Part 23

=Cĕbēs=: of Thebes, a pupil of Socrates and a _persona_ in Plato’s _Phaedo_. He is chiefly known for his (if it is his) symbolic picture or ‘table’ of human life.

=Cĕrămeicus (-í-)=: a suburb without, and a broad street within, the west walls of Athens.

=Cercópes=: mythical gnomes, mischievous and thievish, who annoyed Heracles by their monkey-like tricks.

=Chábrȋas=: Athenian commander at various times between 392 and 357 B.C., gaining some successes by land and sea against the Spartans. An able tactician, adventurous, but of somewhat dissolute life.

=Chalcis=: chief town of Euboea (Negropont), once a most important commercial centre.

=Charēs=: Athenian general, of whose various operations we have records for 367-333 B.C. A man of little principle. He effected little against the Macedonians, and often followed independent and useless lines of action.

=Chármȋdes=: uncle of Plato, who names one of his Socratic dialogues after him. At the supposed date he was a beautiful and charming youth, and the discussion is upon ‘self-control’.

=Chīlōn=: of Lacedaemon: _fl._ _c._ 600-570 B.C. Poet and coiner of maxims, and shrewd man of affairs.

=Chryséïs=: captive woman assigned to Agamemnon; surrendered by him at the bidding of Apollo, in order to check a pestilence.

=Cimōn=: son of Miltiades, became prominent as a commander against the Persians in 477 B.C. His chief exploit was the victory of Eurymedon, 466 B.C. A handsome, liberal, affable, but somewhat self-indulgent person.

=Cīnésias=: Athenian dithyrambic poet, much satirized by Aristophanes and others. His verse, music, and character appear all to have been of an inferior order.

=Claudia=: Roman maiden, who, in full vindication of her chastity, was enabled to move the vessel containing the image of Cybele when it stuck fast in the Tiber.

=Cleánthes=: Stoic philosopher, pupil and successor of Zeno (q. v.) 263 B.C. The only fragment of his writing still extant is from a Hymn to Zeus.

=Cleárchus=: (1) of Heraclea on the Black Sea; availed himself of faction to make himself despot and tyrant (365 B.C.). Despite the precautions described by Plutarch he was assassinated in 353 B.C.

(2) Of Sparta, leader of the 10,000 Greeks in the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against Babylon; decoyed and put to death by the Persians, 401 B.C. The retreat was led by Xenophon (q.v.).

=Cleisthĕnes=: Athenian noble, who adopted the popular cause and made important democratic changes in the constitution; _fl._ from 510 B.C.

=Cleitus= (=Clītus=): a Macedonian commander under Alexander, whose life he saved at the battle of Granícus (334 B.C.). He was killed (328 B.C.) by Alexander with a spear-thrust, after a quarrel at a carousal, in which he had spoken with excessive freedom to his chief.

=Cleobulínë=: daughter (as the name implies) of Cleobulus (q.v.). Though her father is said to have named her Eumetis (‘sagacious’), the word may be suspected of being an afterthought.

=Cleobúlus=: _c._ 610-560 B.C. A citizen of Lindus in Rhodes, who became its despot. His position may have been similar to that of Pittacus (q.v.).

=Cleómĕnes=: Cleomenes III, high-minded king of Sparta, 240-222 B.C. On his defeat by the Achaeans he fled to Ptolemy Euergetes, with whom he was in alliance. The next Ptolemy (Philopator) suspected and imprisoned him.

=Cleōn=: a tanner of Athens; an able but coarse-grained leader of the popular party 428-422 B.C. A special enemy of Aristophanes (q.v.), whose fiercest political attacks are delivered against him. A self-sufficient amateur in military operations, in one of which he was slain.

=Clódius=: P. Clodius Pulcher; a daring and unscrupulous person, who became quaestor in 61 B.C. and tribune of the plebs in 59 B.C. The notorious and relentless enemy of Cicero. Killed by Milo on the high road 52 B.C.

=Colónus=: a suburb of Athens outside the north wall, with a small hill, grove, and sanctuary.

