of Augustus, about A. d. 7 (Hieron. in Euseb.
Chron. 01. 196. 3). He was an actor, as well as
a writer of mimes, and is said, in an epigram preserved in the Greek Anthology, to have died of
excessive laughter (Jacobs, Auth. Graec. vol. iv.
p. 230; Anth. Pal. vol. ii. p. 349). He is frequently mentioned by the Greek writers of the
second century and downwards. Suidas, who, by
some extraordinary error, has placed his death in
the time of Socrates, makes him a native of Prusa,
and says that he wrote (Greek characters) (that
is, mimes), that he wrote a play called (
Greek characters), and a work entitled (
Greek characters). He is
mentioned by Tzetzes (Proleg. ad Lycophr. p. 257),
among the poets of the New Comedy, but the
name is there, almost certainly, an error for Philipdies
We have no fragments of Philistion, but there
is a work extant under the title of (Greek characters), which is a collection
of lines, containing moral sentiments, from Menan-
der and some other poet of the New Comedy,
who of course could not be Philistion the mimographer. All difficulty is however removed by
the emendation of Meineke, who substitutes (
Greek characters) for (
Greek characters). (Comp. Philemon). The
work was first edited by N. Rigaltius, Par. 1613,
afterwards, in a much improved state, by J. Rutgersius, in his Var. Lect. vol. iv. p. 355 — 367,
with the notes of Heinsius. Boissonade has published the work, from a Paris MS., in his Anecdota, vol. i. p. 146 — 150, whence Meineke has
transferred it into his Fragmenta Comicorum Graecorum, vol. iv. pp. 335 — 339. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 480 ; Meineke, Menand. et Philem. Reliq. Præf. p. vii. &c.; Clinton, F.H.
sub ann. A.D. 7 ; Bernhardy, Geschchte der Griech. Litt. vol ii. p. 924.) [P. S.]
PHILI'STION, an engraver of medals, whose
name occurs in two forms, (Greek characters) ((
Greek characters))
and (
Greek characters) ((
Greek characters))., in very small characters, but perfectly distinct, on the crest of the
helmet of the head of Minerva, which forms the
type of a great number of coins of Velia. (Raoul-Rochette, Lettre à M. Schorn, p. 94, 2d ed.)
[P. S.]
PHILI'STION ((Greek characters)), a physician, born
either at one of the Greek towns in Sicily (Diog.
LaTemplate:Susbt:e:rt. Vit. Philos. viii. 8. §§ 86, 89), or among the
Locri Epizephyrii in Italy (Galen, De Meth. Med.
i. 1, vol. X. p. 6 ; Ruf. Ephes. De Corp. Hum. Part. Appell. p. 41; Plut. Sympos. vii. 1. § 3 ;
Aul. Gell. Noct. Ait. xvii. 11. § 3 ; Athen. iii.
83, p. 115). He was tutor to the physician
Chrysippus of Cnidos ( Diog. LTemplate:SubstLa:ert. I. c. § 89) and
the astronomer and physician Eudoxus (Callim. ap.
Diog. LaTemplate:Susbt:e:rt § 86), and therefore must have lived
in the fourth century B.C. He was one of those
who defended the opinion that what is drunk goes
into the lungs (Plut. l. c.; Aul. Gell. l. c.). Some
ancient critics attributed to Philistion the treatise
De Salubri Victus Ratione (Galen, Comment, in Hippocr."De Rat. Vict, in Morh. Acuf i. 17, vol.
XV. p, 455, Comment, in Hippocr. "Aphor." vi. 1,
vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 9), and also that De Victus Ratione (Galen, De Aliment. Facult. i. 1, vol. vi. p.
473), both of which form part of the Hippocratic
Collection; and by some persons he was considered
to be one of the founders of the sect of the Empirici
(De Subfg. Empir. c. 1, vol. ii. p. 340, ed. Chart.).
He wrote a work on materia medica (Galen, De Succed. init. vol. xix. p. 721) and on Cookery
(Athen. xii. J 2, p. 516), and is several times
quoted by Pliny (H. N. xx. 15, 34, 48) and
Galen (De Nat. Facult. ii. 8, vol. ii. p. 110,
De Usu Respir. c 1, vol. iv. p. 471, De Meth. Med.
i. 3, ii. 5, vol. X. pp. 28, 1 1 1 ). Oribasius attributes
to him the invention of a machine for reducing
luxations of the humerus (De Machinam. c. 4, p.
164). He is perhaps the person mentioned by
M. Aurelius Antoninus (vi. 47).
A brother of Philistion, who was also a physician, but whose name is not known, is quoted by Caelius Aurelianus. (De Morb. Chron. iii. 8, V. I, pp. 488, 555.) [W. A. G.]
PHILISTIS ((Greek characters)),a queen of Syracuse,
known only from her coins, which are numerous,
and of fine workmanship, and from the occurrence
of her name (bearing the title of queen, as it does
also on her coins) in an inscription in large letters
on the great theatre of Syracuse. The circumstance that it is here associated with that of Nereis,
the wife of Gelon, as well as the style and fabric
of the coins, which closely resemble those of Hieron II. and his son, leads to the conclusion that
these were struck during the long reign of Hieron II. ; and the most probable conjecture is that
Philistis was the wife of Hieron himself. (R. Rochette, Mémoires de Numismatique et d^Antiquité,
pp. 63 — 78 ; Visconti, Iconogr. Grecque, vol. ii.
pp. 21 — 25. The earlier disquisitions and hypotheses on the subject are cited by these two authors.)
[E. H. B.]
PHILISTUS ((Greek characters)). 1. An Athenian,
son of Pasicles, who accompanied Neleus, the son
of Codrus, on his migration to Ionia, where he
founded a temple on the promontory of Mycale,
dedicated to the Eleusinian Demeter. (Herod,
ix. 97.)
2. A Syracusan, son of Archonides or Archomenides (Suid. v. (Greek characters) ; Paus. v. 23. §6), one
of the most celebrated historians of antiquity,
though, unfortunately, none of his works have come
down to us. The period of his birth is not mentioned, but it can hardly be placed later than B.C.
435, as Plutarch expressly speaks of him as having
been an eye-witness of the operations of Gylippus,
during the siege of Syracuse by the Athenians, in
B.C. 415, and also tells us that he was an old man
at the time of his death in B.C. 356. (Plut. Nic.
19, Dion, 35.) It seems also probable that he was
considerably older than Dionysius. The first occasion on which we hear of his appearance in public
life was after the capture of Agrigentum by the
Carthaginians in B.C. 406, when Dionysius, then
a young man, came forward in the assembly of the
people to inflame the popular indignation against
their unsuccessful generals, and the magistrates
having imposed on him a fine for turbulent and
seditious language, Philistus not only discharged
the fine, but expressed his willingness to do so as
often as the magistrates should think fit to inflict
it. (Diod. xiii. 91.) Having by this means paved
the way for the young demagogue to the attainment of the supreme power, he naturally enjoyed
a high place in his favour during the period of his
rule ; so great indeed was the confidence reposed
in him by Dionysius, that the latter entrusted him
with the charge of the citadel of Syracuse, upon
the safe custody of which his power in great mea-
sure depended. According to one account, also, it
was Philistus who, by his energetic and spirited
counsels, prevented Dionysius from abandoning