Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1056

1042 MENODORUS. times reckoned as a part of Phoenicia, sometimes not. He seems to have been a hearer of Diogenes. He amassed great wealth as a usurer {-nficpoSavei- (TTTjy), but was cheated out of it all, and committed suicide. Diogenes, who has given us a short life of him, with an epigram of his own upon him (ii. 99 — 100), informs us that he wrote nothing serious, but that his books were full of jests, like those of his contemporary Meleager; and Strabo and Stephanus call him (nrov^oy^Xoios ; that is, he was one of those cynic philosophers who threw all their teaching into a satirical form. In this cha- racter he is several times introduced by Lucian, who in one place speaks of him as tmv iraKvuoov KvvSv fiiXa vKaKTiKov koL Kapxapou (BisAccus. 33). Even in the time of Diogenes, his works were somewhat uncertain ; and they are now entirely lost: but we have considerable fragments of Varro's Saturae Menippeae, which were written in imitation of Menippus. {Cic. Acad. i. 2,8; Gell. ii. 18; Macrob. Sat. i. 11.) The recent edition of the fragments of Varro by Oehler con- tains a short but excellent dissertation on the date of Menippus, whom he places at B. c. 60. The works of Menippus were, according to Diogenes (vi. 101), thirteen in number, namely, NeKui'a, AiadrJKai, 'ETri(TToa KeKoiJ./eviJ.4uai dird row -Twv ^ecov irpoawiTov^ irpos tovs (pvaiKovs Kal lxad7]fxaTiKovs koI 7pa/ijuartKot)y. kol youas 'Etti- Kovpov Kal rcLs B^prjcrKevojuevas vn oOtcSv ^iKciSas, and others. (Comp. Menag. Observ. in loc.) 3. Of Stratonice, a Carian by birth, was the most accomplished orator of his time in all Asia. (About B. c. 79.) Cicero, who heard him, puts him almost on a level with the Attic orators {Brut. 91 ; Plut. Cic. 4 ; Diog. Laert. vi. 101 ; Strab. xiv. p. 660). 4. Of Pergaraiis, a geographer, lived in the time of Augustus, and wrote a TlepiTrXovs rrjs euTos badTT7}s, of which an abridgement was made by Marcianus, and of which some fragments are pre- served. He is also quoted several times by Ste- phanus Byzantinus. (See Hoffmann, Menippos der Geograph. Leipz. 1841.) [P. S.] MENIPPUS, artists. Diogenes Laertius (vi, 101) mentions a statuary and two painters of this name. [P. S.] MENO'CHARES {U-nvox6.pr)s an officer of Demetrius Sotev, king of Syria. In B, c. 161, when Demetrius had escaped from Rome and esta- blished himself on the Syrian throne, he sent Me- nochares to plead his cause with Tiberius Gracchus [No. 6.] and his fellow-commissioners, then in Cappadocia. In the following year, Menochares was sent by Demetrius to Rome, to conciliate the senate by the present of a golden crown and the surrender of Leptines, the assassin of Cn. Octavius, the Roman envoy. (Polyb. xxxi. 4,6 ; Diod. xxxi. Exc. Leg. xxv. p. 626.) [Leptines, No. 6.] [E.E.] MENODO'RUS, freedman of Pompey. [Me- NAS.] MENODO'RUS (MTji/o'Swpos), a writer on bo- tany and materia medica, quoted by Athenaeus (iJeipnos. ii. p. 59), who says he was a follower of Erasistratus, and a friend of the physician Hice- sius. He lived, therefore, probably at the end of the first century B. c, and is perhaps the person who is quoted by Andromachus (op. Gal. de Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, vii. 3, vol. xiii. p. 64). [W.A. G.] MENODO'RUS (MevdSwpos), of Athens, a MENOECEUS. sculptor, who made for the Thespians a copy of the celebrated statue of Eros by Praxiteles, which originally stood at Thespiae, but was removed to Rome by the emperor Caligula. (Pans. ix. 27. §§ 3, 4, Bekker.) The date of this artist can only be conjectured by supposing that his copy was made about the same time that the original was removed, in order to supply its loss. There is nothing to determine whether or no he was the same person as the statuary mentioned by Pliny, who made athletas et armatos et venatores., sacri- ficantesque {H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 34). [P. S.] MENO'DOTUS (Mfi/dSoTos). 1. Of Saraos, was the author of at least two works connected with the history of his native island. One bore the title Hwv KaroL 'Sd/xov evSS^oov dvaypacfy)], and the other Uepl rwv Kurd, rd Upov ttjs l,afxlasiipas. (Athen. xiv. p. 655, xv. pp. 672, 673.) 2. Of Perinthus, is referred to by Diodorus Siculus {Fragm. lib. xxvi. 3, p. 513) as the author of a work entitled 'EKr]viKciX npay/xaTeiai, in fifteen books, but is otherwise unknown. 3. The author of a work on the Athenian painter Theodoras. (Diog. Laert. ii. 104.) [L. S.] MENO'DOTUS (MtjWSotos), a phj^sician of Nicomedeia in Bithynia, who was a pupil of An- tiochus of Laodiceia, and tutor to Herodotus of Tarsus ; he belonged to the medicil sect of the Empirici, and lived probably about the beginning of the second century after Christ. (Diog. Laert. ix. § 1 16 ; Galen, De Meth. Med. ii. 7, vol. x. p. 142, Introd. c. 4. vol. xiv. p. 683 ; Sext. Empir. Pyrrhon. Hypotijp. i. § 222, p. 57, ed. Fabric.) He refuted some of the opinions of Asclepiades of Bithynia (Gal. De Nat. Facult. i. 14, vol. ii. p. 52), and was exceedingly severe against the Dog- matici (id. De Suhfig. Empir. c. 9, 1 3, vol. ii. pp. 343, 346, ed. Chart.). He enjoyed a considerable reputation in his day, and is several times quoted and mentioned by (Jalen. {De Cur. Eat. per Fen. Sect. c. 9, vol. xi. p. 277 ; Comment, in Hippocr. " De Artic.^ in. 62, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 575 ; Comment, in Hippocr. " De Bat. Vict, in Morh. Acut.' iv. 17, vol. XV. p. 766 ; De Lihr. Propr. c. 9, vol. xix. p. 38 ; De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, vi. i. vol. xii. p. 904.) He appears to have written some works which are quoted by Diogenes Laertius, but are not now ex- M tant. There is, however, among Galen's writings V a short treatise entitled, VaXr]vov Ylapa(ppd(TTov Tov MrjvoSoTov UpoTpeirTiKOi Aoyos eirl rds Te;)^i/as, Galeni Paraphrastae Menodoti Suasoria ad Aries Oratio. This is supposed to have been written originally by Menodotus, and afterwards revised and polished by Galen ; but its historj' is not quite satisfactorily made out, and its genuine- ness (as far as Galen is concerned) has been doubted. Its object is sufficiently expressed by the title, and it is composed in a somewhat decla- matory style, which has perhaps caused it to be both unduly admired, and unjustly depreciated. On the one hand, Erasmus translated it himself into Latin, and it has been several times published apart from Galen's other works ; and on the other, a writer in the Cambridge Museum Criticum. (voL ii. p. 318) calls it "a very inferior composition, incorrect in language, inelegant in arrangement, and weak in argument." Perhaps the latest edi- tion is that by Abr. Willet, Greek and Latin, 8vo. Lugd. Bat. 1812. [W. A. G.l MENO'DOTUS, sculptor. [Diodotus, No. 2.] MENOECEUS (McvoucciJs). 1. A Theban,