturae Menippeae), and afterwards for those of Lucian. (See Satira.)

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2.

A Carian orator of Cicero's time, and regarded by many as almost equal to the great Attic orators.

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3.

A geographer of Pergamus, who, in the Augustan Age, wrote a Periplus, of which an abridgment was made by Marcianus (q.v.).