He was son-in-law to Hcrmocrates, who, having been
banished by an adverse party, attempted to return by
force of arms, and was killed in the action.
banished by an adverse party, attempted to return by
force of arms, and was killed in the action.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
The Spanish scholar Vives called him a
mere trifler; and Jean Bodin accused him, id no
sparing terms, of ignorance and carelessness; while,
so the other hand, he has been defended and extolled
by many eminent critics as an accurate and able wri-
ter. The principal fault of Diodorus seems to have
ieen the too great extent of his work. It was not
possible for any man living in the time of Augustus to
write an unexceptionable universal history, it is not,
then, a matter of surprise, that Diodorus, who does not
appear to have been a man of superior abilities, should
have fallen into a number of particular errors, and
should have placed too much reliance on authorities
sometimes far from trustworthy. Wherever he speaks
from his own observations, he may, perhaps, generally
J^e relied upon; but when he is compiling from the
writings of others, he has shown little judgment in the
selection, and has, in many cases, proved himself in-
capable of discriminating between the fabulous and
the true. We must not blame him for having given
a Greek colouring to the manners of other nations
which he describes, for it was the common practice of
Greek writers to do so, and he has not erred so much
in this respect as Dionysius of Halicarnassus. We
are indebted to him, moreover, for many particulars
which, but for him, we should never have known; and
we must regret that we have lost the last, and proba-
sly the most valuable, portion of his works, as even
by the fragments of them which remain we are enabled,
In many places, to correct the errors of ttvy. The
style of Diodorus, though not very pure or elegant, is
sufficiently perspicuous, and presents but few difficul-
ies, except where the MSS. are defective, as is fre-
nxntly the case. (SchbU, Hist. Lit. Gr. , vol. 4, p.
? ? 77, stqq. --Nicbuhr, Rom. Gesch. , vol. 3, p. 190, note
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? DIOGENES
saeiscs tales which have been invented U> expose the
sect of the Cynics to ridicule. It cannot be doubted,
however, that Diogenes prac. ised the most hardy self-
control and the most rigid abstinence; exposing him-
self to the utmost extremes of heat and cold, and liv-
ing upon the simplest diet, casually supplied by the
hand of charity. In his old age, sailing to ^Egina,
he wis taken by pirates and carried to Crete, where
he was exposed to sale in the public market. When
. he auctioneer asked him what he could do, he said,
/ can gjecrn men; therefore tell me to one who wants
a master. Xeniades, a wealthy Corinthian, happen-
ing at that instant to pass by, was struck with the
singularity of his reply, and purchased him. On
their arrival at Corinth, Xeniades gave hint his free-
dom, and committed to him the education of his
children and the direction of his domestic concerns.
Diogenes executed this trust with so much judgment
und fidelity, that Xeniades used to Bay that the gods
had sent a good genius to his house. During his resi-
dence at Corinth, the interview between him and Al-
exander is said to have taken place. Plutarch relates,
that Alexander, when al Corinth, receiving the con-
gratulations of all ranks on being appointed to com-
mand the army of the Greeks against the Persians,
missed Diogenes among the number, with whose char-
acter he was not acquainted. Curious to sec one who
had given so signal an instance of his haughty inde-
pendence of spirit, Alexander went in search of him,
and found him sitting in his tub in the sun. "I am
Alexander th. : Great" said the monarch; "and I am
Diogenes the Cynic" replied the philosopher. Alex-
ander thef) requested that ho would inform him what
service he cc uld render him. "Stand from between
me and the sun," said the Cynic. Alexander, struck
with the reply, said to his friends who were ridiculing
the whimsical singularity of the philosopher, " If I
were not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes. "
This story is too good to be omitted, but there are sev-
eral circumstances which in some degree diminish its
credibility. It supposes Diogenes to have lived in his
tub at Corinth, whereas it appears that he lived there
in the house of Xeniades, and that, if he ever dwelt in
a tub, he left it behind him at Athens. . Alexander,
moreover, was at this time scarcely 20 years old, and
could not call himself Alexander the Great, fur he did
not receive this title till his Persian and Indian expe-
dition, after which he never returned to Greece; yet
the whole transaction supposes him elated with the
pnde of conquest. Diogenes, probably, was visited
by Alexander, when the latter held the general assem-
bly of the Greeks at Corinth, and was received by him
with rudeness and incivility, which may have given
rise to the whole story. The philosopher at this time
would be about 7Q years of age. --Various accounts
are given concerning the manner and time of his death.
It seems most probable that he died at Corinth, of
mere decay, in the 90th year of his age, and in the
114th Olympiad. His friends contended for the honour
of defraying the expenses of his funeral; but the ma-
gistrates settled the dispute by ordering him an inter-
ment at the public expense. A column of Parian
marble, terminated by the figure of a dog, was raised
over his tomb. His fellow townsmen of Sinope also
erected braxen statues in memory of the philosopher.
Diogenes left behind him no system of philosophy.
After the exsmple of his master, he was more atten-
tive to practical than theoretical wisdom. The follow-
? ? ing are a few of the particular opinions ascribed to
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? DIO
010
? pos himself, and Jia. << shown very little judgment and
discrimination in the execution of it, yet the book is
extremely useful as a collection of facts, which we
could not have learned from any other quarter, and is
entertaining as a sort of omniana on the subject. The
article on Epicurus is valuable, as containing some
original letters of that philosopher, which comprise a
pretty satisfactory epitome of the Epicurean doctrines,
and are very useful to the readers of Lucretius. The
best editions of Diogenes are, that of Meibomius, Amst,
1692, 2 vols. 4to, and that of Hubncr, Lips. , 1828, 2
vols. 8vo.
Diomf. pe. e Insula Vid. Diomedis Insula;.
