ad enumerated among the plays of
Philiscus
the comic
amm.
amm.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
1.
An
took to restore him to health ; upon which the other Athenian comic poet of the Middle Comedy, of
replied that he had not been thinking so much of whom little is known. Suidas smmply mentions him
the nature of the disease, as of the character of the as a comic poet, and gives the following titles of his
patient, when he denied the possibility of his re-plays:'Αδωνις, Διός γοναι, Θημιστοκλής, "Όλυμπος,
covery. The result justified his prognosis. Πανός γοναί, Ερμού και Αφροδίτης γοναι, 'Αρτέ-
3. A contemporary of Juvenal at Rome, about udos kal 'ATÓNiwvos. These mythological titles
the beginning of the second century after Christ. sufficiently prove that Philiscus belonged to the
(Sat. xiii. 125. )
Middle Comedy. The nativities of the gods, to
4. A contemporary of Galen, about the middle which most of them relate, formed a very favourite
of the second century after Christ, who belonged class of subjects with the poets of the Middle Co-
to the sect of the Empirici, and held a disputation medy. (Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 278,
for two days with Pelops (probably at Smyrna), in &e. ) Eudocia omits the title 'Epuoù Kal Adpodirns
defence of their doctrines (Galen. De Libris Propr. yoval, and Lobeck has pointed out the difficulty of
c. 2, vol. xix. p. 16). It does not seem possible to seeing how the nativities of Hermes and Aphro-
decide with certainty whether this is the same dite could be connected in one drama (Aglaoph.
person who is frequently mentioned in different p. 437); a difficulty which Meineke meets by
parts of Galen's writings ; who wrote on maras- supposing that we ought to read 'Epuoù oval,
mus (De Differ. Febr. 1. 10, vol. vii. p. 315, De 'Appodinys yoval, as two distinct titles (Hist. Crit.
Marc. cc. 5, 6, 7, 9, vol. vii. pp. 685, 689, 694, pp. 281, 282). The Themistocles is, almost with-
701, De Caus. Pul. iv. 10, vol. ix. p. 176, De Methout doubt, wrongly ascribed by Suidas to the comic
Med. vii. 6, x. 10, vol. x. pp. 495, 706), on ma- poet Philiscus, instead of the tragie poet of the
teria medica (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. vii. same name. Another play is cited by Stobaeus
1, vol. xiii. p. 14, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. (Serm. Ixxiii. 53), namely the Ⓡidpyupoi, or, as
ii. 5, iii. 9, vol. xiii. pp. 502, 642), and on cata- Meineke thinks it ought to be, ºu ápyupos.
lepsy (Cael. Aurel. De Morb. Acut. ii. 10, p. 96 ; Philiscus must have fourished about B. C. 400,
conf. Gal. Comment. in Hippocr. “ Prorrhet. I. ” ii. or a little later, as his portrait was painted by
90, vol. xvi. p. 684). Several of his medical for- Parrhasius, in a picture which Pliny thus describes
mulae are preserved, from one of which it appears (H. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. § 5):–et Philiscum, et
that he practised at Caesareia (Galen, de Compos. Liberum patrem adstante Virtute," from which it
Medicani. sec. Loc. iv. 8, vii. 4, 5, ix. 5, vol. xii. seems that the picture was a group, representing
P: 735, vol. xiii. pp. 88, 105, 304 ; Paul. Aegin. the poet supported by the patron deity of his art,
vii. 12, p. 663 ; Aët. iii. 1. ° 48, p. 503 ; Nicol. and by a personified representation of Arete, to
Myr. De Compos. Medicum. xli. 14, 21, p. 785). intimate the excellepce he had attained in it.
U 3
EHT
7
1
## p. 294 (#310) ############################################
294
PHILISCUS.
PHILISTION.
.
Naeke has clearly shown that this statement can I vol. iii. p. 505, n. ) Aelian has preserved a short
only refer to Philiscus the comic poet, and not to exhortation of Philiscus, addressed to Alexander
any other of the known persons of the same name. (V. 11. xiv. 11).
