Phaenias of Eresus (c. 375–300 BC) was a member of Aristotle's school, the "Peripatos" or "Lyceum," and a friend and compatriot of Aristotle's successor, Theophrastus. Phaenias's scholarly interests stretched from strictly philosophical treatises to chronology and the history of philosophy and poetry; to the lives, fortunes, and manners of death of tyrants; to biographical and historical themes and details of famous Athenians; to botanical and zoological issues; and even entertaining, "novelistic" stories and strange reports (Mirabilia).

This volume includes new scholarship, with translation of source texts for the writings, thought, and influence of Phaenias (whose name also appears as "Phanias"and "Phainias"), as well as essays that take up various areas of his life and work in greater detail.

The chapters of Phaenias of Eresus cover a remarkable range of intellectual areas, which is in keeping with the varied interests of the early Peripatetics in general. Phaenias is thus an ideal model for exploring issues of specialization and differentiation in research in the early Peripatos.