Diomedis, son of Tydeus and Deiphyle, was king
? tl -Etolia. and one of the bravest of the Grecian
chiefs in the Trojan war, ranking next to Achilles and
A'ax. Homer represents him as one of the favourites
of Minerva, and ascribes his many acts of valour to
her protecting influence. Among his exploits, it is
recorded of liim that he engaged in single combat
with Hector and -Eneas; that he wounded Mars,
-? Eneas, and Venus; and that, in concert with Ulysses,
he carried off the horses of Rhesus, and the palladi-
um; and procured the arrows of Philoctetes. (Soph-
ocles, however, makes Ulysses to have been aided
in this last-mentioned affair by Pyrrhus, son of Achil-
les. ) Diomede was deprived of the affection of his
wife iEgiale, through the wrath and vengeance of Ve-
nus, by whose influence, during his absence at the war,
she had become attached to Cyllabarus, the son of
Sthenelus. (But consult Heme, ad Apollod. , 1. 8, 6,
U ad Horn. , 11. , 5, 412. ) Diomede was so afflicted at
the enstrangement of -Egiale, that he abandoned
Greece, and settled at the head of a colony, in Magna
Grscia, where he founded a city, to which he gave the
nine of Argyripa; and married a daughter of Dau-
aus, prince of the country. In the progress of his
royag* to Italy, Diomede was shipwrecked on that part
:f toe Libyan coast which was under the sway of Ly-
me, who, as was his usage towards all strangers, seized
ind confined him. He was, however, liberated by
Oallirhoe, the tyrant's daughter, who became so en-
irnoured of him, that, upon his quitting the African
shores, she put herself to death. Diomede, according
to one account, died in Italy at a very advanced age;
while another legend makes him to have been slain by
his father-in-lawDaunus. (Tzetz. , ad Lyc. ophr. , 603,
*eqq) His companions were so much afflicted by his
death that they were changed into birds. Virgil, how-
ever, makes this transformation earlier in date, and
to have taken place during the lifetime of Diomede.
(-En. , 11,272. ) He seems to have followed the tra-
dition recorded by Ovid (Mel. , 14, 457), that Agnon,
one of Diomcde's companions in his voysge from
Troy, insulted Venus with contemptuous language,
and that the goddess, in revenge, transformed not only
Agnon, but many others of Diomede's followers into
birds. These birds, according to Ovid, resembled
swans; they chiefly frequented some neighbouring
islands in the Adriatic, and were noted for their fond-
ness lor Greeks, arid their aversion towards the natives
of any other country. (Vid. Diomedis Insula;--Con-
sult Heyne, Excurs-, \,ad &n. , 11, and Lord Bacon's
FabUs of the Ancients, fab. xviii. )--II. A king of the
Bittones, in Thrace, Bon of Mars and Cyrene. His
mares fed on human flesh. Hercules sailed to this
quarter, having been ordered, as his eighth labour, to
? ? ? ring these marcs to Mycenae. The hero overcame
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? DION.
uio
i Roman senator, was born AD. 155, in Bilhynia.
His true name was Cassius, but he assumed the other
two names, as being descended on the mother's side
from Dion Chrysostom. Thus, though he was on his
mother's side of Greek descent, and though, in his
writings, he adopted the then prevailing language of
his native province, namely, the Greek, he must nev-
ertheless be considered as a Roman. Dio Cassius
passed the greater part of his life in public employ-
ment*. He was a senator under Commodua ;. governor
of Smyrna after the death of Septimius Severus; for he
hsd displeased this monarch, and held no office, con-
sequently, during the life of the latter; and afterward
consul, aa also proconsul in Africa and Pannonia. Al-
exander Severus entertained the highest esteem for
him, and made him consul for the second time, with
himself, though the praetorian guards, irritated against
him on account of his severity, had demanded his life.
When advanced in years, he returned to his native
country. Dion published a Roman history, in eighty
books, the fruit of his researches and labours for the
space of twenty-two years It embraced a period of
983 years, extending from the arrival of . 'Eneas in
Italy, and the subsequent founding of Rome, to A. D.
229. Down to the time of Julius Cesar, he only
gives a summary of events; after this, he enters some-
what more into details; and from the time of Corn-
modus he is very circumstantial in relating what passed
under his own eyes. Wo have fragments remaining of
the first 36 books: but there is a considerable portion
of the 35th book, on the war of Lucullus against Mith-
radates, and of the 36th, on the war with the pirates, and
the expedition of Poinpey against the King of Pontus.
The books that follow, to the 54 th inclusive, are nearly
all entire: they comprehend a period from B. C. 65 to
B. C. 10, or from the eastern campaign of Pompey, and
the death of Mithradates, to the death of Agrippa. The
55th book has a considerable gap in it. The 5lith to the
60th, both included, which comprehend the period from
A. D. 9 to A. D. 54, are complete, and contain tho events
from the defeat of Varus in Germany to the reign of
Claudius. Of the following 20 books we have only
fragments, and the meager abridgment of Xiphilinus.
The 80th or last book comprehends the period from
A. D. 222 to A. D. 229, in the reign of Alexander
Severus. The abridgment of Xiphilinus, as now ex-
tant, commences with the 35lh, and continues to the
end of the 80th book. It is a very indifferent per-
formance, and was made by order of the Emperor
Michael Ducas: the abbrcviator, Xiphilinus, was a
monk of the eleventh century. --The fragments of the
first 36 books, as now collected, are of three kinds.
1. Fragmenta Valeriana: such as were dispersed
throughout various writers, scholiasts, grammarians,
lexicographers, &c, and were collected by Henri de
t ales. 2. Fragmenta Peiresciana: comprising large
extracts, found in the section entitled " Of Virtues and
Vices," in the great collection or portative library
compiled by order of Constantino VI. , Porphyrogeni-
Uis. The manuscript of this belonged to Peiresc.
J. The fragments of the first 34 books, preserved in
ihe second section of the same work of Constantino's,
entitled " Of Embassies. " T' cse are known under
the name of Fragmenta Ursiniana, because the man-
uscript containing them was found in Sicily by Fultio
Orsini. 4. Excerpta Vaticana, by Mai, which contain
fragments of books 1-35, and 61-80, and which have
? ? been published in the second volume of the Scriptorum
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? 01 o
DIONYSIUS
toamatic cxa. bliions of the Athenians took place. An
tccoanl of these festivals, which were four h. number,
will be found under the article Theatrum, y 2.
Dio. nysIas, a town of Egypt, situate at the south-
western extremity of the Lake Mceris. It is now called
Deled-Kcrun, or, according to some, Scobha. (Ptol. )
Qionysoi-olis. I. a town of Lower Mcesia, in the
? trinity of the Euxine Sea. Pliny says that it was
ilso called Crunos but Pomponius Mela (2, 2) makes
Crunos the port of Dionysopolis. 'l"ne modem name
is Dinysipoli. --II. A city of India, supposed by Man-
ncrt to be the same with the modern Nagar, or Nughr,
on the western bank of the river Cow. Manner! does
not consider it to have been the same with tho ancient
city of Nyssa, but makes the position of the latter more
to the north. (Gcogr. , vol. 6, p. 142. )
DioxYsius I. , or the Elder, a celebrated tyrant of
Svracuse, raised to that high rank from the station of
? simple citizen, was bom in this same city 430 B. C.
