Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1026

Rh 1008 DIDYMUS. Demosthenes, Tsaeus, Hyperides, DeinarcliUR, and others, were likewise commented upon by l)ky- mus. Besides these numerous commentaries, we have mention of a work on the phraseolog3' of the tragic poets {irepi rpaywSovfieuTjs Xe^eus), of which the 28th book is quoted. (Macrob. Sat v. 18; Harpocrat. s. v. ^ripaoi.) A similar work (Aelts KwuiKT^) was written by him on the phrase- ology of the comic poets, and Hesychius made great use of it, as he himself attests in the epistle to Eulogius. (Comp. Etymol. M. p. 492. 53; Schol. ad ApoUon. Rhod. i. 1139, iv. 10.58.) A third work of the same class was on words of am- biguous or uncertain meaning, and consisted of at letist seven books; and a fourth treated on false or corrupt expressions. He further published a collection of Greek proverbs, in thirteen books (irpos Toi)s irepi irapoifxiuv tri/vTCTaxt^Tos), from which is tikcn the greater part of the proverbs contained in the collection of Zenobius. (Schneide- win. Corpus Faroemingr. Graec. i. p. xiv.) A work on the laws of Solon is mentioned by Plutarch {Sol. 1 ) under the title ir(p twu d^6va)v "ZoKwvos. DidjTnus appears to have been acquainted even with Roman literature, for he wrote a work in six books against Cicero's treatise ''de Re Pnblica," (Ammian. Marcell. xxii. 16), which afterwards induced Suetonius to write against Didymus. (Suid. s. V. TpayKvWos.) Didymus stands at the close of the period in which a comprehensive and independent study of Greek literature prevailed, and he himself must be regarded as the father of the scholiasts who were satisfied with compiling or abridging the works of their predecessors. In the collection of the Geoponica there are va- rious extracts bearing the name of Didymus, from which it might be inferred that he wrote on agri- culture or botany ; but it is altogether uncertain whether those extracts belong to cur Alexandrian grammarian, or to some other writer of the same n.ame. It is very probable that, with Suidas, we ought to distinguish from our grammarian a natu- ralist Didvmus, who possibly may be the same as the one who wrote a commentary on Hippocrates, and a treatise on stones and different kinds of wood {trepl ^lapyuapuv Koi iravroiuv ^uAcoi'), a treatise which has been edited by A. Mai as an appendix to the fragments of the Iliad. (Milan, 1819, fol.) See Grafenhan, Gesch. der Kiass. PMlol. im Alterthum^ i. p. 405, &c. 2. An Alexandrian grammarian, commonly call- ed the younger (d reoy): he taught at Rome, and wrote, according to Suidas (s. i Aidvixos), vi6av<i^ iTfpl SpO(yypa<pias, and many other excellent works. In a preceding article, however, Suidas attributes the tridava (iriOavuu Koi (ro<pi(rfxdTwv Autrets) in two books to one Didymus Areius, an Academic philosopher, who lived at Rome in the time of Nero. (Comp. Eiiseb. Praep. Evang. xi. 23 ; Eu- doc. p. 1 35.) 3. With the praenomen Claudius, a Greek gram- marian, who, according to Suidas (s. r. Ai5u/ios), wrote upon the mistakes committed by Thucydides against analogy, and a work on Analogy among the Romans. He further made an epitome of the works of Heracleon, and some other works. A fragment of his epitome is preserved in Stobaeus. {Serin. 101 ; comp. Lersch, Die Sprachphihs. der Altcn,^^. 74, 143, &c.) 4. Of Alexandria, lived in the fourth century of the Christian era, and must be distinguished DIDYMUS. from Didymus the monk, who is spoken of by So- crates. {Hist. Ecdes. iv. 33.) At the age of four years, and before he had learnt to read, he became blind ; but this calamity created in him an invin- cible thirst after knowledge, and b}^ intense appli- cation he succeeded in becoming not only a distin- guished grammarian, rhetorician, dialectician, ma- thematician, musician, astronomer, and philosopher (Socrat. iv. 25; Sozom. iii. 15; Rufin. xi. 7; Theodoret. iv. 29; Nicephor, ix. 17), but also in acquiring a most extensive knowledge of sacred literature. He devoted himself to the service of the church, and was no less distinguished for the exemplary purity of his conduct than for his learn- ing and acquirements. In A. D. 392, when Hiero- nj'mus wrote his work on illustrious ecclesiastical authors, Didj-rnus was still alive, and professor of theology at Alexandria. He died in a. d. 396 at the age of eighty-five. As professor of theology he was at the head of the school of the Catechumeni, and the most distinguished personages of that pe- riod, such as Hieronymus, Rufinus, Palladius, Ambrosius, Evagrius, and Isidorus, are mentioned Jimong his pupils. Didymus was the author of a great number of theological works, but most of them are lost. The following are still extant : — 1. "Liber de Spiritu Sancto." The Greek original is lost, but we possess a Latin translation made by Hieronymus, about a. d. 386, which is printed among the works of Hieronymus. Although the author as well as the translator intended it to be one book (Hieronym. Catal. 109), yet Marcianaeus in his edition of Hieronjnnus has divided it into three books. The Avork is mentioned by St. Au- gustin {Quaest. in Exod. ii. 25), and Nicephonis (ix. 17). Separate editions of it were published at Cologne, 1531,8vo., and abetter one by Fuchte, Helmstadt, 1614, 8 vo. 2. "Breves Enarrationes in Epistolas Canonicjis." This work is likewise extant only in a Latin translation, and was first printed in the Cologne edition of the first work. It is contained also in all the collections of the works of the fathers. The Latin translation is the work of Epiphanius, and was made at the request of Cassiodorus. (Cassiod. de Institut. Divin. 8.) 3. " Liber ad versus Manichaeos." This work ap- pears to be incomplete, since Damascenus {Parallel. p. 507) quotes a passage from it which is now not to be found in it. It was first printed in a Latin version by F. Turrianus in Possevin's Apparatus Sand, ad Calc. Lit. D., Venice, 1603, and at Co- logne in 1608. It was reprinted in some of the Collections of the Fathers, until at last Combefisius in his "Auctarium novissimum " (ii. p. 21, &c.) published the Greek original. (Paris, 1672, fol.) 4. riepi Tpiddos. This work was fonnerly believed to be lost, but J. A. Mingarelli discovered a MS. of it, and published it with a Latin version at Bologna, 1769, fol. A list of the lost works of Didymus is given by Fabric. BibL Graec. ix. p. 273, &c. ; compare Cave, Hist. Lit. i. p. 205 ; Guericke, de Scliola Alexandr. ii. p. 332, &c. [L.S.] DI'DYMUS (AiSu^os), a Greek medical writer who lived perhaps in the third century after Christ, as he is quoted by Aetius (tetrab. ii. serm. ii. c. 15, p. 256) and Alexander Trallianus (Z>e Med. vii. 13, p. 235), by whom he is called (TocpuTaTos. He may perhaps be the native of Alexandria who is mentioned by Suidas as having written fifteen books on Agi-iculture, and who is frequently quoted in the collection of writers called Geoponici (lib. i.