Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1203

NICIAS. often is, nearly the same age as his teacher, and sometimes even older. Again, Pliny's dates are very loosely given ; we can never tell with cer- tainty whether they are meant to mark the early or the middle or the latter part of an artist's career. In the case of Praxiteles, we know that he executed great works considerably later than the date assigned by Pliny. Supposing then that Nicias, as a young man. assisted Praxiteles when in the height of his fame (and it is not likely that Nicias would have been so employed after he had obtained an independent reputation), and that his refusal to sell his picture to Ptolemy occurred when he was old, and had gained both reputation and wealth enough, there remains no positive anachronism in supposing only one artist of this name. Nicias was the most celebrated disciple of Euphranor. He was extremely skilful in painting female figures, careful in his management of light and shade, and in making his figures stand out of the picture (Plin. l. c). The following works of his are enumerated by Pliny (/. c.) : they seem to have been all painted in encaustic. A painting of Nemea, sitting on a lion, holding a palm in her hand, with an old man standing by with a staff, over whose head was a picture of a biga. This last point is not very intelligible ; Lessing has en- deavoured to clear it up (Laocom, p. 280, note) : Nicias placed on this picture the inscription, Nt/cias 4i/4Kavaev : the picture was carried from Asia to Rome by Silanus, and Augustus had it fastened into the wall of the curia which he dedicated in the comitiura (Plin. H.N. xxxv. 4. s. 10). Father Liber in the temple of Concord. A Hyacinthus, painted as a beautiful youth, to signify the love of Apollo for him (comp. Paus. iii. 19. § 4) ; Augustus was so delighted with the picture that he carried it to Rome after the taking of Alexandria, and Tiberius dedicated it in the temple of Augustus. A Diana, probably at Ephesus, as Pliny mentions in imme- diate connection with it the sepulchre of Megabyzus, the priest of Diana, at Ephesus, as painted by Nicias. Lastly, what appears to have been his master- piece, a representation of the infernal regions as described by Homer (Ne/cuia, Necromantia Ho- meri) ; this was the picture which Nicias refused to sell to Ptolemy, although the price offered for it was sixty fcilents (Plutarch, loc. sup. ciL) : Pliny tells the same story of Attains, which is a manifest anachronism. Plutarch also tells that Nicias was so absorbed in the work during its progress, that he used often to have to ask his servants whether he had dined. From the above pictures, Pliny dis- tinguishes the following as grandes pkturas : Ca- lypso, lo, Andromeda, an admirable Alexander (Paris), and a sitting Calypso, in the porticoes of Pompey. Some pictures of animals were attributed to him : he was particularly happy in painting dogs. Pausanias (vii. 22. § 4) gives a full description of his paintings in a tomb outside Tritaea in Achaea. There is an interesting passage in Demetrius Phalereus {Eloc. 7t>), giving the opinion of Nicias respecting the art of painting, in which he insists on the importance of choosing subjects of some magnitude, and not throwing away skill and labour on minute objects, such as birds and flowers. The proper subjects for a painter, he says, are battles botiv on laud and on sea ; in which the various NICOCHARES. 1189 attitudes and expressions of horses and of mt'n afford rich materials for the painter : the subject of the action was, he thought, as important a part of painting as the story or plot was of poetry. Nicias was the first painter who used burnt ochre, the discovery of which was owing to an accident (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 6. § 20). He had a disciple, Omphalion, who was formerly his slave and favourite (Paus. iv. 81. § 9). He himself wjis buried at Athens, by the road leading to the academy (Paus. i. 29. § 15). [P. S.] NICIPPE (Nt/cfTTTTTj). L A daughter of Pelops, and the wife of Sthenelus, by whom she became the mother of Alcinoe, Medusa, and Eurystheus. (ApoUod. ii. 4. § 5.) It should be remarked that some call her Leucippe, Archippe, or Astydameia. (Hevne, ad Apollod. I. c. ; Schol. ad Tliucyd. i. 9.) 2. A daughter of Thespius, the mother of Anti- machus, bv Heracles. (Apollod. ii. 7. § 8.) [L.S.] NICIPPUS (NfffiTTTTOs). 1. A Coan mentioned by Aelian ( V. H. i. 29), who succeeded in making himself tyrant. 2. A friend and disciple of Theophrastus. (Diog. Lat^rt. V. 53.) 3. One of the ephors of the Messenians in B. c. 220. With some other leading men amongst them, who held oligarchical views, he was a stre- nuous supporter of peace, even to the detriment of the public interests. When the envoys from the congress held at Corinth, at which war had been resolved on against the Aetolians, came to Messenia, Nicippus and his party, contrary to the feelings and wishes of the people generally, by means of some degree of compulsion got the reply returned to the envoys, that the Messenians would not enter into the war until Phigalea, a town on their borders, had been wrested from the Aetolians. Poly bins, in a digression, finds great fault with the policy of this faction among the Messenians. (Polyb. iv. 31 ; Thirlwall, Hist, of Greece^ vol, viii, p. 233, &c.) [C. P. M.] NI'CO. [NicoN.] NICOBU'LA (NiJcogouArj), a Greek lady, quoted by Athenaeus (x. p. 434, c. xii. p. 537, d.), though with some doubt (Nj/c. ^ 6 duadfis ravirt ToL avyypdixfxara)^ as the author of a work about Alexander the Great. In the MSB. of Pliny the name Nicobulus is found, and Harduin {Index Am^ torum, vol. i. p. 63) supposes that he accompanied Alexander in his expeditions. (Fabric. Bibl. Gruec. vol. iii. p. 47.) [C.P.M.] NICOBU'LUS, an Athenian who was involved in a dispute arising out of some mine-property with a man named Pantaenetus, and was sued by him. The speech of Demosthenes against Paritaenetus was written for him on this occasion. (Dem. Ilapa- ypacpij Trpds UauraiveToy.) [C. P. M.] NICOBU'LUS, a friend and relative of Gre- gorius Nazianzenus. He was the author of a poem, addressed to liis son of the same name, in reply to one written by Gregory, in which the latter had begged him to allow his son to leave his native country for the purpose of studying eloquence. The poem of Nicobulus is found amongst those of Gregory, beginning Tckvov i/xof, ixvdovs irodeMi/ TTo64eis TO ^fpiara. (Ribric. Bibl. Grace, vol. ix. p. 311.) [C.P.M.] NICO'CHARES (NiKoxdpvs), an Athenian poet of the Old Comedy, the son of Philonides, also a comic poet. He was contemporary with 4g 3