He was son-in-law to Hcrmocrates, who, having been
banished by an adverse party, attempted to return by
force of arms, and was killed in the action. Dionysius
was dangerously wounded, but he recovered, and was
afterward recalled. In time he procured himself to
be nominated one of the generals, and, under pretence
*fraising a force sufficient to resist the Carthaginians,
:e obtained a decree for recalling all the exiles, to
whom he gave arms. Being sent to the relief of Gela,
then besieged by the Carthaginians, he effected nothing
against the enemy, pretending that he was not sec-
onded by the other commanders; and his friends sug-
gested, that, in order to save the state, the supreme
power ought to be confided to one man, reminding the
people of the times of Gcion, who had defeated the
Carthaginian host, and given peace to Sicily. Tho
general assembly therefore proclaimed Dionysius su-
preme chief of the republic about 405 B. C. , when he
was twenty-five years of age. He increased the pay
of the soldiers, enlisted new ones, and, under pretence
of a conspiracy against his person, formed a guard of
mercenaries. He then proceeded to the relief of Gela,
but failed in the attack on the Carthaginian camp: he
however penetrated into the town, the inhabitants of
which he advised to leave it quietly in the night under
the escort of his troops. On his retreat he persuaded
those of Camarina to do the same. This raised suspi-
:ions among his troops, and a party of horsemen, riding
on before the rest, raised, on their arrival at Syracuse,
an insurrection against Dionysius, plundered his house,
and treated his wife so cruelly that she died in conse-
quence. Dionysius, with a chosen holy, followed
rlose after, set fire to the gate of Acradina, forced his
way into the city, put to death the leaders of the re-
volt, and remained undisputed possessor of the su-
preme power. The Carthaginians, being afflicted by
a pestilence, made proposals of peace, which were ac-
cepted by Dionysius, and he then applied himself to
fortifying Syracuse, and especially the island of Orly-
gia, which be made his stronghold, and which he peo-
eed entirely with his trusty partisans and mercenaries,
'the aid of whom he put down several revolts. Af-
ter reducing beneath his sway the towns of Leontini,
Catana, and Naxus, he engaged in a new war with
Carthage, in vhich he met with the most brilliant suc-
wse, making himself master of numerous towns in Si-
? ily. and becoming eventually feared both in Italy and
Sicily, to the dominion of both of which countries he
? ? teems at one time to have aspired. In order to raise
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? DIONYSIUS.
DIONYSIUS.
pejplc on important occasions, when full freedom of
speech seems to have been allowed. (1'lut. , Vit. Dion.
--Ihod. Sic , 13,92, teqq. --ld. , 14,7, teqq. , ccc. ) An
account of the famous prison, or " Ear of Dionysius,"
will be found under the article Lautumiae. --II. The
second of that name, surnamed the Younger, was son
of Dionysius I. by Doris. His father, whom he suc-
:? ejcd, had left the state in a prosperous condition,
but young Dionysius had neither his abUities, nor his
(. ndcuce snd experience. He followed at first the ad-
vice of Dion, who, although a republican in principle,
had remained faithful to his father, and who now en-
deavoured to direct the inexperienced son for the good
of his country. For this purpose Dion invited his
friend Plato to Syracuse about 364 B. C. Dionysius
received the philosopher with great respect, and, in
deference to his advice, reformed for a while his loose
habits and the manners of his court. But a faction,
headed by Philistus, who had always been a supporter
of the tyranny of the elder Dionysius, succeeded in
prejudicing the son against both Dion and Plato.
Dion was exiled, under pretence that he had written
privately to the senate of Carthage for the purpose of
concluding a peace. Plato urgently demanded of Di-
onysius the recall of Dion, and, not being able to ob-
tain it, he left Syracuse, after which Dionysius gave
himself up to debauchery without restraint. Dion,
meanwhile, was travelling through Greece, where his
character gained him numerous friends. Dionysius,
moved by jealousy, confiscated his property, and obliged
his wife to marry another. Upon this, Dion collected
a small force at Zacynthus, with which he sailed for
Sicily, and entered Syracuse without resistance. Di-
onysius retired to the citadel in Ortygia, and, after
some resistance, in which Philistus, his best support-
ter, was taken prisoner and put to death, he quilted
Syracuse by sea and retired to Locri, the country of
bis mother, where he had connexions and friends.
Dion having been treacherously murdered, several ty-
rants succeeded each other in Syracuse, until Dionys-
ius himself came and retook it about B. C. 346. In-
i toad, however, of improving by his ten years' exile, he
had grown worse. Having, during the interval of his
absence from Syracuse, usurped the supreme power
in Locri, he had committed many atrocities, had put
to death several citizens, and abused their wives and
daughters. Upon his return to Syracuse, his cruelty
and profligacy drove away a great number of people,
who emigrated to various parts of Italy and Greece,
while others joined Iketas, tyrant of Leontini, and a
former friend of Dion. The latter sent messengers
*. o Corinth to request assistance against Dionysius.
The Corinthians appointed Timoleon leader of the
expedition. This commander landed in Sicily B. C.
344, notwithstanding the opposition of the Carthagin-
ians, and of Iketas, who acted a perfidious part on
the occasion; he entered Syracuse, and soon after
obliged Dionysius to surrender. Dionysius was sent
to Corinth, where he spent the remainder of his life in
tho company of actors and low women; some say,
that at one time he kept a school. Justin (21,5) states,
that he purposely affected low habits in order to dis-
arm revenge, in that, being despised, he might no long-
er be feared or hated for his former tyranny. Several
repartees are related of him in answer to those who
taunted him upon his altered fortunes, which are not
destitute of wit or wisdom. (Plat. , Vit. Dion. --Dial.
? ? Sic, 16, 5, teqq. )--III. Halicarnassensis or Halicar-
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? DI C
DIO
to part of the third or the beginning to the fourth
century A. D. He derived from his poem the sjmamc
of Periegetes. This production of his has little merit
is a work of imagination, and but feeble interest for the
geographer. The commentary, however, of Eustathius
upon it possesses some value from the miscellaneous
information which is scattered throughout. There are
two Latin translations of the poem, one by Rufus Fes-
lus Avienus, and the other by Priscian. The last and
best edition of the Periegesis is that of Bernhardy,
Lips. , 1828, 8vo, in the first volume of his Gcographi
Graci Minora. (SchiiU, Hist. Lit. Gr. ,vol. 4, p. 59. )--
V. A Christian writer, called Areopagita, from his hav-
ing been a member of the court of Areopagus at Athens.
