Athenaeus Mechanicus is the author of a book on siegecraft, On Machines (Ancient Greek: Περὶ μηχανημάτων Perì mēchanēmátōn).
He is identified by modern scholars with Athenaeus of Seleucia, a member of the Peripatetic school active in the mid-to-late 1st century BC, at Rome and elsewhere.
[3] He was for some time the leading demagogue in his native city, but afterwards came to Rome and became acquainted with Lucius Licinius Varro Murena.
Among the earlier mechanicians cited as sources by Athenaeus are Agesistratus, Diades of Pella, and Philo of Byzantium.
"[1] Much of Athenaeus' work (9.4–27.6) is closely parallel to Vitruvius, De architectura 10.13–16, a fact probably to be explained by the two authors' shared reliance on a common source.