(Sched. Crit. p. 26 ; Opusc. vol. i. p. 42).
4. Of Corcyra, a distinguished tragic poet, and
There are very few fragments of Philiscus pre- one of the seven who formed the Tragic Pleiad,
Berved. Stobaeus (l. c. ) quotes two verses from was also a priest of Dionysus, and in that charac
the indpyupos, and elsewhere (xxix. 40), two ter be was present at the coronation procession of
from an unknown play. Another verse from an Ptolemy Philadelphus in B. c. 281. (Ath. F. p. 198,
unknown play is quoted by Dicaearchus (Vit. c. ) Pliny (11. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. $ 20) states
Graec. p. 30, Buttmann); and another is preserved that his portrait was painted in the attitude of
in the Palatine Anthology (xi. 441, vol. i. p. 445, meditation by Protogenes, who is known to have
ed. Jacobs), which Jacobs wrongly ascribes to the been still alive in B. C. 304. It seems, therefore,
rhetorician of Miletus. (Meineke, Frag. Com. that the time of Philiscus must be extended to an
Graec. vol. i. pp. 423, 424, vol. iii. pp. 579, 580; earlier period than that assigned to him by Suidas,
Naeke, l. c. )
who merely says that he lived under Ptolemy Phila-
2. Of Miletus, an orator or rhetorician, was the delphus. He wrote 42 dramas, of which we know
disciple of Isocrates, having been previously a noted nothing, except that the Themistocles, which is
flute player (Suid. s. v. ; Dionys. Halic. Ep.
ad enumerated among the plays of Philiscus the comic
amm. p. 120). He wrote a life of the orator poet, ought probably to be ascribed to him: such
Lycurgus, and an epitaph on Lysias ; the latter is subjects are known to have been chosen by the
preserved by the pseudo-Plutarch (Vit. X. Orat. tragedians, as in the Marathonians of Lycophron.
p. 836), and in the Greek Anthology (Brunck, The choriambic hexameter verse was named after
Anal. vol. i. p. 184 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. i. Philiscus, on account of his frequent use of it
p. 101, vol. xiii. p. 936). Remembering the con- (Hephaest. p. 53). There is much dispute whether
stant confusion of the names Philiscus and Philistus, the name should be written Mokos or DiAikos,
we may safely ascribe to this orator the onunyoplan, but the former appears to be the true form, though
which Suidas mentions among the works of the he himself, for the sake of metre, used the latter.
historian Philistus of Syracuse. (Suid. s. v. DINOTOS; (Naeke, Sched. Crit. pp. 18, &c. , in Opusc. vol. i.
it is also to be observed that Suidas, in addition to pp. 29, &c. ; Welcker, Die Griech Trag. p.
his article Pinotos, gives a life of the Syracusan 1265. )
(P. S. )
historian under the head of Φίλισκος ή Φίλιστος, PHILISCU'S, artists. 1. A painter, of whom
comp. Philistus). Suidas (s. v. Tiuatos) states we have no information, except the mention, by
that the historian Timaeus was a disciple of Phi- Pliny, of his picture of a painter's studio, with a
liscus of Miletus; another disciple was Neanthes boy blowing the fire. (H. N. xxxv. 11. 8. 40. $
of Cyzicus (Ruhnken, Hist. Crit. Orat. Graec. 38. )
p. Ixxxiii. , Opusc. p. 367; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. 2. Of Rhodes, a sculptor, several of whose
works were placed in the temple of Apollo, adjoin-
3. Of Aegina. It is doubtful whether there ing the portico of Octavia at Rome. One of these
was one or iwo cynic philosophers of this name statues was that of the god himself: the others
from Aegina. Suidas has two, of one of whom were Latona and Diana, the nine Muses, and
he says that he was the disciple of Diogenes the another statue of Apollo, without drapery. Within
Cynic, or, according to Hermippus, of Stilpon, that the portico, in the temple of Juno, was a statue of
he was the teacher of Alexander in grammar, and Venus, by the same artist (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 5.
