Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/903

Rh CRATKS. CRAPES (KpoTTjs), a very ancient Greek mu- aician, the disciple of Olympus, to whom some ascribed the composition for the flute, which was called Po/Mos novK4<paos, and which was more usually attributed to Olympus himself. (Vhit.de Mus. 7, p. 1133, e.) Nothing further is known of him. LI'- S.] CRATES (KpaTTjs), of Tarsits, an Academic philosopher, is expressly distinguished by Diogenes Laertius (ii. 114, 117) from Crates of Athens, with whom he has been often confounded. [A.S.] CRATES (KpaTTjs) of Thebks, the son of As- condus, repaired to Athens, where he became a scholar of the Cynic Diogenes, and subsequently one of the most distinguished of the Cynic philo- sophers. He flourished, according to Diogenes Laertius (vi. 87), in B.C. 328, was still living at Athens in the time of Demetrius Phalereus (A then. X. p. 422, c. ; Diog. Laert. vi. 90), and was at Thebes in B. c. 307, when Demetrius Phalereus withdrew thither. (Plut Mor. p. 69, c.) Crates was one of the most singular phaenomena of a time which abounded in all sorts of strange characters. Though heir to a large fortune, he renounced it all and bestowed it upon his native city, since a philosopher had no need of money ; or, according to another account, he placed it in the hands of a banker, with the charge, that he should deliver it to his sons, in case they were simpletons, but that, if they became philosophers, he should distribute it among the poor. Diogenes Laertius has preserved a number of curious tales about Crates, which prove that he lived and died as a true Cynic, disregarding all external pleasures, restricting himself to the most absolute necessaries, and retaining in every situation of life the most perfect mastery over his desires, complete equani- mity of temper, and a constant flow of good spirits. While exercising this self-controul, he was equally severe against the vices of others; the female sex in particular was severely lashed by him ; and he received the surname of the "Door-opener," be- cause it was his practice to visit every house at Athens, and rebuke its inmates. In spite of the poverty to which he had reduced himself, and not- withstanding his ugly and deformed figure, he in- spired Hipparchia, the daughter of a family of dis- tinction, with such an ardent affection for him, that she refused many wealthy suitors, and threat- ened to commit suicide unless her parents would give their consent to her union with the philoso- pher. Of the married life of this philosophic cou- ple Diogenes Laertius relates some very curious facts. Crates wrote a book of letters on philosophical subjects, the style of which is compared by Laer- tius (vi. 98) to Plato's ; but these are no longer extant, for the fourteen letters which were pub- lished from a Venetian m<inuscript under the name of Crates in the Aldine collection of Greek letters (Venet. 1499, 4to,), and the thirty-eight which have been published from the same manuscript by Boissonade (Notices et Extraits des Alanuscr. de la Bill, du Roi^ vol. xi. part ii. Paris, 1827) and which are likewise ascribed to Crates, are, like the greater number of such letters, the composition of later rhetoricians. Crates was also the author of tragedies of an earnest philosophical character, which are praised by Laertius, and likewise of some smaller poems, which seem to have been called na/7»'io, and to which the ♦a»ci7s iyKuyiiov CRATEVAS. 885 quoted by Athcnacus (iv. p. 158, b.) perhaps be- longed. Plutarch wrote a detailed biography of Crates, which unfortunately is lost. (Diog. Laert. vi. 85—93, 9— 98; Brunck, Anal. i. p. 186; Jacobs, Avth. Grace, i. p. 118; Brucker, Hint. J'hilosoph. i. p. 888 ; Fabric. Dill. Graec. iii. p. 514.) [A. S.] CRATES (KpctTTjy) of Tralles, an orator or rhetorician of the school of Isocrates. (Diog. Laert. iv. 23.) Ruhnken assigns to him the A0701 SrjfxrryopiKoi which ApoUodonis (ap. Diog. I. c.) ascribes to the Academic philosopher. Crates. (Hist. Crit. Orat. Graec. in Opusc. . p. 370.) Menagius (Coinm. in Diog. I. c.) is wrong in sup- posing that Crates is mentioned by Lucian. (Klitt. PraecepU 9.) The person there spoken of is Cii- tias the sculptor. [P. S.] CRATES. . An artist, celebrated for making cups with carved figures upon them. (Athen. xi. p. 782, b.) 2. A famous digger of channels at the time of Alexander. (Diog. Laert. iv. 23 ; Strab. ix. p. 407 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Adijvai^.) [L, U.] CRATESI'POLIS (KparnaiiroKis), wife of Alexander, the son of Polysperchon, was highly distinguished for her beauty, talents, and enerjjy. On the murder of her husband at Sicyon, in b c. 314 [see p. 126, a], she kept together his forces, with whom her kindness to the men had m.ide her extremely popular, and when the Sicyonians, hoping for an easy conquest over a woman, rose against the garrison for the puq)ose of establishing an independent government, she quelled the sedi- tion, and, having crucified thirty of the popular leaders, held the town firmly in subjection for Cassander. [See p. 620.] In B. c. 308, however, she was induced by Ptolemy Lagi to betray Co- rinth and Sicyon to him, these being the only places, except Athens, yet possessed by Cassander in Greece. Cratesipolis was at Corinth at the time, and, as her troops would not have consented to the surrender, she introduced a body of Ptolemy's forces into the town, pretending that they were a reinforcement which she had sent for from Sicyon. She then withdrew to Patrae in Achaia, where she was living, when, in the following year (b. c. 307), she held with Demetrius Poliorcetes the re- markable interview to whi^h each party was attracted by the fame of the other. (Diod. xix. 67, XX. 37 ; Polyaen. viii. 58 ; Plut. Demetrius^ 9.) [E. E.J CRATESI'PPIDAS (Kpa-r-nirmmUs), a La- cedaemonian, was sent out as admiral after the death of Mindarus, B.C. 410, and took the com- mand at Chios of the fleet which had been collect- ed by Pasippidas from the allies. He eftected, however, little or nothing during his term of office beyond the seizure of the acropolis at Chios, and the restoration of the Chian exiles, and was suc- ceeded by Lysander. (Xen. Hell. i. 1. § 32,5. § 1 ; Diod. xiii. 65, 70.) [E. E.] CRATEVAS (KpaTfias), a Greek herbiilist (pi^oTOfws) who lived about the beginning of the first century b. c, as he gave the name Mithridalia to a plant in honour of Mithridates. (]Hin. H. N. XXV. 26.) He is frequently quoted by Pliny and Dioscorides, and is mentioned by Galen (De Siiiiplic. Aledicam. Teviperam. ac Facult. vi. prooem. vol. xi. pp. 795, 797 ; Comment, in Hijjyocr. "i>e Nat. Horn.'' il 6, vol. xv. p. 134 ; Zte Aniid. i. 2, vol. xiv. p. 7), among the eminent writers on