=Cólophōn=: Greek town of Asia Minor, near the Aegean coast, about ten miles north of Ephesus.

=Cornelia=: daughter of Scipio Africanus; the famous ‘mother of the Gracchi’; the type of matronly virtue, dignity, cultivation, and high example.

=Crátĕrus=: a noble type of Macedonian; one of Alexander’s generals. After the death of his chief (323 B.C.) he became colleague with Antipater in the Graeco-Macedonian portion of the empire. See also under Eumenes.

=Cratēs=: of Thebes; pupil of Diogenes (q.v.) at Athens; _fl._ _c._ 320 B.C. A Cynic philosopher in practice as well as theory, he renounced his wealth and led the simple life in a cheerful manner. A philosophic writer and a tragic poet.

=Croesus=: king of Lydia 560-546 B.C. A wealthy and powerful ruler, who made war upon the Persians when their empire was growing rapidly under Cyrus. Was defeated and carried off in the train of the conqueror. While in power he was in friendly or hostile relations with various Greek states, and was particularly noted for his liberality to the Delphian oracle. Whether Solon ever actually had the famous interview with Croesus is chronologically doubtful, but it is not impossible.

=Cyáxares=: king of Media, appears in Xenophon’s _Cyropaedia_ as uncle of Cyrus the Great, but the whole book is something of a romance.

=Cýpsĕlus=: father of Periander, established himself as despot of Corinth _c._ 656 B.C. His name was commonly associated with _cypsele_ (‘chest’). The designs upon him in his infancy were those of a Corinthian noble house, and were made in consequence of an oracle foretelling danger from the child.

=Cyrus=: (1) the elder: the famous Persian monarch, founder of the empire, and subjugator of Babylon. The stories told of him in the _Cyropaedia_ of Xenophon are largely romance.

(2) the younger: satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, &c., who sought, but failed, to dispossess his brother Artaxerxes with the assistance of a Greek force (401 B.C.). This was the expedition related in Xenophon’s _Anabasis_.

=Daphnūs=: a river running into the Corinthian Gulf on the north side not far from the entrance.

=Dāríus=: (1) Darius I; strong and able king of Persia (521-485 B.C.), previously satrap under Cyrus the Great. This is the Darius mentioned in connexion with Gobryas.

(2) Darius II (Ochus or Nothus), or Darius the Younger, a weak monarch endangered by perpetual rebellions, 424-405 B.C.

(3) Darius Codomannus, overthrown by Alexander. Died 330 B.C.

=Délos=: central island of the south half of the Aegean, with a temple of Apollo, the gathering-place of a great religious confederacy of Ionians.

=Dēmarátus=: of Corinth, in friendly relations with Philip and a mediator between him and Alexander after their quarrel in 337 B.C.

=Dēmétrius=: (1) Demetrius I (or Poliorcetes), king of Macedonia. His father Antigonus, king of Asia, sent him in 307 B.C. to annex Greece, then under Cassander and Ptolemy. It was at this time that he took Megara and met with Stilpo (q. v.).

(2) Demetrius Phaléreus: Athenian orator and writer (345-283 B.C.); an able and cultivated man, put in charge of Athens by the Macedonians, 317 B.C. First highly honoured, then expelled, he made his way to Thebes and subsequently to Alexandria.

(3) The name of several Macedonian officers in the army of Alexander.

=Dēmócrȋtus=: _c._ 460-360 B.C. Of Abdēra in Thrace. A great traveller and student, who developed (though he did not invent) the ‘Atomic Theory’. Ethically his aim was cheerfulness of mind (hence ‘the laughing philosopher’). His character was of the highest for truth and simplicity.

=Dicaeárchus=: philosopher from Massana in Sicily; writer on history and geography. A follower of Aristotle, _fl._ _c._ 300 B.C.

=Díŏcles=: the narrator of the Dinner of the Seven Sages: professional seer, and interpreter and expiator of omens and dreams. Nothing is known of such a person outside Plutarch.

