mother of Alexander, still cnrricd much weight
with tlio MawdoriijuiH, and lior alliance was now
fagcrly coiirtnd Wy tlu; now rogont I'olyHporclion,
wlict «to()(l in u('.(h of lior support ngaiiiMt Cas-
Bandcr ; and lie sent hor an honourable embassy,
imploring lier to return to Macedonia, nnd under-
take tliH cluirgo of the young prince Alexander,
the son of Koxana. She, however, followed the
advice of Kiim<'n<;«, that she should remain in
Kp('irus until the fortune of the war was decided,
nnd cont(;nted herself with interposing the weight
of her name and authority in favour of Polv-
Bperchon in (Jreece, and of Kumenes in Asia.
(l)iod. xviii. 4f), /i7, /iH, 02, 6Y>,) For n time,
indeed, fortune appeared to bo unfavourable : the
disasti'rs of I*()lyHi)erchon in (Jreece, and the
alliance concluded by Kurydico with Cussander,
gave a decid(;d pntponderanco to the opposite
party. Hut in n.c. .'117, Olympias determined to
take a more vigorous part in the contest, nnd took
the field in person, together with Polysperchon, at
the head of an army fiirniHhed by the king of
Kpeirus. Kurydice met tlioni with e(iual daring ;
but when the motlujr of Alexander appeared on
the field, surrounded by n train in bacchanalian
style, the Macedonians at once declared in her
favour, and Kurydice, abandoned by her own
troops, fled to Am])liipoliH, where she soon after
fell into the hands of her imphicnble rival, and
was put to death, together with her unfortunate
husband, the puppet king Arrhidaeus [EtriiyDlCKJ.
Not content with tliiw unnecessary act of cruelty,
Olympias followed up her vengeance by the execu-
tion of Nicnnor, the brother t)f Cassander, as well
ns of an hundred of his leading partisans among
the Macedonian nobles, and oven wreukcsd her
fury upon the lifeless remains of his brother lolhis.
(Diod.xix. 1 1 ; JiiHtin, xiv./i ; Athen. xiii. p, r)f»0,f. ;
Pans. i. 11. §4 ; VUitAlcx. 77 ; Ael. K //.xiii. .'55.)
But her sanguinary triumph was of short duration :
her cruelties alienated the mijids of the Macedo-
nian*, and Cassander, who was at that time in the
Peloponnese, hasteiuid to raise the siege of Tegea,
in which he was engaged, and tum-his arms against
Macedonia. Olympias on his approach threw her-
self (together with lioxana and the young Alex-
ander) into Pydna, where she trusted to bo able to
hold out until Polysperchon or Aeacides sliouhl
come to her relief; but (Cassander succeeded in
cutting off all succours from without, and kept the
city closely blockaded both by sea and land
throughout the winter. At length in the spring of
816, after suffering the utmost extremities of fa-
mine, Olymiiias was compelled by the increasing
discontent of the garrison to surrender to Cassander, stipulating only that her life should bo spared.
But notwithstanding this promise, the conqueror
caused her to bo arraigned before the assembly of
the Macedonians for her late executions, and con-
demned to death without being allowed a hearing,
Olympias in vain protested against tho sentence,
and demanded to be heard in her own defence.
Cassander feared the effect which her personal ap-
pearance might produce, and despatched a body of
soldiers to put her to death. Even these men,
awed by her daring and majestic carriage, hesi-
tated to fulfil their orders, but the friends of the
Macedonians whom she had so lately put to death,
rushed in and despatched her with many wounds.
She met her fate with a fortitude and dignity
worthy of the mother of Alcxaudcr, Cossauder ia
wild to hare denied the rites of sepulture to her
remains. (I)iod. xix. 35, 36, 49 — 61 ; Justin,
xiv. 6; Pans. ix. 7. § 2 ; Polyaen. iv. 11. §3;
Aelian. //. A, xii. 6 ; Euseb. yfrm. p. 1/55.) Of
her character it is unnecessary to spt^ak, after the
events above related : she was certainly not with-
out something of the grandeur and loftiness of
spirit which distinguished her son, but her un-
governable passions led her to acts of sanguinary
cruelty that must for ever disgrace her name. Tier
life was made tho subject of a separate biograi>hy
by Amyntianux, a writer in the reign of M. Aure-
lius. (*u,t./m. p. 97, a.)
J)aught«!r of Pyrrhus I. king of Epeirua, and
wife of her own brother Alexander II. After his
d(rath she asHumed the regency of the kingdom on
behalf of h(!r two sons, Pyrrhui and Ptolemy ; and
in order to strengthen herself against the Aetoliang
gave her daughter Phthiain marriage to Demctriut
II. king of Macedonia. Hy this alliance she so-
cured herself in tho possession of tho sovereignty,
which she continued to administer till her sons
were grown up to manhood, when she resigned it
into the hands of Pyrrhus. Hut tho deaths of
that prince and his brother Ptolemy followed in
quick succession, and Olympias herself died of
grief for her double loss. (Justin, xxviii. 3.) Such
IS Justin^s statitment : according to another accoimt
Olympias had poiNoned n Leucadian damsel named
Tigris, to whom her son Pyrrhus was attfiched,
and was herself poisoned by him in nsvenge.
(A then. xiii. p. 539, f; IlelliKlius, ap. Pluit.^,
530, a.)
. Daughter of Polycletus of Larissa, was tho wife of Demetrius, surnamed tho Handsome, by whom she became the mother of Antigoniis Doson, afterwards king of Macedonia. (Euseb. Arm. p. 101.) [E. II. H.]
OIjY'MPIAS, a female painter, of whom Pliny knew nothing more than that she instructed Auto- buhm. (//. N. XXXV. U.S. 40. § 43.) [ '>.]
OLY'MPICUS (^0v^^^t^K6s sometimes called OlympiurM8, but proy>ably incorrectly, a physician of Miletus, who belonged to the sect of tho Methodici, though ho did not embrace all their doctrines. (Oalen, Introd, c. 4, vol. xiv. p. 634.) He was the tutor of Apollonius of Cyprus (Oalen, Do Meth. Med. i. 7, vol. X. p. 54), and therefore lived in the first century aft(!r Christ. Oalen does not appear to have thought very highly of him, as ho calls him
- a frivolous (Atj^oSStj?) person" (//>»</. p. 53), and
criticizes severely his definition of the words vyitia and irdQoi. (Jfnd. pp. 54, &c. 67, &c.) [W. A. O.J
OL Y'MPION ( OAuuirfw*'), an ambassador sent by Oentius, the lllyrian king, to Per8(!us, in B..c. 1 68. ( Polyb. xxix. 2, 3 ; Liv. xliv. 28.) [Gbn- TltJH ; PKHSKlJfl.]
OLYMPIODO'RUS ('Ovniri69wpos historical. 1. An Athenian, tho son of Lampon, Me commanded a body of 800 picked Athenian troops at the battle of Plataojie. Whcui tho Megarians were being hard pressed by the Persian cavalry before tho general engagement, this body of Athenians undertook to relieve them, a service from which all the other Greeks shrank. (Herod, ix. 21 ; Pint. Ariftid. p. 327, a.).
. An Athenian, against whom a law-suit was brought by his brother-in-law, Callistmtus, respecting an inheritance left by a man named Conon. Demosthenes wrote tho speech Hard 'OAu/tirto- ic&pov for CallistratUB on this occasiou. Tho par-
