Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1057

DIONYSIUS. therefore was T. Pomponius Dionysiiw. Both Cicero and Atticus were very much attached to him. (Cic. ad Alt. iv. 8, ll/l3, 15.) 11. A native of Bithynia, a dialectic or Mega- ric philosopher, who was the teacher of Thcodorus the atheist. (Strab. xii. p. 566 ; Diog. Laert. ii. 98.) 12. Of Byzantium, appears to have lived before the time of the emperor Severus, that is, before A. D. 197, and is mentioned by Stephanus of By- zantium (s. V. Xpva6irois) and Suidas as tlie author of an dvdirKovs BoairSpov. Suidas further calls him an epic poet, and stiites that he also wrote on the species of poetry called bpiivoi. Some writers have believed that our Dionysius of Byzantium is the same as the one whose Periegesis is still extant, but this opinion is without foundation, and based only on the opinion of Suidas. The dydvAovs BocnrSpov seems to have existed complete down to the 16th century, for P. Gyllius in his work on the Thracian Bosporus gave a considerable portion of it in a Latin translation. G. J. Vossius ob- tained a copy of a fragment of it, which his son Isjuic had taken at Florence, and that fragment, which is now the only part of the Anaplus known to us, is printed in Du Cange's Constantinopolis Christiana, in Hudson's Gcocfr. Minor, vol, iii., and in Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. iv. p. 664, note 1. (Comp. Bemhardy in his edition of Dionys. Perieg. p. 492.) 13. Dionysius Cassius. [Cassius, p. 626.] 14. Dionysius Cato. [Cato, p. 634.] 15. Of Chalcis, a Greek historian, who lived before the Christian era. He wrote a work on the foundation of towns {Krians) in five books, which is frequently referred to by the ancients. A considerable number of fragments of the work have thus been preserved, but its author is other- wise unknown. (Marcian. Heracl. Peripl. p. 5; Suid. s. V. XaKt5iKT} ; Harpocrat. s. v. 'i<paunla aud'Hpoioi' Tctxos ; SchoL ad Apollon.Rhod. i. 558, 1024, iv.264, adAristoph. Nub. S97; Dionys.Hal. A. Ji. i. 72 ; Strab. xii. p. 566 ; Plut. de Malign. Herod. 22 ; Scymnus, 115; Clem. Alex. Strom, i. p. 144; Zenob. Proverb, v. 64; Apostol. xviii. 25 ; Photius, s. w. IIpa^iStKTj, TiKfxiaiis ; Eudoc. p. 438. ) 1 6. Sumamed Chalcus (d XoAk-ous), an ancient Attic poet and orator, who derived his surname from his having advised the Athenians to coin brass money for the purpose of facilitating traffic. (Athen. xv. p. 669.) Of his oratory we know nothing ; but his poems, chiefly elegies, are often referred to and quoted. (Plut. Nic. 5 ; Aristot. Met. iii. 2 ; Athen. xv. pp. 668, 702, x. p. 443, xiii. p. 602.) The fragments extant refer chiefly to symposiac subjects. Aristotle censures him for his bad metaphors, and in the fragments extant we still perceive a great fondness of raising the im- portance of common things by means of far-fetched images and allegories. The time at which he lived is accurately determined by the statement of Plutarch, that Nicias had in his house a highly accomplished man of the name of Hieron, who gave himself out to be a son of Dionysius Chalcus, the leader of the Attic colony to Thurii in ludy, which was founded in B. c. 444. (Comp. Phot, s. t QovpiofxdvT€is, where we have probably to read x^^*? instead of x'^^'^'^et.) It is true, that other writers mention different persons as the leaders of tluit colony to Thurii, but Dionysius may DIONYSIUS. 1039 certainly have been one of them. (Osann, Ddtr'dge z. (Jrieih. u. Rom. Lit. i. p. 79, &c. ; W'elckcr, in the Wu-in. Mm. for 1836, p. 440, &c. ; Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Grace, p. 432, &c., where the fragments of Dionysius are collected.) 17. Of CuARAX, in Susiana on the Arabian gulf, lived in the time of Augustus, who sent him to the east that he might record all the exploits of his grandson on his Parthian and Arabian expedition. (Plin. //. N. vi. 31.) 18. A slave of Cickro, and a person of con- siderable literary attainments, for which reason Cicero employed him to instruct his son Marcus, and was greatly attached to him. Cicero praises hira in sevend passages for his attachment, learn- ing, and honesty, and appears to have rewarded his virtues by emancipating him. At a later period, however, he complains of his want of grati- tude, and at last he felt obliged to dismiss him, though he very much regretted the loss of so able a teacher. Subsequently, however, the parties be- came reconciled. (Cic. ad Ait. iv. 15, 17, 18, v. 3, ix. 3, 12, 15, vi. 1, 2, vii. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 18, 26, viii. 4, 5, 10, x. 2, xiii. 2, 33, ad Fam. xii. 24, 30.) A son of this Dionysius is mentioned by Seneca. {Controv. i. 4.) 19. A slave of Cicero, who employed him as reader and librarian ; but Dionysius robbed his master of several books, and then escaped to Illy- ricum. (Cic. ad Att. ix. 3, ad Fam. v. 9, 10, 11, 13, xiiL 77.) 20. Of Colophon, forged conjointly with Zo- pyrus some works which they published under the name of Menippus, the Cynic. (Diog. Laert. vi. 100; Schol. ad Aristoph. Av. 1299.) 21. Of Corinth, an epic poet, who wrote some metrical works, such as Advice for Life (uTroflrJ/cat), on Causes (aTrto ; Suid. s. v. Aiovvaios; Plut. Amat. 17), and Meteorologica. In prose he wrote a commentary on Hesiod. Suidas also mentions a periegesis of the earth, but this is in all probability the production of a different person, Dionysius Pe- ricgetes. (Eudoc. p. 132.) Some also believe that he was the author of a metrical work, AiBiku, which was likewise the work of a different person. (Bern- hardy, in his edit, of Dionys. Perieg. p. 492, &c.) 22. Bishop of Corinth in the latter half of the second centuiy after Christ, distinguished himself among the prelates of his time by his piety, his eloquence, and the holiness of his life. He not only watched with the greatest care over his own diocese, but shewed a deep interest in the welfare of other communities and provinces, to which he addressed admonitory epistles. He died the death of a martyr, about a. d. 178. None of his nume- rous epistles is now extant, but a list of them is preserved in Eusebius (//. E. iv. 23) and Hiero- nymus {de Sci-ipt. 27), and a few fragments of them are extant in Eusebius (ii. 25, iv. 23). In one of them Dionysius complains that during his lifetime some of his epistles had been interpolated by heretics for the purpose of supporting their own views. (Cave, Hist. Lit. i. p. 44.) 23. An Epicurean philosopher, who succeeded Polystratus as the head of the Epicurean school at Athens. He himself was succeeded by Basilides, and must therefore have lived about B. c 200. (Diog. Laert. x. 25.) Brucker confounds him with the Stoic sumamed d /xtraOeixevos, who afterward a abandoned the Stoics and went over to the Cyre- naics. (Diog. Laert. vii. 4.)