=Diógĕnes=: (1) the Cynic philosopher of Sinope, who migrated to Athens, and after being captured by pirates was sold as a slave to a Corinthian. Whether or not he ever lived in the famous (earthenware) ‘tub’ is doubtful. He was distinguished for his plainness of life, his shrewd good sense, his independence, and his caustic tongue.

(2) Tragic poet of Athens, _c._ 404 B.C.

=Diōn=: of Syracuse, brother-in-law of the elder Dionysius (q. v.). On the visit of Plato to Sicily he became a disciple of that philosopher. The younger Dionysius resented his reputation and his harshness. Dion therefore removed to Athens and other parts of Greece, whence he returned with a force, expelled Dionysius, and was himself appointed practically dictator. Assassinated 353 B.C.

=Dionysius=: (i) the elder: despot of Syracuse (‘sole general’) 405-367 B.C. He extended its power over a great part of Sicily, and strongly fortified the city itself. In the end he became a veritable tyrant. Like many other despots he affected literature and philosophy, and himself wrote bad verses. After inviting Plato to Syracuse he quarrelled with and dismissed that philosopher.

(2) the younger, who succeeded his father. For a time he was under the influence of Dion (q.v.) assisted by Plato. Of weaker character and more licentious than his father, he was compelled to abandon Syracuse after a rule of eleven years. Insecurely restored ten years later he was again driven out by Timoleon (343 B.C.). The remainder of his life was spent in poverty at Corinth, where he is said to have taught an elementary school.

=Dōdóna=: in Epirus, near the modern Janina; a very ancient seat of the worship of Zeus.

=Dolōn=: a Trojan in the _Iliad_, who undertakes to penetrate the Achaean camp as a spy, but is slain in the attempt.

=Dryópians=: a people of Central Greece.

=Elephantínë= = Djesiret-el-Sag; a garrisoned island in the Nile (First Cataract) opposite the modern Assouan; the frontier town of Egypt towards Ethiopia.

=Empédŏcles=: Sicilian physical and practical philosopher of Acragas (= Girgenti); _fl._ _c._ 450 B.C. His studies of nature specially qualified him for the cure or ‘purification’ of epidemics due to insanitary conditions. His travels took him to Athens and other parts of Greece. The legend went that he threw himself into the crater of Etna.

=Eōs=: = Aurora, dawn-goddess; wife of Tithonus; mother of Memnon, the opponent of Achilles.

=Epáminōndas=: a type of patriotism, particularly to his compatriot Plutarch. The greatest of Theban commanders and statesmen, especially famous for his victory over the Spartans at Leuctra (371 B.C.). So far as he applied any philosophy to life, it was that of Pythagoras.

=Éphŏrus=: historian of Cumae, _fl._ _c._ 340 B.C. His history, once very famous and much discussed, covered a period of 750 years.

=Epichármus=: _c._ 540-450 B.C.; the great comic poet of Sicily, chiefly associated with the court of Hiero I (q.v.) at Syracuse.

=Epicúrus=: 342-270 B.C. Athenian philosopher and founder of the Epicurean school, of which the aim was ‘peace of mind’ or ‘freedom from emotional disturbance’. His own life (as his tenets required) was simple and wholesome, and the self-indulgence of the sect in later days was either a parody or a misconception of his teachings. A voluminous writer on physics and ethics, but with a bad style.

=Epiménȋdes=: priest-prophet and bard of Crete, with peculiar knowledge of medicine and methods of purification. Many fables were current concerning him (e.g. of his sleep of fifty-seven years). He was called in by the Athenians (_c._ 596 B.C.) to cleanse their city of a plague.

=Epimétheus=: brother of Prometheus (q.v.). The name was taken to mean ‘After-thinker’, and hence arose a notion that he ‘thought too late’.

=Erasístrătus=: a very distinguished physician in the earlier part of the third century B.C. He practised and taught in Syria and Alexandria. An eminent student of anatomy.