that he wrote dialogues, one of which was entitled . 4. $ 10). From this statement it is evident
Kópos ; of the other, Suidas says that, having that Philiscus made some of the statues expressly
gone from Aegina to Athens, in order to see the for the temples, but whether at the time of their
city, he heard Diogenes, and addicted himself to first erection by Metellus (B. c. 146), or of their
philosophy: and that his brother, having been sent restoration by Augustus more than a hundred years
by his father to Athens to fetch him home, also later, cannot be determined with certainty. Most
staid there, and became a philosopher ; and lastly, of the writers on art place him at the earlier date ;
the father himself, having gone to Athens in but at all events he belonged to that period of the
search of his sons, became infected with the philo- revival of art which, according to Pliny, began
Bophical mania : the rest of the article refers to with the 155th Olympiad (RC. 160), and which
Diogenes himself. The latter article is taken from extended down to the time of the Antonines ;
Diogenes Laërtius (vi. 75, 76), who mentions the during which period the Rhodian school sent forth
name of the father, Onesicritus, and who evidently several of the best statuaries and sculptors, and
only speaks of one cynic philosopher of the name Rome became a great seat of the arts. The group
of Philiscus (comp. vi. 73, 80, 84). This is, of Muses, found in the villa of Cassius at Tivoli,
therefore, very probably one of the many cases in is supposed by Visconti to be a copy of that of
which Suidas makes two articles out of the same Philiscus. Meyer takes the beautiful statue at
name, by copying statements from two different Florence, known as the Apollino, for the naked
authors. We do not see the force of Naeke's Apollo of Philiscus ; it is engraved in Müller's
argument (Sched. Crit. p. 25), that the Philiscus of Denkmäler d. alten Kunst, vol. ii. pl. xi. fig. 126.
whom the tale in Diogenes and Suidas is told, (Meyer, Kunstgeschichte, vol. iii. pp. 35, 120; Hirt,
could hardly, for chronological reasons, be the Gesch. d. bild. Künste, p. 298 ; Müller, Archäol. d.
same person as the teacher of Alexander. Some Kunst, &$ 160. n. 2, 393, n. 2. ) [P. S. )
ancient writers ascribed to Philiscus some, or even PHILISCUS, P. ATI'LIUS, killed his own
all, of the tragedies of Diogenes the Cynic, probably daughter, because she had been guilty of forni-
through confounding him with the celebrated tragic cation. (Val. Max. ri. 1. $ 6. )
poet of the same name. (Diog. Laërt. vi. 73; PHILI'STION (111oTiwv) of Nicaea or Mag-
Julian. Orat. vi. vii. ; Naeke, l. c. ; Clinton, F. H. nesia, a mimographer, who flourished in the time
p. 25).
.
## p. 295 (#311) ############################################
&
PHILISTION.
PHILJSTUS.
295
of Augustus, about A. D. 7 (Hieron. in Euscb. | (Athen. xii. 12, p. 516), and is several times
Chron. 01. 196. 3). He was an actor, as well as quoted by Pliny (H. N. xx. 15, 34, 48) and
a writer of mimes, and is said, in an epigram pre-Galen (De Nat. Facult. ii. 8, vol. ii. p. 110, De
served in the Greek Anthology, to have died of Usu Respir. c. 1, vol. iv. p. 471, De Meth. Med.
excessive laughter (Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iv. i. 3, ii. 5, vol. x. pp. 28, 111). Oribasius attributes
p. 230 ; Anth. Pal. vol. ii. p. 349). He is fre- to him the invention of a machine for reducing
quently mentioned by the Greek writers of the luxations of the humerus (De Machinam. c. 4, p.
second century and downwards. Suidas, who, by 164). He is perhaps the person mentioned by
some extraordinary error, has placed his death in M. Aurelius Antoninus (vi. 47).
the time of Socrates, makes him a native of Prusa, A brother of Philistion, who was also a phy-
and says that he wrote kwuqolas Brodoyinds (that sician, but whose name is not known, is quoted
is, mimes), that he wrote a play called M100- by Caelius Aurelianus. (De Morb. Chron.
