Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1015

Rh DIAEUS. he shone resplendent like a heavenly stir, and was Itelovcd by all who looked upon him on account of his surpassing gnice and comeliness. From his maternal grandfather he inherited the name of Diadumenus, which upon his quasi-adoption into the family of the Antonines was changed into Diadumenianus. (Dion Cass. Ixxviii. 4, 17, 19, 34, 38-40; Herodian. v. 9; Laraprid. Diadumen.; Capitolin. Macrin. 10.) [W. R.] DIAETHUS (Afot^os), the author of commen- taries on the Homeric poems, which seem to have been chiefly of an historical nature, and are refer- red to in the Venetian scholia on the Iliad (iii. 175). [L.S.] DIAEUS (Afoios), a man of Megalopolis, suc- ceeded Menalcidas of Lacedaemon as general of the Achaean league in b. c. 150. Menalcidas, having been assailed by Callicrates with a capital charge, saved himself through the favour of Diaeus, whom he bribed with three talents [Callicrates, No. 4, p. 5G9, b.] ; and the latter, being much and generally condemned for this, endeavoured to divert public attention from his own conduct to a quarrel with Lacedaemon. The Lacedaemonians had appealed to the Roman senate about the pos- session of some disputed land, and had received for answer that the decision of all causes, except those of life and death, rested with the great council of the Achaeans. This answer Diaeus so far garbled as to omit the exception. The Lacedaemonians accused him of falsehood, and the dispute led to war, wherein the Lacedaemonians found themselves no match for the Achaeans, and resorted accord- ingly to negotiation. Diaeus, affirming that his hostility was not directed against Sparta, but against her disturbers, procured the banishment of 24 of her principal citizens. These men fled for refuge and protection to Rome, and thither Diaeus went to oppose them, together with Callicrates, who died by the way. The cause of the exiles was supported by Menalcides, who assured the Spartans, on his return, that the Romans had de- clared in favour of their independence, while an equally positive assurance to the opposite effect was given by Diaeus to the Achaeans, — the truth being that the senate had passed no final decision at all, but had promised to send commissioners to settle the dispute; • War was renewed between the parties, b. c 148, in spite of the prohibition of the Romans, to which, however, Diaeus, who was again general in b. c. 147, paid more obedience, though he endeavoured to bring over the towns round Sparta by negotiation. When the decree of the Romans arrived, which severed Sparta and several other states from the Achaean league, Diaeus took a leading part in keeping up the in- dignation of the Achaeans, and in urging them to the acts of violence which caused war with Rome. In the autumn of 147 he was succeeded by Crito- laiis, but the death of the latter before the expira- tion of his year of oflSce once more placed Diaeus at the post of danger, according to the law of the Achaeans, which provided in such cases that the predecessor of the deceased should resume his authority. The number of his army he swelled with emancipated slaves, and enforced strictly, though not impartially, the levy of the citizens ; but he acted unwisely in dividing his forces by sending a portion of them to garrison Megara and to check there the advance of the Romans, lie himself had Uiken up his quarters iu Co- DIAGORAS. 997 rinth, and Metcllus, the Rom.an general, advan- cing thither, sent forward ambassadors to offer terms, but Diaeus threw them into prison (though he afterwards released them for the bribe of a talent), and caused Sosicrates, the lieutenant- general, as well as Philinus of Corinth, to be put to death with torture for having joined in recom- mending negotiation with the enemy. Being de- feated by Muramius before the walls of Corinth, in B. c. 146, he made no further attempt to defend the city, but fled to Megalopolis, where he slew his wife to prevent her falling into the enemy's power, and put an end to his own existence by poison, thus (says Pausanias) rivalling Menalcidas in the cowardice of his death, as he had rivalled him through his life in avarice. [Menalcidas.] (Polyb. xxxviii. 2, xl. 2, 4, 5, 9 ; Paus. vii. ]2,&c.; Clinton, F. H. sub annis 149, 147, 146.) [E. E.] DIA'G0RAS(Aja7Jpas), the son of Telecleides or Teleclytus, was born in the island of Melos (Milo), one of the Cyclades. He was a poet and a philosopher, who throughout antiquity was re- garded as an atheist [aQ^os). With the exception of this one point, we possess only very scanty in- formation concerning his life and literary activity. All that is known is carefully collected by M. H. E. Meier (in Ersch. u. Gruber's Allgem. Encydop. xxiv. pp. 439—448). The age of this remarkable man can be deter- mined only in a general way by the fiict of his being called a disciple of Democritus of Abdera, who taught about B. c. 436. But the circumstance that, besides Bacchylides (about B. c. 435), Pindar also is called his contemporary, is a manifest anachronism, as has been already observed by Brandis. {Gesch. d. Griech. Rom, PhUos. i. p. 341.) Nearly all the ancient authorities agree that Melos was his native place, and Tatian, a late Christian writer, who calls him an Athenian, does so pro- bably for no other reason but because Athens was the principal scene of the activity of Diagoras. (Tatian, Orat. adv. Graec. p. 164, a.) Lobeck {Aglaopk. p. 370) is the only one among modern critics who maintains that the native country of Diagoras is uncertain. According to a tradition in Hesychius Milesius and Suidas, Democritus the philosopher ransomed him for a very large sum from the captivity into which he had fallen in the cruel subjugation of Melos under Alcibiades (b. c. 411), and this account at all events serves to attest the close personal relation of these two kindred- minded men, although the details respecting the ransom, for instance, may be incorrect. The same authorities further state, that in his youth Diagoras had acquired some reputation as a lyric poet, and this is probably the cause of his being mentioned together with the lyric poets Simonides, Pindar, and Bacchylides. Thus he is said to have composed «f<T/iOTa, /xeArj, -Kaiaves^ iyKw/jiia, and dithyrambs. Among his encomia ia mentioned in particular an eulogy on Arianthes of Argos, who is otherwise unknown,* another on Nicodorus, a statesman of Mantineia, and a third upon the Mantineians. Diagoras is said to have lived in intimate friendship with Nicodorus, who was cele- by the avvoiKia-fiSs took place with the assistance of Argos (Wachsmuth, Ilcllen, Altcrth. i. 2, p. 89, i. 1, p. 180), and Arianthes of Argos was probably a person of some political importiuice.
 * The change in the constitution of Mantineia