Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/119

Rh to his fortified domain at Bisanthe in the Thracian Chersonesus. He collected a band of mercenaries, and made war on the neighbouring Thracian tribes, by which means he considerably enriched himself, and afforded protection to the neighbouring Greek cities. Before the fatal battle of Aegos-Potami (B. C. 405), he gave an ineffectual warning to the Athenian generals. After the establishment of the tyranny of the Thirty (B. C. 404), he was condemned to banishment. Upon this he took refuge with Pharnabazus, and was about to proceed to the court of Artaxerxes, when one night his house was surrounded by a band of armed men, and set on fire. He rushed out sword in hand, but fell, pierced with arrows. (B. C. 404.) According to Diodorus and Ephorus (Diod. 14.11) the assassins were emissaries of Pharnabazus, who had been led to this step either by his own jealousy of Alcibiades, or by the instigation of the Spartans. It is more probable that they were either employed by the Spartans, or (according to one account in Plutarch) by the brothers of a lady whom Alcibiades had seduced. His corpe was taken up and buried by his mistress Timandra. Athenaeus (xiii. p. 574) mentions a monument erected to his memory at Melissa, the place of his leath, and a statue of him erected thereon by the emperor Hadrian, who also instituted certain yearly sacrifices in his honour. He left a son by his wife Hipparete, named Alcibiades, who never distinguished himself. It was for him that Isocrates wrote the speech Περὶ τοῦ Ζεύγους. Two of Lysias's speeches (xiv. and xv.) are directed against him. The fortune which he left behind him turned out to be smaller than his patrimony. (Plut. Alcib. and Nicias ; Thuc. lib. v.--viii. ; Xenophon, Hellen. lib. i. ii.; Andoc. in Alcib. and de Myster. ; Isocr. De Bigis ; Nepos, Alcib. ; Diod. 12.78-84, 13.2-5, 37-41, 45, 46, 49-51, 64-73; Athen. 1.3, iv. p. 184, v. pp. 215, 216, ix. p. 407, xi. p. 500, xii. pp. 525, 534, 535, xiii. pp. 574, 575.)

ALCIBI'ADES ('Ἀλκιβιάδης), a Spartan exile, was restored to his country about B. C. 184, by the Achaeans, but was ungrateful enough to go as ambassador from Sparta to Rome, in order to accuse Philopoemen and the Achaeans. (Plb. 23.4, 11, 12, 24.4; Liv. 39.35.)

ALCI'DAMAS (Ἀλκιδάμας), a Greek rhetorician, was a native of Elaea in Aeolis, in Asia Minor. (Quint. Inst. 3.1.10, with Spalding's note) He was a pupil of Gorgias, and resided at Athens between the years B. C. 432 and 411. Here he gave instructions in eloquence, according to Eudocia (p. 100), as the successor of his master, and was the last of that sophistical school, with which the only object of eloquencc was to please the hearers by the pomp and brilliancy of words. That the works of Alcidamas bore the strongest marks of this character of his school is stated by Aristotle (Aristot. Rh. 3.3.8), who censures his pompous diction and extravagant use of poetical epithets and phrases, and by Dionysius (De Isaeo, 19), who calls his style vulgar and inflated. He is said to have been an opponent of Isocrates (Tzetz. Chil. 11.672), but whether this statement refers to real personal enmity, or whether it is merely an inference from the fact, that Alcidamas condemned the practice of writing orations for the purpose of delivering them, is uncertain. The ancients mention several works of Alcidamas such as an Eulogy on Death, in which he enumerated the evils of human life, and of which Cicero seems to speak with great praise (Tusc. 1.48); a shew-speech, called λόγος Μεσσηνιακός (Aristot. Rh. 1.13.5); a work on music (Suidas, s. v. Ἀλκιδάμας); and some scientific works, viz. one on rhetoric (τέχνη ῥητορική, Plut. Dem. 5), and another called λόγος φυσικός (D. L. 8.56); but all of them are now lost. Tzetzes (Chil. 11.752) had still before him several orations of Alcidamas, but we now possess only two declamations which go under his name. 1. Ὀδυσσεὺς, ἤ κατὰ Παλαμήδους προδοσίας, in which Odysseus is made to accuse Palamedes of treachery to the cause of the Greeks during the siege of Troy.

2. περί σοφιστῶν, in which the author sets forth the advantages of delivering extempore speeches over those which have previously been written out.

These two orations, the second of which is the better one, both in form and thought, bear scarcely any traces of the faults which Aristotle and Dionysius censure in the works of Alcidamas; their fault is rather being frigid and insipid. It has therefore been maintained by several critics, that these orations are not the works of Alcidamas ; and with regard to the first of them, the supposition is supported by strong probability; the second may have been written by Alcidamas with a view to counteract the influence of Isocrates.

The first edition of them is that in the collection of Greek orators published by Aldus, Venice, 1513, fol. The best modern editions are those in Reiske's Oratores Graeci, vol. viii. p. 64, &c.; and in Bekker's Oratores Attici, vol. vii. (Oxford.)

A'LCIDAS (Ἀλκίδας), was appointed, B. C. 428, commander of the Peloponnesian fleet, which was sent to Lesbos for the relief of Mytilene, then besieged by the Athenians. But Mytilene surrendered to the Athenians seven days before the Peloponnesian fleet arrived on the coast of Asia ; and Alcidas, who, like most of the Spartan commanders, had little enterprise, resolved to return home, although he was recommended either to attempt the recovery of Mytilene or to make a descent upon the Ionian coast. While sailing along the coast, he captured many vessels, and put to deaths all the Athenian allies whom he took. From Ephesus he sailed home with the utmost speed, being chased by the Athenian fleet, under Paches, as far as Patmos. (Thuc. 3.16, 26-33.) After receiving reinforcements, Alcidas sailed to Corcyra, B. C. 427; and when the Athenians and Corcyraeans sailed out to meet him, he defeated them and drove them back to the island. With his habitual caution, however, he would not follow up the advantage he had gained; and being informed that a large Athenian fleet was approaching, he sailed back to Peloponnesus. (3.69-81.) In B. C. 426, he was one of the leaders of the colony founded by the Lacedaemonians at Heracleia, near Thermopylae. (3.92.)

ALCI'DICE (Ἀλκιδίκη), the daughter of Aleus, and wife of Salmoneus, by whom she had a daughter, Tyro. Alcidice died early, and Salmoneus afterwards married Sidero. (Diod. 4.68; Apollod. 1.9.8.)

ALCI'MACHUS, a painter mentioned by Pliny. (H. N. 35.11. s. 40.) He is not spoken of by any other writer, and all that is known about him is, that he painted a picture of Dioxippus, a victor in the pancratium at Olympia.