=Eratósthĕnes=: librarian of Alexandria under the Ptolemies; a writer on mathematical geography, history, and grammar. Died about 196 B.C.

=Érĕsus=: a town on the south-west coast of Lesbos (Mytilene); birthplace of Theophrastus.

=Erétria=: the second town of Euboea, a little south of Chalcis. See Lelantum.

=Erínys=: a spirit of vengeance sent up from the underworld to punish unnatural crimes and offences.

=Éteŏcles=: (legendary): son of Oedipus, joint king of Thebes with Polyneices, whom he expelled through a selfish desire to rule alone.

=Euénus=: two poets of Paros are so named, one of the date of Socrates and one earlier. It is, and was anciently, difficult to distinguish between the two.

=Eúmĕnes=: an eminent and very able general (and also secretary) of Alexander, after whose death he obtained (322 B.C.) the chief command in Asia. His subordinate Neoptolemus, governor of Armenia, made head against him with the help of Craterus. Their defeat, mentioned in the article on Garrulity, took place in Cappadocia in 321 B.C.

=Eúpŏlis=: one of the three chief poets of the ‘old’ comedy of Athens, a contemporary of Aristophanes (q.v.).

=Eurípides=: 480-406 B.C.; third in date of the three great Athenian tragedians. His works were numerous and uneven. His poetical merits were (and are) variously estimated.

=Fabius Maximus=: the best known person of the name was Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator, who saved Rome by his waiting tactics against Hannibal; but the one who was associated with Polybius, as pupil and patron, was Q. F. M. Aemilianus, consul in 145 B.C., who served against Macedonia and in Spain.

=Góbryes=: one of the seven Persian nobles (Darius being another) who conspired against the usurper Smerdis the Mage. Darius was raised to the throne and Gobryes became one of his lieutenants.

=Górgȋas=: of Leontini in Sicily: orator, rhetorical teacher, and sophist, who visited Athens 427 B.C. and subsequently. His style, which was highly artificial, was widely imitated. He is the Gorgias of Plato’s dialogue.

=Gorgo=: of Sparta; wife of Leonidas and daughter of Cleomenes I. Stories of her wisdom and sagacity are told by Herodotus (6. 49, 7. 239).

=Gylippus=: Spartan general who came to the rescue of Syracuse and chiefly caused the utter collapse of the Athenian attack upon that city. After the fall of Athens (404 B.C.) it was his business to convey to Sparta the 1,500 talents of booty. He opened the seams of the sacks, filched about one-fifth of the amount, but was betrayed by the inventories enclosed.

=Harmódius=: a handsome youth of Athens associated with Aristogeiton (the older man) in the assassination of Hipparchus, brother of the despot Hippias in 514 B.C. Though Athens was not liberated till four years later, these tyrannicides were canonized as saviours of their country.

=Hecuba=: the aged wife of Priam, and mother of Hector.

=Hephaestus=: practically the Greek equivalent of the Latin Vulcan or Fire-God. He is represented as a lame, but sturdy and somewhat humorous deity, a master of smithcraft.

=Hēracleides= (=Héraclides=): It is not clear to which person of the name Plutarch refers. The best known was Heracleides Ponticus, a pupil of Plato and a miscellaneous writer.

=Hēracleitus= (=Hēraclítus=): physical philosopher of Ephesus, _fl._ _c._ 515 B.C. Famous for the compression of his style, which became so cryptic that he earned the title of the ‘Obscure’. He was something of a hermit and favoured the simple vegetarian life. The ‘weeping philosopher’.

=Hermíŏne=: daughter of Menelaus and Helen; married to Neoptolemus (son of Achilles) and jealous of Andromache, whom she tried to put to death.

=Hēródŏtus=: _c._ 484-400 B.C.; the so-called ‘Father of History’. He travelled widely in the East and in the Grecian world, and wrote on Lydia, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, and the great Persian war. His desire is to get at the facts, but he displays a naïve fondness for story-telling and for wonders and miracles.

