Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/77

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EUCHERIUS.
EUCLEIDES.
63

TulHa. About the year a. d. 410, while still in the vigour of his age, he determined to retire from the world, and accordingly betook himself, with his wife and family, first to Lerins (Lerinum), and from thence to the neighbouring island of Lero or St. Margaret, where he lived the life of a hermit, devoting himself to the education of his children, to literature, and to the exercises of religion. During his retirement in this secluded spot, he ac- quired so high a reputation for learning and sanc- tity, that he was chosen bishop of Lyons about A. D. 434, a dignity enjoyed by him until his death, which is believed to have happened in 450, under the emperors Valentinianus III. and Marci- anus. Veranius was appointed his successor in the episcopal chair, while Salonius became the head of the church at Geneva.

The following works bear the name of this pre- late : 1. De laude Eremi, written about the year A. D. 428, in the form of an epistle to Hilarius of Aries. It would appear that Eucherius, in his passion for a solitary life, had at one time formed the project of visiting Egypt, that he might profit by the bright example of the anchorets who thronged the deserts near the Nile. He requested infoiTnation from Cassianus [Cassianus], who re- plied by addressing to him some of those collationes in which are painted in such lively colours the habits and rules pursued by the monks and ere- mites of the Thebaid. The enthusiasm excited by these details called forth the letter bearing the above title.

2. Epistola paraenetica ad Valeriamim cognatum de coniemtu mundi et secularis philosophiae^coTrnposed about A. D. 432, in which the author endeavours to detach his wealthy and magnificent kinsman from the pomps and vanities of the world. An edition with scholia was published by Erasmus at Basle in 1520.

3. Liber formularum spiritalis intelligentiae ad Veranium JUium, or, as the title sometimes appears, De forma spiritalis intelledus, divided into eleven chapters, containing an exposition of many phrases and texts in Scripture upon allegorical, typical, and mystical principles.

4. Instructionum Lihri II. ad Salonium filium. The first book treats "De Quaestionibus difficilio- ribus Veteris et Novi Testamenti," the second contains " Explicationes nominum Hebraicorum."

5. Homiliae. Those, namely, published by Li- vineius at the end of the " Sermones Catechetici Theodori Studitae," Antverp., 8vo. 1602.

The authenticity of the following is very doubtful.

6. Historia Passionis S. MaurHii et Sociorum Martyrum Legionis Felicis Thebaeae Agaunensiwn.

7. Eochortatio ad Afonachos, the first of three printed by Holstenius in his " Codex Regularum," Rora. 1661, p. 89.

8. Epitome Operum Cassiani.

The following are certainly spurious : 1. Com- mentarius in Genesim. 2. Commentariorum, in libros Regum Libri IV. 3. Epistola ad Faustinum. 4. Epistola ad Philonem. 5. Regula duplex ad Monachos. 6. Homiliarum Collectio, ascribed in some of the larger collections of the Fathers to Eusebius of Emesa, in others to Gallicanus. Eu- cherius is, however, known to have composed many homilies; but, with the exception of those men- tioned above (5), they are believed to have perished.

No complete collection of the works of Eucherius has ever been published. The various editions of the separate tracts are carefully enumerated by Schonemann, and the greater number of them will be found in the " Chronologia S. insulae Lerinen- sis," by Vincentius Barralis, Lugdun. 4to. 1613 ; in " D. Eucherii Lug. Episc. doctiss. Lucubrationes cura Joaimis Alexandri Brassicani," Basil, fol. 1531; in the Bibliotlwca Fatrmn, Colon, fol. 1618, vol. v. p. 1 ; and in the Bibl. Fat. Max. Lugdun. fol. 1677, vol. vi. p. 822. (Gennad. de Viris. III. c. 63; Schoenemann, Bibl. Fatrmn. Lat. ii. § 36.)

This Eucherius must not be confounded with another Gaulish prelate of the same name who flourished during the early part of the sixth cen- tury, and was a member of ecclesiastical councils held in Gaul during the years a. d. 524, 527, 529. The latter, although a bishop, was certainly not bishop of Lyons. See Jos. Antelmius, Assertio pro unico S. Ettcherio Lugdmiensi episcopo, Paris, 4to. 1726.

There is yet another Eucherius who was bishop of Orleans in the eighth century. [W. R.]

EUCLEIA (EvKAeia), a divinity who was wor- shipped at Athens, and to whom a sanctuary was dedicated there out of the spoils which the Athe- nians had taken in the battle of Marathon. (Pans, i. 14. § 4.) The goddess was only a personification of the glory which the Athenians had reaped in the day of that memorable battle. (Comp. Bockh, Corp. Inscript. n. 258.) Eucleia was also used at Athens as a surname of Artemis, and her sanctuary was of an earlier date, for Euchidas died in it. (Plut, Arist. 20 ; Euchidas.) Plutarch remarks, that many took Eucleia for Artemis, and thus made her the same as Artemis Eucleia, but that others described her as a daughter of Heracles and Myrto, a daughter of Menoetius; and he adds that this Eucleia died as a maiden, and was worshipped in Boeotia and Locris, where she had an altar and a statue in every market-place, on which persons on the point of marrying used to offfer sacrifices to her. Whether and what connexion there existed be- tween the Attic and Boeotian Eucleia is unknown, though it is probable that the Attic divinity was, as is remarked above, a mere personification, and consequently quite independent of Eucleia, the daughter of Heracles. Artemis Eucleia had also a temple at Thebes. (Pans. ix. 17. § I.) [L. S.]

EUCLEIDES (Εὐκλείδης) of Alexandrria. The length of this article will not be blamed by any one who considers that, the sacred writers excepted, no Greek has been so much read or so variously translated as Euclid. To this it may be added, that there is hardly any book in our language in which the young scholar or the young mathematician can find all the information about this name which its celebrity would make him desire to have.

Euclid has almost given his own name to the science of geometry, in every country in which his writings are studied; and yet all we know of his private history amounts to very little. He lived, according to Proclus (Comm. in Eucl. ii. 4), in the time of the first Ptolemy, B. C. 323—283. The forty years of Ptolemy's reign are probably those of Euclid's age, not of his youth; for had he been trained in the school of Alexandria formed by Ptolemy, who invited thither men of note, Proclus would probably have given us the name of his teacher: but tradition rather makes Euclid the founder of the Alexandrian mathematical school than its pupil. This point is very material to the