He was converted to Christianity by St. Paul's preach-
ing. (Acts, 17, 34. ) He is reported to have been
the first bishop of Athens, being appointed to that office
by the apostle Paul, and to have suffered martyrdom
under Domuian. " During the night of learning, a great
cumber of writings were circulated under his name,
which were collected together and printed at Cologne
in 153G, and subsequently at Antwerp in 1634, and at
Paris in 1646, 2 vols. fol. They have now, for a long
time, been deemed spurious, although the learned dif-
fer in respect to the times and authors of the fabrica-
tion. The most probable reasoning, however, fixes
them at the end of the fifth century. (Suid. --Cave,
Hut. lot. --Lardtur's Creed, pt. 2. )--VI. Surnamed
Exiguus, or the Little, on account of the smallness of
his stature, was n Scythian monk of the sixth century,
who became an abbot at Rome. Cassiodorus, who
was his intintato friend, speaks highly of his learning
and character. At the request of Stephen, bishop of
Salons, he drew up a body of canons, entitled " Col-
Uctio, site Codex Canonum Ecclesiasticorum," etc. ,
translated from tiie Greek, containing the first 50
? postolical canons, as they are called, with those of the
councils of Nice. Constantinople, Chalcedon, Sardis,
and including 138 casons of certain African councils.
He afterward drew up a collection of the decretals,
and both are to be found in the BMiothcca Juris Co. -
wmici Yrtcris of Justell. To this Dionysius some
writers ascribe the mode of computing the time of
Easier, attributed to Victorinus, and of dating from the
birth of Christ. (Cave's Hist. Lit. --Hutlon's Math.
Did. )--VII. A Greek poet and musician, the author
of the words and music of three hymns, addressed
to Calliope, Apollo, and Nemesis. They were pub-
lished by Vincent Galilei, at Florence, in 1581; and
again by Dr. Fell, at Oxford, in 1672, from a manu-
script found among the papers of Archbishop Usher.
It appears by these notes, that the music of the hymns
in question was in the Lydian mode and diatonic ge-
nus. Galilei asserts that he had them from a Floren-
tine gentleman, who copied them from an ancient
Greek manuscript in the library of Cardinal St. Angelo
at Rome, which manuscript also contained the treatises
on music by Aristides, Quintilianus, and Brycnnius,
since published by Meibomius and Dr. Wallis. The
Florentine and Oxford editions of these hymns exactly
igre%; and they have since also been printed in the
fifth volume of the French Memoirs of the Academy
of Inscriptions, etc. (Barney's History of Music. )
Diophanti's, a mathematician of Alexandres, who,
according to the most received opinion, was contem-
porary with the Emperor Julian. This opinion is
founded upon a passage of Abulpharadge, an Arabian
? ? author of the thirteenth century: he names, among the
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? DI0SC0K1DES.
DIOSCORIDES.
,T co/ivrj/iaTa); and, 3 A treatise on the manners in
Homer (OJ wap' 'O/ir/pu vofioi). Athensus, who cites
fc. e first two of these works, has preserved a long frag-
ment >;f the last. It treats of the mode in which the
Homeric heroes subsisted, and is extremely curious.
{Alhtnatu, Ep. , 1, p. 8--Ed. Schweigh. , vol. 1, p.
31. )--II. A poet of Alexandres, some of whose epi-
grams arc preserved in the Anthology (<</. Jacobs, vol.
I, p. 224, seqq). --III. A native of Anazarbus in Cili-
c. n, who lived, according to some, in the time of An-
tony and Cleopatra, while othera place him in the
reign of Nero. One circumstance in favour of the
latter supposition is, that Pliny, who faithfully men-
tions tho authors whence he borrows, does not once
mention Dioscorides, although we find in the work of
the former a great number of passages which appear to
have been borrowed from the latter. Thia silence on
the one hand, and conformity on the other, prove that
Pliny and Dioscorides wrote nearly at the same period,
and derived some of their materials from the same
sources, particularly from the lost work of Sexlius
Niger. Dioscorides himself informs us, that, as a mil-
itary man, he visited many countries. He received the
surname of Phacas, from his having on his person a
spot resembling a lentil (6anr/). Dioscorides is the
most celebrated herbalist of antiquity, and for sixteen
or seventeen centuries there was nothing known that
could be regarded as superior to his work Tlepi 'T/. r/f
iarpiKijc, "On the Materia Medico," in five books.
This is the more surprising, considering the real na-
ture of this famous work. The author introduces no
order into the arrangement of his matter, unless by
consulting a similarity of sound in tho names he gives
his plants. Thus, medium was placed with cprmcdi-
um, altkaa cannabina with cannabis, hippopluutum
(emeus stellatus) with hippophai, and so on. The
were separation of aromatic and gum-bearing trees,
esculents and com-plants, hardly forms an exception
to this statement. Of many of his plants no descrip-
tion is given, but they are merely designated by a name.
In others the descriptions are comparative, contradic-
tory, or unintelligible. He employs the same word in
different senses, and evidently attached no exactness
to the terms he made use of. He described the same
plant twice under the same name or different names;
he was often notoriously careless, and he appeara to
have been very ready to state too much upon the author-
ity of others. Nevertheless, his writings are extremely
interesting, as showing the amount of Materia Medica
knowledge in the author's day, and his descriptions
are in many cases far from bad: but we must be care-
ful not to look upon them as evidence of the state of
botany at the same period; for Dioscorides has no
pretensions to be ranked among the botanists of anti-
quity, considering that the writings of Thcophrastus,
four centuries earlier, show that botany had even at
that time begun to be cultivated as a science distinct
from the art of the herbalist. --It was only at last, when
the rapidly increasing number of new plants, and the
general advance in all branches of physical knowledge,
compelled the moderns to admit that the vegetable
Kingdom might contain more things than were dreamed
of by the Anazarbian philosopher, that tho authority of
Dioscorides ceased to be acknowledged. --Dioscorides,
in his preface, criticises the authors who had treated of
this subject before him: Iolas of Bithynia, and Her-
aclides of Tarentum, had neglected plants and metals;
? ? Craterus, the botanist (fn^oro/ioc), and Andreas the
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? D1C
etners are preserved a Leyden. The latest and best
edition of Dioscorides ia that of Sprengel, in the col-
lection of Greek physicians by Kuhn, Lip*. , 1829, 8vo.
