Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/430

Rh 412 ATTIANUS. ting in front on a chair ornamented on each side ■W'itii lions'' heads ; in the riyht hand she holds a globe, on which a small Victory is standing and holding in her right hand a crown and in her left a branch of palm ; the left rests upon a spear with a long iron head, and inverted. [A. P. S.] A'TTALUS, literary. 1. A Stoic philosopher in the reign of Tiberius, who was defrauded of his property by Sejanus, and reduced to cultivate the ground. (Senec. Siuis. 2. p. 17, ed. Bip.) He taught the philosopher Seneca {Ep. 108), who frequently quotes hira. and speaks of him in the highest terms. (Comp. Nat. Quaest. ii. 50, Ep. 9, 63, 67, 72. 81, 109.) The elder Seneca describes him {Suas.l.c.) as a man of great eloquence, and by far the acute»t philosopher of his age. We have mention of a work of his on lightning {Nal. Quaest. ii. 48) ; and it is supposed that he may be the author of the Tlapoipiiai referred to by Hesychius {s.v. Kopiifvovcn) as written by one Attains. 2. A Sophist in the second century of the Chris- tian era, the son of Polemon, and grandfather of the Sophist Hennocrates. (Philostr. Vii. Soph. ii. 25. § 2.) His name occurs on the coins of Smyrna, which are figured in Olearius's edition of Philostratus (p. 609). They contain the in- scription ATTAA02 20*I2. TAI2 nATPI2I 2MTP. AAOK., which is interpreted, "Attains, the Sophist, to his native cities Sra} rna and Laodicea." The latter is conjectured to have been the place of his birth, the former to have adopted him as a citizen. A'TTALUS ("AttoAoj), a physician at Rome in the second century after Christ, who was a pupil of Soranus, and belonged to the sect of the Methodici. He is mentioned by Galen (de JMeth. Med. xiii. 15. vol. x. p. 910, &c,) as having mis- tixken the disease of which the Stoic philosoplier Theagenes died. [W. A. G.] A'TTALUS ( "'ArraXos), an Athenian statuary, the son of Andragathus. Pausanias (ii. 19. § '6) mentions a statue of Apollo Lykeios, in the temple of that god at Argos, which was made by him. His name has been found on a statue discovered on the site of the theatre at Argos ( Bcickh, Corp. Ins. No. 1146), and on a bust. (Welcker, Kunstb'atl, 1827, No. 82.) [C. P. M.] ATTHIS or ATTIS fArPts or^Arris), a daugh- ter of Cranaus, from whom Attica, which was be- fore called Actaea, was believed to have derived its name. (Paus. i. 2. § 5.) The two birds into which Philomele and her sister Procne were metamor- phosed, were likewise called Attis. (Martial, i 54. ■d, V. 67. 2.) [L. S.] ATTIA'NUS, CAE'LIUS, a Roman knight, was the tutor, and afterwards the intimate friend, of Hadrian. On the death of Trajan, Attianus, in conjunction with Plotina, caused Hadrian to be proclaimed ernperor ; and the latter after his ac- cession enrolled Attianus in the se)iate, made hiia praefectus praetorio, and conferred upon him the insignia of the consulship. He subsequently fell, ATTICUS. ■ ' however, under the displeasure of the emperor. (Spart. Iladr. 1, 4, 8, 15 ; Dion Cass. Ixix. 1.) ATTICA. [Atticus, T. Pompomuh.] A'TTICUS, ANTO'NIUS, a Roman rhetori- cian of the age of Seneca and Quintilian. (Senec. Suas. 2. p. 19, ed. Bip.) [L. S.] A'TTICUS, bishop of Constantinople, was born at Sebaste, now Sivas, in Annenia Minor. He was educated in the ascetic discipline of the Macedonian monks, under the eye of Eustathius, a celebrated bishop of that sect. However, when Atticus reached the age of manhood, he conformed to the orthodox church. He was ordained a pres- byter at Constantinople ; and in the violent con- tentions between the friends and the enemies of the famous Chrysostora, he sided with the latter. After the death of Arsacius, who had been elevated to the see of Constantinople on occasion of the se- cond banishment of Chrysostom, Atticus succeeded to the office, although the illustrious exile was still living. The ecclesiastical historians, Socrates and Sozomen, describe Atticus as a man of great na- tural prudence, and both of them testify that he administered the affairs of the church with wisdom and success. His learning seems to have been respectable ; his preaching, we are told, was not attractive. His general manner was extremely winning, and he was particularly distinguished for his liberality to the poor. On hearing that distress amounting almost to famine prevailed at Nicaea, he sent a large sum of money for the relief of the suf- fering population, accompanied by a letter to Cal- liopius, the bishop of the place, which is extiint in the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates. In his treatment of heretics, he is said to have exhibited a judicious combination of kindness and severity. He spoke charitably of the Novatians, and com- mended their inflexible adherence to the true faith under the persecutions of Constantius and Valens, • though he condemned their terms of communioii as 1 being in the extreme of rigour. It is recorded, fl however, b}' Marius Mercator that when Coelestius, ■ the well-known disciple of Pelagius, visited Con- stantinople, Atticus expelled him from the city, and sent letters to the bishops of various sees, warning them against him. He was himself laid under sentence of excommunication by the western bishops for refusing to insert the name of the de- ceased Chrysostom in the diptychs or church regis- ters. In the end, Atticus complied with the de- mand, and was again received into the communion of the western churches. He is said by Socrates to liave foretold his own death : the prophecy, how- ever, amounted to no more than this — that he told his friend Calliopius that he should not survive the ensuing autumn ; and the event corresponded with his prognostication. He died in the twenty-first year of his episcopate. Gennadius informs us that he wrote, in opposition to the Nestorian doctrine, an excellent treatise de Fide et Virginitate^ which he dt^dicated ad Rcginas, that is, to the daughters of the eastern emperor, Aicadius. This work has perished ; and notliing from the pen of Atticus has survived, except the following short pieces : 1. A letter to Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, exhorting him to follow his own example, and insert the name of Chrysostom in the sacred tables. This is preserved in the Church History of Nicephorus Callisti. 2. The above-mentioned letter to Callio- pius. 3. A few inconsiderable fragments extant in the writings of Maiius Mercator and Theodoret,