took to restore him to health ; upon which the other Athenian comic poet of the Middle Comedy, of
replied that he had not been thinking so much of whom little is known. Suidas smmply mentions him
the nature of the disease, as of the character of the as a comic poet, and gives the following titles of his
patient, when he denied the possibility of his re-plays:'Αδωνις, Διός γοναι, Θημιστοκλής, "Όλυμπος,
covery. The result justified his prognosis. Πανός γοναί, Ερμού και Αφροδίτης γοναι, 'Αρτέ-
3. A contemporary of Juvenal at Rome, about udos kal 'ATÓNiwvos. These mythological titles
the beginning of the second century after Christ. sufficiently prove that Philiscus belonged to the
(Sat. xiii. 125. )
Middle Comedy. The nativities of the gods, to
4. A contemporary of Galen, about the middle which most of them relate, formed a very favourite
of the second century after Christ, who belonged class of subjects with the poets of the Middle Co-
to the sect of the Empirici, and held a disputation medy. (Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 278,
for two days with Pelops (probably at Smyrna), in &e. ) Eudocia omits the title 'Epuoù Kal Adpodirns
defence of their doctrines (Galen. De Libris Propr. yoval, and Lobeck has pointed out the difficulty of
c. 2, vol. xix. p. 16). It does not seem possible to seeing how the nativities of Hermes and Aphro-
decide with certainty whether this is the same dite could be connected in one drama (Aglaoph.
person who is frequently mentioned in different p. 437); a difficulty which Meineke meets by
parts of Galen's writings ; who wrote on maras- supposing that we ought to read 'Epuoù oval,
mus (De Differ. Febr. 1. 10, vol. vii. p. 315, De 'Appodinys yoval, as two distinct titles (Hist. Crit.
Marc. cc. 5, 6, 7, 9, vol. vii. pp. 685, 689, 694, pp. 281, 282). The Themistocles is, almost with-
701, De Caus. Pul. iv. 10, vol. ix. p. 176, De Methout doubt, wrongly ascribed by Suidas to the comic
Med. vii. 6, x. 10, vol. x. pp. 495, 706), on ma- poet Philiscus, instead of the tragie poet of the
teria medica (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. vii. same name. Another play is cited by Stobaeus
1, vol. xiii. p. 14, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. (Serm. Ixxiii. 53), namely the Ⓡidpyupoi, or, as
ii. 5, iii. 9, vol. xiii. pp. 502, 642), and on cata- Meineke thinks it ought to be, ºu ápyupos.
lepsy (Cael. Aurel. De Morb. Acut. ii. 10, p. 96 ; Philiscus must have fourished about B. C. 400,
conf. Gal. Comment. in Hippocr. “ Prorrhet. I. ” ii. or a little later, as his portrait was painted by
90, vol. xvi. p. 684). Several of his medical for- Parrhasius, in a picture which Pliny thus describes
mulae are preserved, from one of which it appears (H. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. § 5):–et Philiscum, et
that he practised at Caesareia (Galen, de Compos. Liberum patrem adstante Virtute," from which it
Medicani. sec. Loc. iv. 8, vii. 4, 5, ix. 5, vol. xii. seems that the picture was a group, representing
P: 735, vol. xiii. pp. 88, 105, 304 ; Paul. Aegin. the poet supported by the patron deity of his art,
vii. 12, p. 663 ; Aët. iii. 1. ° 48, p. 503 ; Nicol. and by a personified representation of Arete, to
Myr. De Compos. Medicum. xli. 14, 21, p. 785). intimate the excellepce he had attained in it.
U 3
EHT
7
1
## p. 294 (#310) ############################################
294
PHILISCUS.
PHILISTION.
.
Naeke has clearly shown that this statement can I vol. iii. p. 505, n. ) Aelian has preserved a short
only refer to Philiscus the comic poet, and not to exhortation of Philiscus, addressed to Alexander
any other of the known persons of the same name. (V. 11. xiv. 11).