The folio edition by Saracenus (Sarassin) Franco/. ,
1598, ia also a very ? 3od one. Sprengel's edition is
improved by a collation of several MSS. --So far as
European plants are in question, we may suppose that
the iih dns of illustrating Dioscorides are now nearly
exhausted; but it is far otherwise with his Indian and
Persian plants. Concerning the latter, it is probable
that much may be learned from a study of the modem
Materia Medica of India. When the Nestorians, in
the fifth century, were driven into exile, they Bought
refuge among the Arabs, with whom they established
their celebrated school of med. cine, the ramifications
of which extended into Persia and India, and laid the
foundation of the present medical practice of the na-
tives of those countries. In this way the Greek names
of Dioscorides, altered, indeed, and adapted to the
genius of the new countries, became introduced into
the language of Persia, Arabia, and Hindustan, and
ha* e been handed down traditionally to the present
day.
mere trifler; and Jean Bodin accused him, id no
sparing terms, of ignorance and carelessness; while,
so the other hand, he has been defended and extolled
by many eminent critics as an accurate and able wri-
ter. The principal fault of Diodorus seems to have
ieen the too great extent of his work. It was not
possible for any man living in the time of Augustus to
write an unexceptionable universal history, it is not,
then, a matter of surprise, that Diodorus, who does not
appear to have been a man of superior abilities, should
have fallen into a number of particular errors, and
should have placed too much reliance on authorities
sometimes far from trustworthy. Wherever he speaks
from his own observations, he may, perhaps, generally
J^e relied upon; but when he is compiling from the
writings of others, he has shown little judgment in the
selection, and has, in many cases, proved himself in-
capable of discriminating between the fabulous and
the true. We must not blame him for having given
a Greek colouring to the manners of other nations
which he describes, for it was the common practice of
Greek writers to do so, and he has not erred so much
in this respect as Dionysius of Halicarnassus. We
are indebted to him, moreover, for many particulars
which, but for him, we should never have known; and
we must regret that we have lost the last, and proba-
sly the most valuable, portion of his works, as even
by the fragments of them which remain we are enabled,
In many places, to correct the errors of ttvy. The
style of Diodorus, though not very pure or elegant, is
sufficiently perspicuous, and presents but few difficul-
ies, except where the MSS. are defective, as is fre-
nxntly the case. (SchbU, Hist. Lit. Gr. , vol. 4, p.
? ? 77, stqq. --Nicbuhr, Rom. Gesch. , vol. 3, p. 190, note
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? DIOGENES
saeiscs tales which have been invented U> expose the
sect of the Cynics to ridicule. It cannot be doubted,
however, that Diogenes prac. ised the most hardy self-
control and the most rigid abstinence; exposing him-
self to the utmost extremes of heat and cold, and liv-
ing upon the simplest diet, casually supplied by the
hand of charity. In his old age, sailing to ^Egina,
he wis taken by pirates and carried to Crete, where
he was exposed to sale in the public market. When
. he auctioneer asked him what he could do, he said,
/ can gjecrn men; therefore tell me to one who wants
a master. Xeniades, a wealthy Corinthian, happen-
ing at that instant to pass by, was struck with the
singularity of his reply, and purchased him. On
their arrival at Corinth, Xeniades gave hint his free-
dom, and committed to him the education of his
children and the direction of his domestic concerns.
Diogenes executed this trust with so much judgment
und fidelity, that Xeniades used to Bay that the gods
had sent a good genius to his house. During his resi-
dence at Corinth, the interview between him and Al-
exander is said to have taken place. Plutarch relates,
that Alexander, when al Corinth, receiving the con-
gratulations of all ranks on being appointed to com-
mand the army of the Greeks against the Persians,
missed Diogenes among the number, with whose char-
acter he was not acquainted. Curious to sec one who
had given so signal an instance of his haughty inde-
pendence of spirit, Alexander went in search of him,
and found him sitting in his tub in the sun. "I am
Alexander th. : Great" said the monarch; "and I am
Diogenes the Cynic" replied the philosopher. Alex-
ander thef) requested that ho would inform him what
service he cc uld render him. "Stand from between
me and the sun," said the Cynic. Alexander, struck
with the reply, said to his friends who were ridiculing
the whimsical singularity of the philosopher, " If I
were not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes. "
This story is too good to be omitted, but there are sev-
eral circumstances which in some degree diminish its
credibility. It supposes Diogenes to have lived in his
tub at Corinth, whereas it appears that he lived there
in the house of Xeniades, and that, if he ever dwelt in
a tub, he left it behind him at Athens. . Alexander,
moreover, was at this time scarcely 20 years old, and
could not call himself Alexander the Great, fur he did
not receive this title till his Persian and Indian expe-
dition, after which he never returned to Greece; yet
the whole transaction supposes him elated with the
pnde of conquest. Diogenes, probably, was visited
by Alexander, when the latter held the general assem-
bly of the Greeks at Corinth, and was received by him
with rudeness and incivility, which may have given
rise to the whole story. The philosopher at this time
would be about 7Q years of age. --Various accounts
are given concerning the manner and time of his death.
It seems most probable that he died at Corinth, of
mere decay, in the 90th year of his age, and in the
114th Olympiad. His friends contended for the honour
of defraying the expenses of his funeral; but the ma-
gistrates settled the dispute by ordering him an inter-
ment at the public expense. A column of Parian
marble, terminated by the figure of a dog, was raised
over his tomb. His fellow townsmen of Sinope also
erected braxen statues in memory of the philosopher.
Diogenes left behind him no system of philosophy.
After the exsmple of his master, he was more atten-
tive to practical than theoretical wisdom. The follow-
? ? ing are a few of the particular opinions ascribed to
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? DIO
010
? pos himself, and Jia. << shown very little judgment and
discrimination in the execution of it, yet the book is
extremely useful as a collection of facts, which we
could not have learned from any other quarter, and is
entertaining as a sort of omniana on the subject. The
article on Epicurus is valuable, as containing some
original letters of that philosopher, which comprise a
pretty satisfactory epitome of the Epicurean doctrines,
and are very useful to the readers of Lucretius. The
best editions of Diogenes are, that of Meibomius, Amst,
1692, 2 vols. 4to, and that of Hubncr, Lips. , 1828, 2
vols. 8vo.
Diomf. pe. e Insula Vid. Diomedis Insula;.
Diomedis, son of Tydeus and Deiphyle, was king
? tl -Etolia. and one of the bravest of the Grecian
chiefs in the Trojan war, ranking next to Achilles and
A'ax. Homer represents him as one of the favourites
of Minerva, and ascribes his many acts of valour to
her protecting influence. Among his exploits, it is
recorded of liim that he engaged in single combat
with Hector and -Eneas; that he wounded Mars,
-? Eneas, and Venus; and that, in concert with Ulysses,
he carried off the horses of Rhesus, and the palladi-
um; and procured the arrows of Philoctetes. (Soph-
ocles, however, makes Ulysses to have been aided
in this last-mentioned affair by Pyrrhus, son of Achil-
les. ) Diomede was deprived of the affection of his
wife iEgiale, through the wrath and vengeance of Ve-
nus, by whose influence, during his absence at the war,
she had become attached to Cyllabarus, the son of
Sthenelus. (But consult Heme, ad Apollod. , 1. 8, 6,
U ad Horn. , 11. , 5, 412. ) Diomede was so afflicted at
the enstrangement of -Egiale, that he abandoned
Greece, and settled at the head of a colony, in Magna
Grscia, where he founded a city, to which he gave the
nine of Argyripa; and married a daughter of Dau-
aus, prince of the country. In the progress of his
royag* to Italy, Diomede was shipwrecked on that part
:f toe Libyan coast which was under the sway of Ly-
me, who, as was his usage towards all strangers, seized
ind confined him. He was, however, liberated by
Oallirhoe, the tyrant's daughter, who became so en-
irnoured of him, that, upon his quitting the African
shores, she put herself to death. Diomede, according
to one account, died in Italy at a very advanced age;
while another legend makes him to have been slain by
his father-in-lawDaunus. (Tzetz. , ad Lyc. ophr. , 603,
*eqq) His companions were so much afflicted by his
death that they were changed into birds. Virgil, how-
ever, makes this transformation earlier in date, and
to have taken place during the lifetime of Diomede.
