Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/304

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PLINY' S NATURAL HISTORY.
[Book III.

Polylhstor[1], Thucydides[2] Theophrastus[3], Isidorus[4], Theopompus[5], Metrodorus of Scepsis[6], Callicrates[7], Xenophon of Lampsacus[8], Diodorus of Syracuse[9], Nympliodorus[10], Calliphanes[11] and Timagenes[12].

  1. ↑ Also called by Pliny Cornelius Alexander. Sudias states that he was a native of Ephesus and a disciple of Crates, and during the war of Sylla in Greece was made prisoner and sold as a slave to C. Lentulus, who made him the tutor of his children, and afterwards restored him to freedom. Servius however says that he received the franchise from L. Cornelius Sylla. He was burnt with his house at Laurentum. Other writers say that he was a native of Catiseum in Lesser Phrygia. The surname of "Polyhistor" was given to him for his prodigious learning. His greatest work seems to have been a historical and geographical account of the world, in forty-two books. Other works of his are frequently mentioned by Plutarch, Photius, and other writers.
  2. ↑ The historian of the Peloponnesian war, and the most famous, perhaps, of all the ancient writers in prose.
  3. ↑ Of Eresus hi Lesbos ; the favourite disciple of Aristotle, and designated by him as his successor in the presidency of the Lyceum. He composed more than 200 works on various subjects, of which only a very few survive.
  4. ↑ See end of B. ii.
  5. ↑ See end of B. ii.
  6. ↑ He is frequently mentioned by Cicero, and was famous for his eloquence. Pliny informs us in his 34th book, that from his hatred of the Romans he was called the "Roman-hater." It is probable that he was the writer of a Periegesis, or geographical work, from which Pliny seems to quote.
  7. ↑ No particulars of this author are known. He probably wrote on geography.
  8. ↑ He is again mentioned by Pliny in B. iv. c. 13, and B. vi. c. 31, and by Solinus, c. xxu. 60. It is supposed that he was the author of a Periplus or Circumnavigation of the Earth, mentioned by Pliny B. vii. c. 48; but nothing further is known of him.
  9. ↑ Diodorus Siculus was a native of Agyra or Agyrium, and not of Syracuse, though he may possibly have resided or studied there. It cannot be doubted that he is the person here meant, and Pliny refers in his preface by name to his Βιβλιοθήκη, "Library," or Universal History. A great portion of this miscellaneous but valuable work has perished. We have but few particulars of his life; but he is supposed to have written his work after B.C. 8.
  10. ↑ Of Syracuse; an historian probably of the time of Philip and Alexander. He was the author of a Periplus of Asia, and an account of Sicily and Sardinia. From his stories in the last he obtained the name of "Thaumatographus" or "writer of wonders."
  11. ↑ Of Calliplianes the Geographer nothing is known.
  12. ↑ Probably Timagenos, the rhetorician of Alexandria. He was taken prisoner and brought to Rome, but redeemed from captivity by Eaustus, the son of Sylla. He wrote many works, but it is somewhat doubtful whether the "Periplus," in five Books, was written by this Tunagenes. He is also supposed to have written a work on the Antiquities of Gaul.
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