Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1342

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ZOILUS.
ZOILUS.

1. Sumaraed Carbonopsina, the wife of Leo VI. the philosopher, who reigned a.d. 886-911. She survived her husband, and her effigy appears on the coins of her son Constantinus VII. Porphyrogenitus. (Eckhel, vol. viii. pp. 246—248.) [Leo VI.; Constantinus VII.]

2. The daughter of Constantinus IX. was married first to Romanus III. Argyrus, who succeeded her father on the throne, and reigned a.d. 1028–]034. Towards the end of her husband's reign, though she was then about 50 years of age, she carried on a criminal intrigue with the general Michael, surnamed the Paphlagonian; and that she might be able to gratify her pleasures without restraint she caused her husband to be murdered, and raised Michael to the throne, whom she then married. Michael IV. the Paphlagonian, reigned from a.d. 1034—1041; and on his death, she was persuaded by the people to reign in her own name. A few days made Zoë repent her ambition, and she placed the crown on the head of Michael V. Calaphates, whom her second husband had adopted in his life-time. The new emperor showed the basest ingratitude to his benefactress, and commenced his reign by banishing Zoë. This and other imprudent acts caused an insurrection at Constantinople. Michael was deposed at the end of a year's reign, and Zoë and her sister Theodora were proclaimed co-empresses on the 21st of April, 1042. The two sisters reigned together for about two months; but as they feared for their position, Zoë, who was then about 60, married a third husband, whom she raised to the throne, and who is known by the name of Constantinus X. Monomachus. She died in 1050 while her third husband was still alive. [Constantinus IX.; Romanus III.; Michael IV. and V.; Constantinus X,]

ZOETEUS (Zοιτεύς), a son of Tricolonus, and founder of the town of Zoetia in Arcadia, (Paus. viii. 35. § 6; Steph. Byz. s. v). [L. S.]

ZO'ILUS (Zωΐλος). 1. A person of this name is mentioned by Diogenes Laërtius (viii. 2) as the uncle of Pythagoras.

2. A grammarian, who, according to the greater number of authorities, was a native of Amphipolis. By others (Schol. ad Iliad, v. 4; Eustath. p. 387) he is called an Ephesian. The age in which he lived has been the subject of some discussion, as the authorities are irreconcileably at variance. The great majority of them (Suid. s.v.; Aelian. V. H. xi. 10; Dionys. de Isaeo, p. 627, de Vi Demosth. p. 974; Suid. s.v. Δημοσθένης) make him contemporary with the disciples of Isocrates. On the other hand, there is a passage in Vitruvius, which assigns him to the age of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus (Praefat. ad lib. VII.). He is said by Vitruvius to have come to Alexandria in the hope of securing the patronage of the king, who, however, was indignant at the manner in which he treated the poems of Homer, and paid no regard to him. Various accounts were given of his having met with a violent death (l.c). But though it is within the limits of possibility that Zoilus lived to see the accession of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, this, as Clinton says {Fasti Hellen. iii. p. 381 ), does not satisfy the details of the account of Vitruvius, which, when closely examined, proves to be inconsistent with itself. The safest course, therefore, is to reject it altogether. "Zoilus began to be eminent before the rise of Demosthenes, and continued to write after the death of Philip." (Clinton, l.c. p. 485.) According to Heracleides Ponticus {Alleg. Hom. p. 427), he was originally a Thracian slave. Aelian speaks of him as having been a pupil of Polycrates, who wrote an accusation of Socrates.

Zoilus was celebrated for the asperity with which he assailed Homer, from which he derived the epithet of '0/i17pOjllao-Ti|. (Suid. s. v.; Schol. ad 11. V. 7, 20, i. 129, X. 274, xviii. 22, xxii. 209, xxiii. 100; Eustath. ad Od. p. 1614; Schol. in Plat. Hipparch. p. 240.) He found fault with him principally for introducing fabulous and incredible stories in his poems. From the list that we have of his writings, it also appears that he attacked Plato and Isocrates. His name became proverbial for a captious and malignant critic. {Ingenium magni livor detrectat Homeri. Quisquis es, exillo, Zoile, nomen habes, Ovid. /?ejw. Am. 366.) He was also styled Kvav pr)TopiK6s (Aelian. V. H. xi. 10.) It is worthy of note, however, that Dionysius of Halicarnassus {Ep. ad Pomp. c. 1) speaks of him with considerable respect, and does not hesitate to class him among critics of the highest rank. The following works of Zoilus are mentioned:—1. Ilepi 'Aix<pnr6ec>}S ^L§ia rpia (Suid. I. c). 2. 'IcTTopia airh &eoyovias eois rrjs ^iK'nnTov TeXevTrjs (ibid.). 3. Kara 'laoKparovs Tou p-f]Topos [ibid.). 4. Kara rrjs 'O^Tjpov Troi-fjaews XoyoL ivvea. 5. "^oyos 'O/m-fipov. Unless this is only another name for the preceding (ibid. Ael. I.e.; Dionys. I. c.; Plut. Symp. v. p. 677; Schol. ad Horn. II. II. cc.) 6. Kara ITAotcovos (Aelian. I. c.;Dionys. ad Pomp. p. 752), 7. Tej/eStwi/ lyKdjfxiop (Strab. vi. p. 271). 8. A work on the figures of speech, from which Quintilian quotes, with disapprobation, a definition of trx^/uo (Quint, ix. 1. § 1 4, comp. Phoebammon de Fig. p. 588, ed. Aid.). None of these have come down to us. The story told by Suidas of his having been thrown headlong down the Scironian rocks, is probably as fabulous as the other accounts of a similar kind given by Vitruvius. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. i. p. 559, &c.; Voss. de Hist. Gr. p. 130, &c.)

3. A grammarian of the name of Zoilus is introduced by Athenaeus (i. 1) among the Deipnosophistae.

4. A native of Perga, from whom Diogenes Laertius (vi. 37) quotes some statements respecting Diogenes the Cynic.

5. A native of Cyprus, an artificer, mentioned by Plutarch {Demeir. 21).

6. Tyrant of Caesarea, mentioned by Josephus {Ant. Jud. xiii. 20).

7. Others of this name, not worth mentioning here, are enumerated by Fabricius {Bibl. Gr. vol. i. p. 561, &c.). [C. P. M.]

ZOILUS (Zwi'Aos), a physician, who must have lived in or before the first century after Christ, as he is quoted by Andromachus the younger (ap. Gal. De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. iii. 1, vol. xii. p. 632). He appears to have given particular attention to diseases of the eye, as he is called 6 ocpQaKfxiKos. Several of his medical formulae are preserved by Galen {ibid. iv. 8, pp. 752, 763, 771; Z)e Antid. ii. 12, vol. xiv. p. 178), Alexander Trallianus (ii. 5, p. 173), Aetius (ii. 3. 11, 113. pp. 304,360,361), and Nicolaus Myrepsus (xxiv. 25. p. 658). See C. G. Kiihn, hidex Mcdicor. Ocularior. inter Graccos Romanosq. Fascic. xi. [W. A. G.]

ZO'ILUS (ZcDiAos), artists. 1. A medallist, whose name occurs on the coins of Perseus, king of Macedonia, in such a manner as to make it cer-