(-En. , 11,272. ) He seems to have followed the tra-
dition recorded by Ovid (Mel. , 14, 457), that Agnon,
one of Diomcde's companions in his voysge from
Troy, insulted Venus with contemptuous language,
and that the goddess, in revenge, transformed not only
Agnon, but many others of Diomede's followers into
birds. These birds, according to Ovid, resembled
swans; they chiefly frequented some neighbouring
islands in the Adriatic, and were noted for their fond-
ness lor Greeks, arid their aversion towards the natives
of any other country. (Vid. Diomedis Insula;--Con-
sult Heyne, Excurs-, \,ad &n. , 11, and Lord Bacon's
FabUs of the Ancients, fab. xviii. )--II. A king of the
Bittones, in Thrace, Bon of Mars and Cyrene. His
mares fed on human flesh. Hercules sailed to this
quarter, having been ordered, as his eighth labour, to
? ? ? ring these marcs to Mycenae. The hero overcame
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? DION.
uio
i Roman senator, was born AD. 155, in Bilhynia.
His true name was Cassius, but he assumed the other
two names, as being descended on the mother's side
from Dion Chrysostom. Thus, though he was on his
mother's side of Greek descent, and though, in his
writings, he adopted the then prevailing language of
his native province, namely, the Greek, he must nev-
ertheless be considered as a Roman. Dio Cassius
passed the greater part of his life in public employ-
ment*. He was a senator under Commodua ;. governor
of Smyrna after the death of Septimius Severus; for he
hsd displeased this monarch, and held no office, con-
sequently, during the life of the latter; and afterward
consul, aa also proconsul in Africa and Pannonia. Al-
exander Severus entertained the highest esteem for
him, and made him consul for the second time, with
himself, though the praetorian guards, irritated against
him on account of his severity, had demanded his life.
When advanced in years, he returned to his native
country. Dion published a Roman history, in eighty
books, the fruit of his researches and labours for the
space of twenty-two years It embraced a period of
983 years, extending from the arrival of . 'Eneas in
Italy, and the subsequent founding of Rome, to A. D.
229. Down to the time of Julius Cesar, he only
gives a summary of events; after this, he enters some-
what more into details; and from the time of Corn-
modus he is very circumstantial in relating what passed
under his own eyes. Wo have fragments remaining of
the first 36 books: but there is a considerable portion
of the 35th book, on the war of Lucullus against Mith-
radates, and of the 36th, on the war with the pirates, and
the expedition of Poinpey against the King of Pontus.
The books that follow, to the 54 th inclusive, are nearly
all entire: they comprehend a period from B. C. 65 to
B. C. 10, or from the eastern campaign of Pompey, and
the death of Mithradates, to the death of Agrippa. The
55th book has a considerable gap in it. The 5lith to the
60th, both included, which comprehend the period from
A. D. 9 to A. D. 54, are complete, and contain tho events
from the defeat of Varus in Germany to the reign of
Claudius. Of the following 20 books we have only
fragments, and the meager abridgment of Xiphilinus.
The 80th or last book comprehends the period from
A. D. 222 to A. D. 229, in the reign of Alexander
Severus. The abridgment of Xiphilinus, as now ex-
tant, commences with the 35lh, and continues to the
end of the 80th book. It is a very indifferent per-
formance, and was made by order of the Emperor
Michael Ducas: the abbrcviator, Xiphilinus, was a
monk of the eleventh century. --The fragments of the
first 36 books, as now collected, are of three kinds.
1. Fragmenta Valeriana: such as were dispersed
throughout various writers, scholiasts, grammarians,
lexicographers, &c, and were collected by Henri de
t ales. 2. Fragmenta Peiresciana: comprising large
extracts, found in the section entitled " Of Virtues and
Vices," in the great collection or portative library
compiled by order of Constantino VI. , Porphyrogeni-
Uis. The manuscript of this belonged to Peiresc.
J. The fragments of the first 34 books, preserved in
ihe second section of the same work of Constantino's,
entitled " Of Embassies. " T' cse are known under
the name of Fragmenta Ursiniana, because the man-
uscript containing them was found in Sicily by Fultio
Orsini. 4. Excerpta Vaticana, by Mai, which contain
fragments of books 1-35, and 61-80, and which have
? ? been published in the second volume of the Scriptorum
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? 01 o
DIONYSIUS
toamatic cxa. bliions of the Athenians took place. An
tccoanl of these festivals, which were four h. number,
will be found under the article Theatrum, y 2.
Dio. nysIas, a town of Egypt, situate at the south-
western extremity of the Lake Mceris. It is now called
Deled-Kcrun, or, according to some, Scobha. (Ptol. )
Qionysoi-olis. I. a town of Lower Mcesia, in the
? trinity of the Euxine Sea. Pliny says that it was
ilso called Crunos but Pomponius Mela (2, 2) makes
Crunos the port of Dionysopolis. 'l"ne modem name
is Dinysipoli. --II. A city of India, supposed by Man-
ncrt to be the same with the modern Nagar, or Nughr,
on the western bank of the river Cow. Manner! does
not consider it to have been the same with tho ancient
city of Nyssa, but makes the position of the latter more
to the north. (Gcogr. , vol. 6, p. 142. )
DioxYsius I. , or the Elder, a celebrated tyrant of
Svracuse, raised to that high rank from the station of
? simple citizen, was bom in this same city 430 B. C.