(Sched. Crit. p. 26 ; Opusc. vol. i. p. 42).
4. Of Corcyra, a distinguished tragic poet, and
There are very few fragments of Philiscus pre- one of the seven who formed the Tragic Pleiad,
Berved. Stobaeus (l. c. ) quotes two verses from was also a priest of Dionysus, and in that charac
the indpyupos, and elsewhere (xxix. 40), two ter be was present at the coronation procession of
from an unknown play. Another verse from an Ptolemy Philadelphus in B. c. 281. (Ath. F. p. 198,
unknown play is quoted by Dicaearchus (Vit. c. ) Pliny (11. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. $ 20) states
Graec. p. 30, Buttmann); and another is preserved that his portrait was painted in the attitude of
in the Palatine Anthology (xi. 441, vol. i. p. 445, meditation by Protogenes, who is known to have
ed. Jacobs), which Jacobs wrongly ascribes to the been still alive in B. C. 304. It seems, therefore,
rhetorician of Miletus. (Meineke, Frag. Com. that the time of Philiscus must be extended to an
Graec. vol. i. pp. 423, 424, vol. iii. pp. 579, 580; earlier period than that assigned to him by Suidas,
Naeke, l. c. )
who merely says that he lived under Ptolemy Phila-
2. Of Miletus, an orator or rhetorician, was the delphus. He wrote 42 dramas, of which we know
disciple of Isocrates, having been previously a noted nothing, except that the Themistocles, which is
flute player (Suid. s. v. ; Dionys. Halic. Ep.
ad enumerated among the plays of Philiscus the comic
amm. p. 120). He wrote a life of the orator poet, ought probably to be ascribed to him: such
Lycurgus, and an epitaph on Lysias ; the latter is subjects are known to have been chosen by the
preserved by the pseudo-Plutarch (Vit. X. Orat. tragedians, as in the Marathonians of Lycophron.
p. 836), and in the Greek Anthology (Brunck, The choriambic hexameter verse was named after
Anal. vol. i. p. 184 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. i. Philiscus, on account of his frequent use of it
p. 101, vol. xiii. p. 936). Remembering the con- (Hephaest. p. 53). There is much dispute whether
stant confusion of the names Philiscus and Philistus, the name should be written Mokos or DiAikos,
we may safely ascribe to this orator the onunyoplan, but the former appears to be the true form, though
which Suidas mentions among the works of the he himself, for the sake of metre, used the latter.
historian Philistus of Syracuse. (Suid. s. v. DINOTOS; (Naeke, Sched. Crit. pp. 18, &c. , in Opusc. vol. i.
it is also to be observed that Suidas, in addition to pp. 29, &c. ; Welcker, Die Griech Trag. p.
his article Pinotos, gives a life of the Syracusan 1265. )
(P. S. )
historian under the head of Φίλισκος ή Φίλιστος, PHILISCU'S, artists. 1. A painter, of whom
comp. Philistus). Suidas (s. v. Tiuatos) states we have no information, except the mention, by
that the historian Timaeus was a disciple of Phi- Pliny, of his picture of a painter's studio, with a
liscus of Miletus; another disciple was Neanthes boy blowing the fire. (H. N. xxxv. 11. 8. 40. $
of Cyzicus (Ruhnken, Hist. Crit. Orat. Graec. 38. )
p. Ixxxiii. , Opusc. p. 367; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. 2. Of Rhodes, a sculptor, several of whose
works were placed in the temple of Apollo, adjoin-
3. Of Aegina. It is doubtful whether there ing the portico of Octavia at Rome. One of these
was one or iwo cynic philosophers of this name statues was that of the god himself: the others
from Aegina. Suidas has two, of one of whom were Latona and Diana, the nine Muses, and
he says that he was the disciple of Diogenes the another statue of Apollo, without drapery. Within
Cynic, or, according to Hermippus, of Stilpon, that the portico, in the temple of Juno, was a statue of
he was the teacher of Alexander in grammar, and Venus, by the same artist (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 5.
