[4585] He succeeded Plato as president of the Academy (b.c. 347-339). His works are all lost.
[4586] One of Aristotle's pupils, and author of a number of works, none of which are extant.
[4587] Diogenes Laërtius (so named from Laërte in Cilicia), who probably lived in the 2nd century after Christ, in the Third Book of his "Lives of the Philosophers" refers to a treatise by Anaxelides on the same subject. It has therefore been conjectured that Jerome may have written Philosophica Historia for philosophiae.
[4588] Timæus of Locri, in Italy, a Pythagorean philosopher, is said to have been a teacher of Plato. There is an extant work bearing his name; but its genuineness is considered doubtful, and it is in all probability only an abridgment of Plato's dialogue of Timæus.
[4589] Damo. Pythagoras is said to have entrusted his writings to her, and to have forbidden her to give them to any one. She strictly observed the command, although she was in extreme poverty, and received many requests to sell them. According to some accounts Pythagoras had another daughter, Myia.
[4590] Flourished about b.c. 540-510.
[4591] Clement of Alexandria (died about a.d. 220) in his Stromata (i.e. literally, patchwork) or Miscellanies, Bk. iv., relates the same story and gives the names of the daughters. The Diodorus referred to in the text lived at Alexandria in the reign of Ptolemy Sorer (b.c. 323-285), by whom he was said to have been surnamed Cronos or Saturn, on account of his inability to solve at once some dialectic problem when dining with the king, perhaps with a play upon the word chronos (time), or with a sarcastic allusion to Cronos as the introducer of the arts of civilized life. The philosopher is said to have taken the disgrace so much to heart, that he wrote a treatise on the problem, and then died in despair. Another account derives his name from his teacher Apollonius Cronus.
[4592] Born about b.c. 213, died b.c. 129. He was the determined opponent of the Stoics, and maintained that neither our senses nor our understanding gives us a safe criterion of truth.
[4593] The poetical name of Rhea Silvia, daughter of Numitor and mother of Romulus and Remus.
[4594] According to the legend she stabbed herself on the funeral pyre. Jerome ignores the modifications introduced into the legend by Virgil, who, in defiance of the common chronology, makes Dido a contemporary of Æneas, and represents her as destroying herself when forsaken by the hero.
[4595] Hasdrubal and his family, with 900 deserters and desperadoes, retired into the temple of Æsculapius, as if to make a brave defence. But the commandant's heart failed him; and, slipping out alone, he threw himself at the feet of Scipio, and craved for pardon. His wife, standing on the base of the temple, was near enough to witness the sight, and reproaching her husband with cowardice, cast herself with her children into the flames which were now wrapping the Citadel round on all sides. b.c. 146.
[4596] Son of Nicias the celebrated Athenian general.
[4597] She succeeded Mausolus and reigned b.c. 352-350.
[4598] She was the wife of Agron, and assumed the sovereign power on the death of her husband, b.c. 231. War was declared against her by Rome in consequence of her having caused the assassination of an ambassador, and in 228 she obtained peace at the cost of the greater part of her dominions.
[4599] Cyropædeia, Book vii.
[4600] The wife of Candaules, also called Myrsilus. She was exhibited to Gyges, who, after the murder of her husband, married her. Herod. B. i.
[4601] The story, as is well known, formed the subject of the play by Euripides bearing the heroine's name, which was brought out about b.c. 438.
[4602] Protesilaus was the first of the Greeks to fall at Troy. According to some accounts he was slain by Hector. When her husband was slain Laodamia begged the gods to allow her to converse with him for only 3 hours. The request having been granted, Hermes led Protesilaus back to the upper world, and when he died a second time, Laodamia died with him.
[4603] The wife of L. Tarquinius Collatinus, whose rape by Sextus led to the dethronement of Tarquinius Superbus and the establishment of the republic.
[4604] Over the Carthaginian fleet near Mylæ, 260 b.c.
[4605] One of the assassins of Julius Cæsar. Jerome appears to be at fault here. Porcia, the daughter of Cato by his first wife Atilia, before marrying Brutus in 45 b.c., had been married to M. Bibulus and had borne him three children. He died in 48. After the death of Brutus in 42 she put an end to her own life, probably by the fumes of a charcoal fire.
[4606] Marcia is related to have been ceded by Cato to his friend Hortensius. She continued to live with the latter until his death, when she returned to Cato.
[4607] It has been conjectured that instead of "Marcia, Cato's younger daughter," a few lines above, we should read Porcia.
[4608] Probably the daughter of Cato by his second wife Marcia.
[4609] Jerome, apparently, makes a mistake here. Valeria, sister of the Messalas, married Sulla towards the end of his life. Valeria, the widow of Galerius, after the death of her husband in 311, rejected the proposals of Maximinus. Her consequent sufferings are related by Gibbon in his fourteenth chapter.
[4610] The Greek philosopher to whom Aristotle bequeathed his library and the originals of his own writings. He died b.c. 287, after being President of the Academy for 35 years. If he were the author of the book here referred to, it is not to be found among his extant writings.
[4611] Cicero at the beginning of the third book of the De Officiis, makes Cato quote this saying as one frequently in the mouth of Publius Scipio.
[4612] Phil. i. 23.
[4613] We hear very little of the two sons of Moses, Gershom and Eliezer. See Ex. iv. 20, xviii. 3, 1 Chron. xxiii. 14. Their promotion is nowhere recorded, and Moses appointed a person of another tribe to be his successor.
[4614] See 1 Sam. viii. 1-4 and ch. ix.
[4615] b.c. 46. "What grounds for displeasure she had given him besides her alleged extravagance it is hard to say. His letters to her during the previous year had been short and rather cold." Watson, Select Letters of Cicero, third ed. p. 397.