He was son-in-law to Hcrmocrates, who, having been
banished by an adverse party, attempted to return by
force of arms, and was killed in the action. Dionysius
was dangerously wounded, but he recovered, and was
afterward recalled. In time he procured himself to
be nominated one of the generals, and, under pretence
*fraising a force sufficient to resist the Carthaginians,
:e obtained a decree for recalling all the exiles, to
whom he gave arms. Being sent to the relief of Gela,
then besieged by the Carthaginians, he effected nothing
against the enemy, pretending that he was not sec-
onded by the other commanders; and his friends sug-
gested, that, in order to save the state, the supreme
power ought to be confided to one man, reminding the
people of the times of Gcion, who had defeated the
Carthaginian host, and given peace to Sicily. Tho
general assembly therefore proclaimed Dionysius su-
preme chief of the republic about 405 B. C. , when he
was twenty-five years of age. He increased the pay
of the soldiers, enlisted new ones, and, under pretence
of a conspiracy against his person, formed a guard of
mercenaries. He then proceeded to the relief of Gela,
but failed in the attack on the Carthaginian camp: he
however penetrated into the town, the inhabitants of
which he advised to leave it quietly in the night under
the escort of his troops. On his retreat he persuaded
those of Camarina to do the same. This raised suspi-
:ions among his troops, and a party of horsemen, riding
on before the rest, raised, on their arrival at Syracuse,
an insurrection against Dionysius, plundered his house,
and treated his wife so cruelly that she died in conse-
quence. Dionysius, with a chosen holy, followed
rlose after, set fire to the gate of Acradina, forced his
way into the city, put to death the leaders of the re-
volt, and remained undisputed possessor of the su-
preme power. The Carthaginians, being afflicted by
a pestilence, made proposals of peace, which were ac-
cepted by Dionysius, and he then applied himself to
fortifying Syracuse, and especially the island of Orly-
gia, which be made his stronghold, and which he peo-
eed entirely with his trusty partisans and mercenaries,
'the aid of whom he put down several revolts. Af-
ter reducing beneath his sway the towns of Leontini,
Catana, and Naxus, he engaged in a new war with
Carthage, in vhich he met with the most brilliant suc-
wse, making himself master of numerous towns in Si-
? ily. and becoming eventually feared both in Italy and
Sicily, to the dominion of both of which countries he
? ? teems at one time to have aspired. In order to raise
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? DIONYSIUS.
DIONYSIUS.
pejplc on important occasions, when full freedom of
speech seems to have been allowed. (1'lut. , Vit. Dion.
--Ihod. Sic , 13,92, teqq. --ld. , 14,7, teqq. , ccc. ) An
account of the famous prison, or " Ear of Dionysius,"
will be found under the article Lautumiae. --II. The
second of that name, surnamed the Younger, was son
of Dionysius I. by Doris. His father, whom he suc-
:? ejcd, had left the state in a prosperous condition,
but young Dionysius had neither his abUities, nor his
(. ndcuce snd experience. He followed at first the ad-
vice of Dion, who, although a republican in principle,
had remained faithful to his father, and who now en-
deavoured to direct the inexperienced son for the good
of his country. For this purpose Dion invited his
friend Plato to Syracuse about 364 B. C. Dionysius
received the philosopher with great respect, and, in
deference to his advice, reformed for a while his loose
habits and the manners of his court. But a faction,
headed by Philistus, who had always been a supporter
of the tyranny of the elder Dionysius, succeeded in
prejudicing the son against both Dion and Plato.
Dion was exiled, under pretence that he had written
privately to the senate of Carthage for the purpose of
concluding a peace. Plato urgently demanded of Di-
onysius the recall of Dion, and, not being able to ob-
tain it, he left Syracuse, after which Dionysius gave
himself up to debauchery without restraint. Dion,
meanwhile, was travelling through Greece, where his
character gained him numerous friends. Dionysius,
moved by jealousy, confiscated his property, and obliged
his wife to marry another. Upon this, Dion collected
a small force at Zacynthus, with which he sailed for
Sicily, and entered Syracuse without resistance. Di-
onysius retired to the citadel in Ortygia, and, after
some resistance, in which Philistus, his best support-
ter, was taken prisoner and put to death, he quilted
Syracuse by sea and retired to Locri, the country of
bis mother, where he had connexions and friends.
Dion having been treacherously murdered, several ty-
rants succeeded each other in Syracuse, until Dionys-
ius himself came and retook it about B. C. 346. In-
i toad, however, of improving by his ten years' exile, he
had grown worse. Having, during the interval of his
absence from Syracuse, usurped the supreme power
in Locri, he had committed many atrocities, had put
to death several citizens, and abused their wives and
daughters. Upon his return to Syracuse, his cruelty
and profligacy drove away a great number of people,
who emigrated to various parts of Italy and Greece,
while others joined Iketas, tyrant of Leontini, and a
former friend of Dion. The latter sent messengers
*. o Corinth to request assistance against Dionysius.
The Corinthians appointed Timoleon leader of the
expedition. This commander landed in Sicily B. C.
344, notwithstanding the opposition of the Carthagin-
ians, and of Iketas, who acted a perfidious part on
the occasion; he entered Syracuse, and soon after
obliged Dionysius to surrender. Dionysius was sent
to Corinth, where he spent the remainder of his life in
tho company of actors and low women; some say,
that at one time he kept a school. Justin (21,5) states,
that he purposely affected low habits in order to dis-
arm revenge, in that, being despised, he might no long-
er be feared or hated for his former tyranny. Several
repartees are related of him in answer to those who
taunted him upon his altered fortunes, which are not
destitute of wit or wisdom. (Plat. , Vit. Dion. --Dial.
? ? Sic, 16, 5, teqq. )--III. Halicarnassensis or Halicar-
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? DI C
DIO
to part of the third or the beginning to the fourth
century A. D. He derived from his poem the sjmamc
of Periegetes. This production of his has little merit
is a work of imagination, and but feeble interest for the
geographer. The commentary, however, of Eustathius
upon it possesses some value from the miscellaneous
information which is scattered throughout. There are
two Latin translations of the poem, one by Rufus Fes-
lus Avienus, and the other by Priscian. The last and
best edition of the Periegesis is that of Bernhardy,
Lips. , 1828, 8vo, in the first volume of his Gcographi
Graci Minora. (SchiiU, Hist. Lit. Gr. ,vol. 4, p. 59. )--
V. A Christian writer, called Areopagita, from his hav-
ing been a member of the court of Areopagus at Athens.