that he wrote dialogues, one of which was entitled . 4. $ 10). From this statement it is evident
Kópos ; of the other, Suidas says that, having that Philiscus made some of the statues expressly
gone from Aegina to Athens, in order to see the for the temples, but whether at the time of their
city, he heard Diogenes, and addicted himself to first erection by Metellus (B. c. 146), or of their
philosophy: and that his brother, having been sent restoration by Augustus more than a hundred years
by his father to Athens to fetch him home, also later, cannot be determined with certainty. Most
staid there, and became a philosopher ; and lastly, of the writers on art place him at the earlier date ;
the father himself, having gone to Athens in but at all events he belonged to that period of the
search of his sons, became infected with the philo- revival of art which, according to Pliny, began
Bophical mania : the rest of the article refers to with the 155th Olympiad (RC. 160), and which
Diogenes himself. The latter article is taken from extended down to the time of the Antonines ;
Diogenes Laërtius (vi. 75, 76), who mentions the during which period the Rhodian school sent forth
name of the father, Onesicritus, and who evidently several of the best statuaries and sculptors, and
only speaks of one cynic philosopher of the name Rome became a great seat of the arts. The group
of Philiscus (comp. vi. 73, 80, 84). This is, of Muses, found in the villa of Cassius at Tivoli,
therefore, very probably one of the many cases in is supposed by Visconti to be a copy of that of
which Suidas makes two articles out of the same Philiscus. Meyer takes the beautiful statue at
name, by copying statements from two different Florence, known as the Apollino, for the naked
authors. We do not see the force of Naeke's Apollo of Philiscus ; it is engraved in Müller's
argument (Sched. Crit. p. 25), that the Philiscus of Denkmäler d. alten Kunst, vol. ii. pl. xi. fig. 126.
whom the tale in Diogenes and Suidas is told, (Meyer, Kunstgeschichte, vol. iii. pp. 35, 120; Hirt,
could hardly, for chronological reasons, be the Gesch. d. bild. Künste, p. 298 ; Müller, Archäol. d.
same person as the teacher of Alexander. Some Kunst, &$ 160. n. 2, 393, n. 2. ) [P. S. )
ancient writers ascribed to Philiscus some, or even PHILISCUS, P. ATI'LIUS, killed his own
all, of the tragedies of Diogenes the Cynic, probably daughter, because she had been guilty of forni-
through confounding him with the celebrated tragic cation. (Val. Max. ri. 1. $ 6. )
poet of the same name. (Diog. Laërt. vi. 73; PHILI'STION (111oTiwv) of Nicaea or Mag-
Julian. Orat. vi. vii. ; Naeke, l. c. ; Clinton, F. H. nesia, a mimographer, who flourished in the time
p. 25).
.
## p. 295 (#311) ############################################
&
PHILISTION.
PHILJSTUS.
295
of Augustus, about A. D. 7 (Hieron. in Euscb. | (Athen. xii. 12, p. 516), and is several times
Chron. 01. 196. 3). He was an actor, as well as quoted by Pliny (H. N. xx. 15, 34, 48) and
a writer of mimes, and is said, in an epigram pre-Galen (De Nat. Facult. ii. 8, vol. ii. p. 110, De
served in the Greek Anthology, to have died of Usu Respir. c. 1, vol. iv. p. 471, De Meth. Med.
excessive laughter (Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iv. i. 3, ii. 5, vol. x. pp. 28, 111). Oribasius attributes
p. 230 ; Anth. Pal. vol. ii. p. 349). He is fre- to him the invention of a machine for reducing
quently mentioned by the Greek writers of the luxations of the humerus (De Machinam. c. 4, p.
second century and downwards. Suidas, who, by 164). He is perhaps the person mentioned by
some extraordinary error, has placed his death in M. Aurelius Antoninus (vi. 47).
the time of Socrates, makes him a native of Prusa, A brother of Philistion, who was also a phy-
and says that he wrote kwuqolas Brodoyinds (that sician, but whose name is not known, is quoted
is, mimes), that he wrote a play called M100- by Caelius Aurelianus. (De Morb. Chron.
