Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/329

 A R B U T II N O T. 293 ARC(JoANOF). See JOAN. ARCHILOCHUS, a Greek poet, bnrn in the ifle f Pa- Herodot , ros, was the Ton of Telcficles ; and, according to Mr. I .ylc, in,, j, fiourifhed in the 2gth Olympiad, or about 6t'O years before p- " Chrift. His poetry abounded with the mult poignant fatire, of which Horace fpeaketh thus : Atchilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo. Ars poetica, ver. 79. Archilorhus, with fierce refentment warm'd, Was with his own fevere iambics arm'd. Francis. His fatirical vein had fuch an effect on Lycambes, that he hanged himfelf". The indignation of Archilochus againft Lvcambes arofe from the latter's not keeping his word with regard to his daughter, whom he firft promifed and after- wards refuted to Archilochus. It is not unlikely that he attacked the whole family of Lycambes in his lampoon, for it isfaid by Horace, th.it the daughter followed the example of her father ; and there are fome who affirm, that three of Lycambes' daughters died of defpair at the fame time. In this piece of Archilochus, many adventures are mentioned, full of defamation, and out of the knowledge of the public. There were likewife many indecent paflages in the poem j and it is fuppofed to have been on account of this fatire, that the Lacedaemonians laid a prohibition on his verfes. '* The La- f ceoaemonians," fays Valerius A'iaximus, " commanded the " caufe they thought the reading of them not to be very cap! 3.' " modeft or chafte : for they were unwilling rhe minds of f* their children fhould be tinctured with them, left they " or at leaft the next to the greateft poet, becaufe he had " attacked a family which he hated, with obfcene abufe." It has been affi;med by fom<vlhat he himfelf was baniflied from ,acedemon ; and the maxim inferted in one cf his pieces, is L ,^ ' n affigntd for the reafon thereof, tc That it was better to fling p. 259. " down one's arms, than to !ofe one's life :" he had written this in vindication of himfelf [AJ, Archilochus [A] In the war with the Sa'ians, made two verfes upon him on occafion Archilochus, to Cave his life, threw of this adventure, which Plutarch rc away his arms, and (led, Ariftophanes cite?, and Ibmething more :
 * J books of Archilocnus to be carried out of their city, be-,...
 * ih,,uid do more harm to their manners than fervice to thc-ir
 * eenius. And fo they banifhed the verfes of the greateft,