=Hēróphȋlus=: of Chalcedon; a most eminent physician and a discoverer in anatomy and physiology; _fl._ _c._ 300 B.C.

=Hiero I=: or the Magnificent, despot of Gelon and Syracuse (478-467 B.C.), and most powerful Sicilian of his day. Poets at one time or other associated with his court were Epicharmus, Xenophanes, Simonides, Aeschylus, Pindar, and Bacchylides.

=Hierónymus=: tragic and dithyrambic poet of Athens and apparently a writer on poets.

=Hippócrătes=: of Cos; the ‘father of medicine’; the most renowned physician and medical teacher and writer of antiquity: _c._ 460-357 B.C.

=Hypereides= (=Hyperídes=): Attic orator; patriot, contemporary and, for the most part, supporter of Demosthenes in his anti-Macedonian policy. Put to death by Antipater (q.v.), 322 B.C. An elegant speaker, of dubious private life.

=Íbycus=: of Rhegium, _fl._ _c._ 540 B.C. at the court of the despot of Samos; a lyric poet of the erotic type. The proverb, ‘the cranes of Ibycus’, arose from the story that, when being murdered by brigands near Corinth, he invoked a flock of cranes, then flying past, to avenge his death. Plutarch tells the sequel (_Garrulity_).

=īno=: or Leucóthea; a mythological personage, daughter of Cadmus and wife of Athamas. One story went that, when she leapt into the sea, she was carried to Corinth by a dolphin. Hence the allusion in the story of Arion.

=īphícrătes=: Athenian general in early part of the fourth century B.C. An innovator in tactics and military equipment, noted for his prudence and foresight.

=Ischómăchus=: a character of the name appears in Xenophon’s _Oeconomicus_ as lecturing his wife upon the principles of domestic management. Such a philosophically disposed person may be the associate of Socrates mentioned by Plutarch.

=Ithacans=: the people of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, one of the Ionian islands, south of Corfu.

=Ixíon=: mythical Thessalian king, who made illicit love to Hera, wife of Zeus, and was punished by being fastened to a perpetually revolving wheel in Hades.

=Laelius=: C. Laelius Sapiens, friend of Scipio Africanus Minor. Consul 140 B.C. Cicero’s _De Amicitia_ is otherwise named his _Laelius_. Philosopher, orator, and scholar.

=Laértes=: aged father of Odysseus; superannuated king of Ithaca.

=Lĕchaeum=: the port of Old Corinth, with which it was connected by walls one and a half miles in length.

=Lēlántum=: a river of Euboea, flowing through the fertile Lelantine plain (between Chalcis and Eretria), which was long a bone of contention between the two cities.

=Leónȋdas=: the famous Spartan king, who so stubbornly held the pass of Thermopylae against the Persians with his ‘Three Hundred’, 480 B.C.

=Leptis=: a town in Africa near the modern Tripoli; a Phoenician settlement and afterwards a Roman colony.

=Lesches=: one of the post-Homeric (‘Cyclic’) poets, and writer of the _Little Iliad_; a native of Lesbos, _fl._ _c._ 705 B.C.

=Leuctra=: Boeotian village; the scene of the great defeat of the Spartans by Epaminondas, 371 B.C.

=Livia=: Livia Drusilla, 56 B.C.-A.D. 29. Her first husband was Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she was the mother of Tiberius, the future emperor. Married to Augustus (then Octavianus) in 38 B.C., and having no children by him, she was anxious to keep the succession in her own family. A woman of strong character, she exerted a tactful control over Augustus and attempted one more imperious over Tiberius, but failed.

=Locri=: Locri Epizephyrii, an important Greek town of South Italy, about the modern Gerace. Its constitutional code was often regarded as a model.

=Locris=: a Greek community lying along the north side of the middle of the Corinthian Gulf.

=Loxias=: Apollo as God of Oracles. The name was commonly interpreted as ‘Riddling’ or ‘Indirect’.

=Lucullus=: Roman conqueror of Mithridates, succeeded in his command by Pompey, 66 B.C. Famous for his wealth and luxury, and particularly for his lavish feasts. A byword for self-indulgence.

