DICTYS CRETENSIS, of Cnossus in Crete, the supposed companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War, and author of a diary of its events. The ms. of this work, written in Phoenician characters was translated into Greek by the order of Nero. In the 4th century A.D. a certain Lucius Septimius brought out Dictys Cretensis Ephemeris belli Troiani, which professed to be a Latin translation of the Greek version. Possibly the Latin Ephemeris was the work of Septimius himself. Its chief interest lies in the fact that (with Dares Phrygius's De excidio Troiae) it was the source from which the Homeric legends were introduced into the romantic literature of the middle ages.