Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/58

40 delighted to repeat, and which by association of ideas constituted him a sophist in the eyes of Plato and his followers, was that of receiving money for his instructions. Another story was invented that these dialogues were really the work of Socrates; and Aristippus, either from joke or malice, publicly charged Aeschines with the theft while he was reading them at Megara. Plato is related by Hegesander (apud Athen. xi. p. 507, c.) to have stolen from him his solitary pupil Xenocrates.

The three dialogues,, , , which have come down to us under the name of Aeschines are not genuine remains: it is even doubted whether they are the same works which the ancients acknowledged as spurious. They have been edited by Fischer, the third edition of which (8vo. Lips. 1786) contains the criticisms of Wolf, and forms part of a volume of spurious Platonic dialogues (Simonis Socratici ut videtur dialogi quatuor) by Böckh, Heidel. 1810.

The genuine dialogues, from the slight mention made of them by Demetrius Phalereus, seem to have been full of Socratic irony. Hermogenes,, considers Aeschines as superior to Xenophon in elegance and purity of style. A long and amusing passage is quoted by Cicero from him. (De Invent. i. 31; Diogenes Laertius, ii. 60-64, and the authorities collected by Fischer.)

 AE′SCHINES, of , a contemporary of Cicero, and a distinguished orator in the Asiatic style of eloquence. He is said by Diogenes Laertius to have written on Politics. He died in exile on account of having spoken too freely to Pompey. (Cic. Brut. 95; Diog. Laert. ii. 64; Strab. xiv. p. 635 ; Sen. Controv. i. 8.)

 AE′SCHINES, of , a Peripatetic philosopher, who was at the head of the Academy at Athens, together with Charmades and Clitomachus about B. C. 109. (Cic. de Orat. i. 11.) Diogenes Laertius (ii. 64) says, that he was a pupil of Melanthus the Rhodian.

 AE′SCHINES, an ancient physician, who lived in the latter half of the fourth century after Christ. He was born in the island of Chios, and settled at Athens, where he appears to have practised with very little success, but acquired great fame by a happy cure of Eunapius Sardianus, who on his voyage to Athens (as he tells us himself, in vita Proaeres. p. 76, ed. Boisson) had been seized with a fever of a very violent kind, which yielded only to treatment of a peculiar nature. An Athenian physician of this name is quoted by Pliny (H. N. xxviii. 10), of whom it is only known, that he must have lived some time before the middle of the first century after Christ.

 AE′SCHRION, of Syracuse, whose wife Pippa was one of the mistresses of Verres, is frequently mentioned by Cicero in the Verrine Orations, (ii. 14, v. 12, 31.) He assisted Verres in robbing the Syracusans (ii. 21), and obtained the farming of the tithes of the Herbitenses for the purpose of plundering them. (iii. 33.)

 AE′SCHRION, an iambic poet, a native of Samos. He is mentioned by Athenaeus (vii. p. 296, f. viii. p. 335, c), who has preserved some choliambic verses of his, in which he defends the Samian Philaenis against Polycrates, the Athenian rhetorician and sophist. Some of his verses are also quoted by Tzetzes (ad Lycophr. 638). There was an epic poet of the same name, who was a native of Mitylene and a pupil of Aristotle, and who is said to have accompanied Alexander on some of his expeditions. He is mentioned by Suidas (s. v.) and Tzetzes (Chil. viii. 406). As he was also a writer of iambics and choliambics, many scholars have supposed him to be identical with the Samian Aeschrion, and to have been called a Mitylenaean in consequence of having resided for some time in that city. (Schneidewin, Delectus Poetarum iambic. et melicorum Graec.; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. xiii. 834.)

 AE′SCHRION, a Greek writer on agriculture, of whom nothing more is known. (Varr. de Re Rust. i. 1.)

 AE′SCHRION, a native of Pergamus, and a physician in the second century after Christ. He was one of Galen's tutors, who says that he belonged to the sect of the Empirici, and that he had a great knowledge of Pharmacy and Materia Medica. Aeschrion was the inventor of a celebrated superstitious remedy for the bite of a mad dog, which is mentioned with approbation by Galen and Oribasius (Synops. iii. p. 55), and of which the most important ingredient was powdered crawfish. These he directs to be caught at a time when the sun and moon were in a particular relative position, and to be baked alive. (Gal. De Simpl. Medic. Facult. xi. 34, vol. xii. p. 356; C. G. Kühn. Additam. ad Elench. Med. Vet. a J. A. Fabric. in "Bibl. Gr." exhibit.)

<section end="Aeschrion 4." /> <section begin="Aeschylides" />AESCHY′LIDES, wrote a work on agriculture, entitled , which was at least in three books. (Athen. xiv. p. 650, d; Aelian, de Anim. xvi. 32.)

<section end="Aeschylides" /> <section begin="Aeschylus 1." />AE′SCHYLUS was born at Eleusis in Attica in B. C. 525, so that he was thirty-five years of age at the time of the battle of Marathon, and contemporary with Simonides and Pindar. His father Euphorion was probably connected with the worship of Demeter, from which Aeschylus may naturally be supposed to have received his first religious impressions. He was himself, according to some authorities, initiated in the mysteries, with reference to which, and to his birthplace Eleusis, Aristophanes (Ran. 884) makes him pray to the Eleusinian goddess. Pausanias (i. 21. §2) relates an anecdote of him, which, if true, shews that he was struck in very early youth with the exhibitions of the drama. According to this story, "When he was a boy he was set to watch grapes in the country, and there fell asleep. In his slumbers Dionysus appeared to him, and ordered him to apply himself to tragedy. At daybreak he made the attempt, and succeeded very easily." Such a dream as this could hardly have resulted from anything but the impression produced by tragic exhibitions upon a warm imagination. At the age of 25 (B. C. 499), he made his first appearance as a competitor for the prize of tragedy, against Choerilus and Pratinas, without however being successful. Sixteen years afterward (B. C. 484), Aeschylus gained his first victory. The titles of the pieces which he then brought out are not known, but his competitors were most probably Pratinas and Phrynichus or Choerilus. Eight years afterwards he gained the prize with the trilogy of which the Persae, the earliest of his extant dramas, was one piece. The whole number of victories attributed to Aeschylus amounted to thirteen, most of which were gained by him in the <section end="Aeschylus 1." />