He was converted to Christianity by St. Paul's preach-
ing. (Acts, 17, 34. ) He is reported to have been
the first bishop of Athens, being appointed to that office
by the apostle Paul, and to have suffered martyrdom
under Domuian. " During the night of learning, a great
cumber of writings were circulated under his name,
which were collected together and printed at Cologne
in 153G, and subsequently at Antwerp in 1634, and at
Paris in 1646, 2 vols. fol. They have now, for a long
time, been deemed spurious, although the learned dif-
fer in respect to the times and authors of the fabrica-
tion. The most probable reasoning, however, fixes
them at the end of the fifth century. (Suid. --Cave,
Hut. lot. --Lardtur's Creed, pt. 2. )--VI. Surnamed
Exiguus, or the Little, on account of the smallness of
his stature, was n Scythian monk of the sixth century,
who became an abbot at Rome. Cassiodorus, who
was his intintato friend, speaks highly of his learning
and character. At the request of Stephen, bishop of
Salons, he drew up a body of canons, entitled " Col-
Uctio, site Codex Canonum Ecclesiasticorum," etc. ,
translated from tiie Greek, containing the first 50
? postolical canons, as they are called, with those of the
councils of Nice. Constantinople, Chalcedon, Sardis,
and including 138 casons of certain African councils.
He afterward drew up a collection of the decretals,
and both are to be found in the BMiothcca Juris Co. -
wmici Yrtcris of Justell. To this Dionysius some
writers ascribe the mode of computing the time of
Easier, attributed to Victorinus, and of dating from the
birth of Christ. (Cave's Hist. Lit. --Hutlon's Math.
Did. )--VII. A Greek poet and musician, the author
of the words and music of three hymns, addressed
to Calliope, Apollo, and Nemesis. They were pub-
lished by Vincent Galilei, at Florence, in 1581; and
again by Dr. Fell, at Oxford, in 1672, from a manu-
script found among the papers of Archbishop Usher.
It appears by these notes, that the music of the hymns
in question was in the Lydian mode and diatonic ge-
nus. Galilei asserts that he had them from a Floren-
tine gentleman, who copied them from an ancient
Greek manuscript in the library of Cardinal St. Angelo
at Rome, which manuscript also contained the treatises
on music by Aristides, Quintilianus, and Brycnnius,
since published by Meibomius and Dr. Wallis. The
Florentine and Oxford editions of these hymns exactly
igre%; and they have since also been printed in the
fifth volume of the French Memoirs of the Academy
of Inscriptions, etc. (Barney's History of Music. )
Diophanti's, a mathematician of Alexandres, who,
according to the most received opinion, was contem-
porary with the Emperor Julian. This opinion is
founded upon a passage of Abulpharadge, an Arabian
? ? author of the thirteenth century: he names, among the
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? DI0SC0K1DES.
DIOSCORIDES.
,T co/ivrj/iaTa); and, 3 A treatise on the manners in
Homer (OJ wap' 'O/ir/pu vofioi). Athensus, who cites
fc. e first two of these works, has preserved a long frag-
ment >;f the last. It treats of the mode in which the
Homeric heroes subsisted, and is extremely curious.
{Alhtnatu, Ep. , 1, p. 8--Ed. Schweigh. , vol. 1, p.
31. )--II. A poet of Alexandres, some of whose epi-
grams arc preserved in the Anthology (<</. Jacobs, vol.
I, p. 224, seqq). --III. A native of Anazarbus in Cili-
c. n, who lived, according to some, in the time of An-
tony and Cleopatra, while othera place him in the
reign of Nero. One circumstance in favour of the
latter supposition is, that Pliny, who faithfully men-
tions tho authors whence he borrows, does not once
mention Dioscorides, although we find in the work of
the former a great number of passages which appear to
have been borrowed from the latter. Thia silence on
the one hand, and conformity on the other, prove that
Pliny and Dioscorides wrote nearly at the same period,
and derived some of their materials from the same
sources, particularly from the lost work of Sexlius
Niger. Dioscorides himself informs us, that, as a mil-
itary man, he visited many countries. He received the
surname of Phacas, from his having on his person a
spot resembling a lentil (6anr/). Dioscorides is the
most celebrated herbalist of antiquity, and for sixteen
or seventeen centuries there was nothing known that
could be regarded as superior to his work Tlepi 'T/. r/f
iarpiKijc, "On the Materia Medico," in five books.
This is the more surprising, considering the real na-
ture of this famous work. The author introduces no
order into the arrangement of his matter, unless by
consulting a similarity of sound in tho names he gives
his plants. Thus, medium was placed with cprmcdi-
um, altkaa cannabina with cannabis, hippopluutum
(emeus stellatus) with hippophai, and so on. The
were separation of aromatic and gum-bearing trees,
esculents and com-plants, hardly forms an exception
to this statement. Of many of his plants no descrip-
tion is given, but they are merely designated by a name.
In others the descriptions are comparative, contradic-
tory, or unintelligible. He employs the same word in
different senses, and evidently attached no exactness
to the terms he made use of. He described the same
plant twice under the same name or different names;
he was often notoriously careless, and he appeara to
have been very ready to state too much upon the author-
ity of others. Nevertheless, his writings are extremely
interesting, as showing the amount of Materia Medica
knowledge in the author's day, and his descriptions
are in many cases far from bad: but we must be care-
ful not to look upon them as evidence of the state of
botany at the same period; for Dioscorides has no
pretensions to be ranked among the botanists of anti-
quity, considering that the writings of Thcophrastus,
four centuries earlier, show that botany had even at
that time begun to be cultivated as a science distinct
from the art of the herbalist. --It was only at last, when
the rapidly increasing number of new plants, and the
general advance in all branches of physical knowledge,
compelled the moderns to admit that the vegetable
Kingdom might contain more things than were dreamed
of by the Anazarbian philosopher, that tho authority of
Dioscorides ceased to be acknowledged. --Dioscorides,
in his preface, criticises the authors who had treated of
this subject before him: Iolas of Bithynia, and Her-
aclides of Tarentum, had neglected plants and metals;
? ? Craterus, the botanist (fn^oro/ioc), and Andreas the
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? D1C
etners are preserved a Leyden. The latest and best
edition of Dioscorides ia that of Sprengel, in the col-
lection of Greek physicians by Kuhn, Lip*. , 1829, 8vo.
The folio edition by Saracenus (Sarassin) Franco/. ,
1598, ia also a very ? 3od one. Sprengel's edition is
improved by a collation of several MSS. --So far as
European plants are in question, we may suppose that
the iih dns of illustrating Dioscorides are now nearly
exhausted; but it is far otherwise with his Indian and
Persian plants. Concerning the latter, it is probable
that much may be learned from a study of the modem
Materia Medica of India. When the Nestorians, in
the fifth century, were driven into exile, they Bought
refuge among the Arabs, with whom they established
their celebrated school of med. cine, the ramifications
of which extended into Persia and India, and laid the
foundation of the present medical practice of the na-
tives of those countries. In this way the Greek names
of Dioscorides, altered, indeed, and adapted to the
genius of the new countries, became introduced into
the language of Persia, Arabia, and Hindustan, and
ha* e been handed down traditionally to the present
day.
