fl. c. 300 B.C.

Egyptian priest whose chronicle of his nation's history established the framework for the study of Egypt. His history, now lost, was in Greek, and probably had been commissioned by Ptolemy I (r. 305-282 B.C.). Elements of Manetho's work, including his tables of kings and their reigns, have survived in the writings of other historians. Manetho was the source for the division of Egyptian history into 30 dynastic periods, a system still used by Egyptologists today.