Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/868

850 COPONIUS. implied in the tradition of his altar being lound ' under the earth, and also in the fact that mules and horses, which were under the especial protec- tion of the infernal divinities, were used in the races at the Consualia, and were treated with especial care and solemnity on that occasion. [L. S.] COON (Kowv), a son of Antenor and brother of Iphidamas, who wounded Agamemnon, but was afterwards slain bj' him. He was represented on the chest of Cvpselus. (Horn. //. xi. 248, &c., xix. 53; Paus.V. 19. U-) [L. S.J COPHEN or COPHES {Ku<^u, Kw<^7js), son of the satrap Arlabazus [No. 4, p. 368, b.), was appointed to convey to Damascus the treasures of Dareius, when the latter marched from Babylon to meet Alexander, B. c 333. {Arr. Anab. ii. 15; comp. Curt. Hi. 10.) The favour with which Alexander regarded Artabazus was extended also to Cophen, whom we find mentioned among the young Asiatic nobles that were enrolled in the body, of cavalry called "AyvfM, in the re-organiza- tion of the anny in B. c. 424. (Arr. Anah. vii. 6 ; comp. Polyb. v, 25, 65, xxxi. 3.) [E. E.] COPO'NIUS, the name of a Roman family, which originally came from Tibur. The name occurs in an inscription found at Tibur. 1. T. CoPONius, of Tibur, a man of distin- guished merit and rank, was made a Roman citizen upon the condemnation of C. Masso, whom he accused. (Cic. pro Balb. 23.) 2. M. CopoNius, had a celebrated law-suit re- specting an inheritance with M Curius, b. c. 93. The cause of Coponius was pleaded by Q. Scaevola, and that of Curius by L. Crassus, in the court of the centumviri. (Cic. de Oral. i. 39, ii. 32, Brui. 52.) [Curius.] 3. 4. T. and C. Coponii, two grandsons of No. 1, are spoken of by Cicero in a. c. 56 as two young men of great acquirements. (Cic. pro Balb, 23, pro Cael. 10.) C. Coponius is probably the same as No, 6. 5. Coponius, was left in command of Carrae in the expedition of Crassus against the Parthians, B. c. 53. (Plut. Crass. 27.) He may also have been the same as No. 6. 6. C. Coponius, one of the praetors on the breaking out of the civil war in B. c. 49. He espoused the side of Pompey, followed him into Greece, and had the command of the Rhodian ships conjointly with C. Marcellus. (Cic. ad Alt. viii. 12, A. ; Caes. B. C. iii. 5, 26 ; Cic. de Div. i. 32, ii. 55.) Coponius was proscribed by the triumvirs in b. c. 43, but his wife obtained his pardon from Antony by the sacrifice of her honour. (Appian, B. C. iii. 40.) He is afterwards men- tioned shortly before the battle of Actium as tlie father-in-law of Silius, and as a greatly respected member of the senate. (Veil. Pat. ii. 83.) The following coin was probably struck by order of this Coponius. It contains on the obverse the head of Apollo, with the inscription Q. SiciNius IIIviR (that is, of the mint), and on the reverse a club with the skin of a lion upon it, and the in- CORBULO. scription C. Coponius Pr. S. C. The reverse no doubt has reference to Hercules, whose worship prevailed at Tibur. COPO'NIUS, a Roman sculptor, author of the fourteen statues of nations conquered by Pompey, which were placed at the entrance of the porticoes belonging to the theatre of Pompey at Rome, which gave to this entrance-hall the name of Porticus ad Nationes. This was built by Pompey himself, and afterwards restored by Augustus. (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 4. §§ 12, 13; Suet. Ciaud. 46 ; Serv. ad Viry. Aen. viii. 720; Thiersch, Epoch, p. 296 ; Ur- lichs, Beschreib. der Stadt Rom, iii. 3, p. 59.) [L.U.] COPREUS (KoTrpeus), a son of Pelops and father of Periphetes. After having murdered Iphitus, he fled from Elis to Mycenae, where he was purified by Eurystheus, who employed him to inform Heracles of the labours he had to perform. (Hom. //. XV. 639 ; ApoUod. i. 5. § 1.) Euripides in his " Heracleidae" makes him the herald of Eurystheus. [L. S.] CORAX (K<$pa|), a Sicilian, who, after the ex- pulsion of Thrasybulus from Syracuse (b. c. 467), by his oratorical powers acquired so much influence over the citizens, that for a considerable time he was the leading man in the commonwealth. The great increase of litigation consequent on the con- fusion produced by the expulsion of the tyrants and the claims of those whom they had deprived of their property, gjive a new impulse to the prac- tice of forensic eloquence. Corax applied himself to the study of its principles, opened a school of rhetoric, and wrote a treatise (entitled Tex^v) era- bodying such rules of the art as he had discovered. He is commonly mentioned, with his pupil Tisias, as the founder of the art of rhetoric ; he was at any rate the earliest writer on the subject. His work has entirely perished. It has been conjec- tured (by Gamier, Mem. de Vlnstitut. de France., Classe d Hvitoire^ vol. ii. p. 44, &c., and others), though upon very slight and insufficient grounds, that the treatise entitled Rlietorica ad Alexandruvi, found amongst the works of Aristotle, is the sup- posed lost work of Corax. (Cic. Brut. 12, de Orai. i. 20, iii. 21 ; Aristot. Rivet, ii. 24 ; Quintil. iii. 1; Mongitor, BUL Sicul. i. p. 146, &c., ii. p. 267, &c.; Westermann, Gesch. der Griech. Beredlsamkeii, i. § 27, note 5, &c., § 68, notes 8, 27.) [C. P. M.] CORBIS and ORSUA, two Spanish chiefs, and cousins-german, fought in the presence of Scipio at New Carthage in Spain, B. c. 206, for the sovereignty of the town of Ibis. (Li v. xxviii. 21; Val. Max. ix. 11, extern. 1.) CO'RBULO, CN. DOMI'TIUS, a son of Vestilia, who was married first to Herdonius, after- wards to Pomponius, and at last to Orfitus. He was accordingly a brother of Caesonia, the wife of Caligula. He was invested with the praetorship as early as the reign of Tiberius, and after the expiration of this office was commissioned by Tibe- rius and afterwards by Caligula to superintend the improvement of the high-roads in Italy, which the carelessness of the magistrates had allowed to fall into decay. While engaged upon this undertaking he committed acts of cruelty and extortion, proba- bly in compliance with commands which he re- ceived from Caligula, Avho rewarded his proceedings with tlie honour of consul suffectus in a. d. 39. In the reign of Claudius, however, he was taken to account for these proceedings, and those who had been injured by him were indemnified as far