=Lycéum=: an exercise ground with terraces (‘walks’) and colonnades just outside the wall to the east of Athens. It was here that Aristotle discoursed on the ‘Walk’ (_peripatos_), whence the name ‘Peripatetic’ became applied to his school.

=Lycurgus=: (1) the more or less legendary lawgiver and constitution-maker of Sparta. His date and personality are quite uncertain, and he is not improbably as mythical as Heracles.

(2) son of Dryas, a legendary Thracian king who resisted the worship of Dionysius and hacked down his sacred plant, the vine. Dionysius punished him with madness, during which he killed his own son, thinking him a vine. The story is much varied in particulars.

=Lysander=: Spartan admiral, who won the battle of Aegospotami against the Athenians and concluded the reduction of Athens in 404 B.C. He was afterwards distinguished for his ostentation and arrogance.

=Lysias=: orator and professional rhetorician of Athens, distinguished for the purity and lucidity of his diction and his grace of style: _fl._ _c._ 403 B.C. The majority of his 230 speeches were written for litigants.

=Lysímăchus=: of Macedonia; became king of Thrace on the partition of Alexander’s empire. A man of powerful physique and an able soldier. Later his territory included the western half of Asia Minor. Killed in battle 281 B.C.

=Masinissa=: king of Numidia; first a supporter, then an enemy, of Carthage, he lent great assistance to the Romans from 204 B.C. to 148. His reign was long and he died at ninety.

=Meidias= (=Mídias=): an Athenian citizen and bitter enemy of Demosthenes, one of whose best known speeches is a violent, and possibly a rather scurrilous, attack upon him.

=Melánthius=: of Athens: an inferior tragic and elegiac poet of worthless character: a contemporary of Aristophanes and Plato.

=Meleáger=: legendary prince of Calydon. Having slain his mother’s brothers, he was cursed by her, and thereupon refused to take further part in the war against the Curetes. No offers could induce him to leave his chamber and rout the enemy, until he yielded to the prayers of his wife Cleopatra.

=Menander=: chief poet of the Athenian New Comedy (or comedy of manners), 342-291 B.C.; a polished and easy-tempered man of the world. His sententious writings lent themselves to quotation and were much read in schools. To moralizing critics of a later age he was to comedy what Homer was to epic.

=Mĕnedémus=: philosopher and statesman of Euboea, of the ‘Megarian’ school. Died _c._ 277 B.C.

=Méropë=: the name of several mythological semi-goddesses, mostly connected with the heavenly bodies.

=Metellus=: Q. Caecilius Metellus, who successfully conducted the Numidian War against Jugurtha (109 B.C.) until superseded by Marius. A man of high character, military ability, and intellectual culture.

=Mētrodórus=: favourite pupil of Epicurus (q.v.) and almost co-master of his school. Died 277 B.C.

=Mithridátes=: Mithridates VI, or the Great, king of Pontus 120-63 B.C., a Hellenized oriental famed for his physical and intellectual ability, his ambition and daring; of importance in history for his wars with the Romans under Lucullus and Pompey. He made a special study of poisons and their antidotes.

=Mnēsíphȋlus=: Athenian statesman of sound practical ability, taken by Themistocles as his model. It was he who urged Themistocles to force on the battle of Salamis (480 B.C.). In the _Dinner-Party_ Plutarch borrows the name for an imaginary friend of Solon.

=Molycréa=: a town just inside the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf on the north side.

=Myrōn=: Boeotian sculptor; _fl._ 430 B.C. Best known by his Discobolus and his ‘Cow’. His work included animal forms, and human figures in a state of muscular activity or tension.

=Mýrsȋlus=: see Pittacus.

=Naucrătis=: a Greek town in the Delta of Egypt, thirty miles from the sea. At first only a trading-station, it was granted privileges of internal self-government by Amasis (q.v.).

=Neoptólĕmus=: see Eumenes.

=Nestor=: the typical wise old man of the _Iliad_.