[4616] Hirtius was the friend personal and political of Julius Cæsar, and during Cæsar's absence in Africa he lived principally at his Tusculan estate which adjoined Cicero's villa. Hirtius and Cicero though opposed to each other in politics were on good terms, and the former is said to have received lessons in oratory from the latter.
[4617] But not long after divorcing Terentia he married Publilia, a young girl of whose property he had the management, in order to relieve himself from pecuniary difficulties. She seems to have received little affection from her husband. Watson, p. 397.
[4618] This statement is without authority. See Long's Article on Sallust in Smith's Dict. of Classical Biography.
[4619] Cæcilia Metella, the third of Sulla's five wives, had previously been married to M. Æmilius Scaurus, consul b.c. 115. She fell ill during the celebration of Sulla's triumph on account of his victory over Mithridates in 81; and as her recovery was hopeless, Sulla for religious reasons divorced her. She soon afterwards died, and Sulla honoured her memory with a splendid funeral.
[4620] The famous dictator claimed the name Felix for himself in a speech which he delivered to the people at the close of the celebration of his triumph, because he attributed his success in life to the favour of the gods.
[4621] But Sulla's youth and manhood were disgraced by the most sensual vices. He was indebted for a considerable portion of his wealth to a courtesan Nicopolis, and his death in b.c. 78 at the age of 60 was hastened by his dissolute mode of life.
[4622] Pompey, like Sulla, was married five times. Mucia, his third wife, daughter of Q. Mucius Scævola, the augur, consul b.c. 95, was divorced by Pompey in 62, and afterwards married M. Æmilius Scaurus, son of the consul by Cæcilia and thus stepson of Sulla.
[4623] Born b.c. 234, died b.c. 149. He was the great-grandfather of Cato of Utica.
[4624] b.c. 382-336.
[4625] b.c. 385-322.
[4626] Born about b.c. 480 at Leontini in Sicily. He is said to have lived 105, or even 109 years. He was held in high esteem at Athens, where he had numerous distinguished pupils and imitators.
[4627] An Athenian tragic poet, celebrated for his wit.
[4628] See the Andromache.
[4629] There were two cities of this name, Leptis Magna and Parva, in N. Africa.
[4630] Or "on another day," that is, than the marriage day implied in the context.
[4631] Terence, Hecyra II. i. 4.
[4632] Bk. I. ch. 8. "Candaules addressed Gyges as follows: Gyges, as I think you do not believe me when I speak of my wife's beauty (for the ears of men are naturally more incredulous than their eyes), you must contrive to see her naked.' But he, exclaiming loudly, answered: Sire, what a shocking proposal do you make, bidding me behold my queen naked! With her clothes a woman puts off her modesty,'" etc.
[4633] Perhaps Terence, Phormio I. iii. 21.
[4634] For these legends, see Classical Dict.
[4635] The most distinguished disciple and the intimate friend of Epicurus. His philosophy appears to have been of a more sensual kind than that of his master. He made perfect happiness to consist in having a well-constituted body. He died b.c. 277 in the 53rd year of his age, 7 years before Epicurus.
[4636] Chrysippus (b.c. 280-207) the Stoic philosopher, born at Soli in Cilicia. He opposed the prevailing scepticism and maintained the possibility of attaining certain knowledge. It was said of him "that if Chrysippus had not existed the Porch (i.e., Stoicism) could not have been." He is reported to have seldom written less than 500 lines a-day, and to have left behind him 705 works.
[4637] That is Zeus, regarded as presiding over marriages and the tutelary god of races or families.
[4638] Literally, "Jupiter who causes to stand": hence Jerome's play upon the word. Jupiter Stator was the god regarded as supporting, preserving, etc. Cic., Cat. I. 13, 31--"quem (sc. Jovem) statorem hujus urbis atque imperii vere nominamus."
[4639] The greater number of manuscripts read Sextus, an alternative name for the same person. Jerome in his version of the Chronicon of Eusebius speaks of "Xystus a Pythagorean philosopher" who flourished at the time of Christ's birth; but there is great difficulty in establishing the identity of the author of the "Sentences." See also the Prolegomena to Rufinus who translated the Sentences of Xystus, in Vol. III. of this Series.
[4640] See note above, p. 382.
[4641] Daughter of P. Scipio Africanus, and wife of Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, censor b.c. 169. The people erected a statue to her with the inscription "Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi."
[4642] See note p. 376.
[4643] Wife of Tarquinius Priscus.
[4644] Theano was the most celebrated of the female philosophers of the Pythagorean school. According to some authorities she was the wife of Pythagoras.
[4645] Cleobuline, or Cleobule, was celebrated for her riddles in hexameter verse. One on the subject of the year runs thus--"A father has 12 children, and each of these 30 daughters, on one side white, and on the other side black, and though immortal they all die."
[4646] Timoclia was a woman of Thebes, whose house at the capture of the city in b.c. 335 was broken into and pillaged by the soldiery. She was herself violated by the commander, whom she afterwards contrived to push into a well.
[4647] A vestal virgin who proved her innocence of the unchastity imputed to her by setting free a stranded ship with her girdle.
[4648] The epithet is said to have been given to the goddess at the time when Coriolanus was prevented by the entreaties of the women from destroying Rome.
[4649] The name for any Roman priest devoted to the service of one particular god. He took his distinguishing title from the deity to whom he ministered, e.g. Flamen Martialis.
[4650] Comp. Tertullian De Monogamia, last chapter--"Fortunæ, inquit, muliebri coronam non imponit, nisi univira...Pontifex Maximus et Flaminica (the wife of a Flamen) nubunt semel."
[4651] See Origen, Contra Celsum, Bk. VII. The water hemlock, or cowbane, is the variety referred to.