Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/917

Rh CTESIAS. Ctosias's work which contained the liistory of IVrsia, that is, from the sixth book to the end, is somewhat better known from the extracts which Photius made from it, and which are still extant Here again Ctesias is froqiienily at variance with other Greek writers, especially with Herodotus. To account for this, we must remember, that he is expressly reported to have written his work with the intention of correcting the erroneous notions about Persia in Greece ; and if this was the case, the reader must naturally be prepared to find the accounts of Ctesias differing from those of others. It is moreover not improbable, that the Persian chronicles were as partial to the Persians, if not more so, as the accounts written by Greeks were to the Greeks. These considerations sufficiently account, in our opinion, for the differences existing between the statements of Ctesias and other writ- ers ; and there appears to be no reason for charging him, as some have done, with wilfully falsifying liistory. It is at least certain, that there can be no positive evidence for such a serious charge. The court chronicles of Persia appear to have con- tained chiefly the history of the royal family, the occurrences at the court and the seraglio, the in- trigues of the women and eunuchs, and the insur- rections of satraps to make themselves independent of the great monarch. Suidas (s. v. UdficpiXa) mentions, that Pamphila made an abridgment of the work of Ctesias, probably the Persica, in three books. Another work, for which Ctesias also collected his materials during his stay in Persia, was — 2. A treatise on India {'IvSikcl) in one book, of which we likewise possess an abridgment in Photius, and a great number of fragments preserved in other writers. The description refers chiefly to the north-western part of India, and is principally confined to a description of the natural history, the produce of the soil, and the animals and men of India. In this description truth is to a great extent mixed up with fables, and it seems to be mainly owing to this work that Ctesias was looked upon in later times as an author who deserved no credit. But if his account of India is looked upon from a proper point of view, it does not in any way deserve to be treated with contempt. Ctesias him- self never visited India, and his work was the first in the Greek language that was written upon that country : he could do nothing more than lay before his countrymen that which was known or believed about India among the Persians. His Indica must therefore be regarded as a picture of India, such as it was conceived by the Persians. Many things in his description which were formerly looked upon as fabulous, have been proved by the more recent discoveries in India to be founded on facts. Ctesias also wrote several other works, of which, however, we know little more than their titles: ^hey were — 3. Tlfpl 'Opwv, which consisted of at least two books. (Plut. de Fluv. 21 ; Stob. Froii!. C. 18.) 4. UfpiirXovs 'Aalas (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'S.iyvvns), which is perhaps the sjime as the Uepi-q- yncTts of which Stephanus Byzantius (s. v. Koo-vttj) quotes the third book. 5. Ucpl UoraiUMV (Plut. de Fluv. 19), and 6. ITepl tQu Ka-rcL T-qv 'Aaiav ip6p(tiv. It has been inferred from a passage in Galen (v. p. 652, ed. Basil.), that Ctesias also wrote on raedi-jine, but no accounts of his medical works have come down to us. The abridgment which Photius made of the CTESICLES. 8.9.^ Persica and Indica of Ctesias were printed sepa- rately by H. Stephens, Paris, 1557 and 1594, 8vo., and were albo added to his edition of Herodotus. After his time it became customary to print tli'? remains of Ctesias as an appendix to Herodotus. The first separate edition of those abridgments, together with the fragments preserved in other writers, is that of A. Lion, Gottingen, 1823, 8vo., with critical notes «and a Latin translation. A more complete edition, with an introductory essay on the life and writings of Ctesias, is that of Bahr, Frankfort, 1824, 8vo. (Compare Fabric. Bibl. Graec. ii. p. 740, &c. ; Rettig, Ctesiae Cnidii Vita cum appendicc de lifjris Clesiae, Ilanov. 1827, 8vo.; K. L. Blum, Herodot und Oesias, lleidelb. 183G, 8vo.) 2. Of Ephesas, an epic poet, who is mentioned by Plutarch (de Fluv. 18) as the author of an epic poem, nepcrrfts. His age is quite unknown. Welcker (Dcr Episch. Cycl. p. 50) considers this Ctesias to be the same as the Musaeus (which he regards as a fictitious name) of Ephesus to whom Suidas and Eudocia ascribe an epic poem, Perseis, in ten books. But this is a mere conjecture, in support of which little can be said. [L. S.] CTESI'BIUS (KTTjffi'gjos). 1. A Greek histo- rian, who probably lived at the time of the first Ptolemies, or at least after the time of Demosthenes, for we learn from Plutarch (Dem. 5), that Hennip- pus of Smyrna referred to him as his authority for some statement respecting Demosthenes. Accord- ing to Apollodorus (ap. Phlegon. de Longaev. 2), Ctesibius died during a walk at the age of 1 04, and according to Lucian (Macrob. 22), at the age of 124 years. Whether he was the author of a work, UipX ^io(TO(pias, referred to by Plutarch ( Fit. X Orat. p. 844, c.) is uncertain. 2. A Cynic philosopher, a native of Chalcis and a friend of Menedemus. According to Athenaeus, who relates an anecdote about him, he lived in the reign of Antigonus, king of Macedonia. (Athen. i. p. 15, iv. p. 162.) [L. S.j CTESI'BIUS (KTTjo-t'eios), celebrated for his mechanical inventions, was bom at Alexandria, and lived probably about B. c. 250, in the reigns of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Euergetes, though Athenaeus (iv. p. 174) savs, that he flourished in the time of the second Euergetes. His father was a barber, but his own taste led him to devote him- self to mechanics. He is said to have invented a clepsydra or water-clock, a hydraulic organ (SSpat- Ats) and other machines, and to liave been the first to discover the elastic force of air and apply it as a moving power. Vitruvius (lib. vii. praef.) men- tions him as an author, but none of his works re- main. He was the teacher, and has been supposed to have been the father, of Hero Alexandrinus, whose treatise called ^eKoiroiiKo. has also sometimes been attributed to him. (Vitruv. ix. 9, x. 12; Plin. //. N. vii. 37 ; Athen. iv. p. 174, xi. p. 497 ; Philo Bvzant. ap. Vet. Math. pp. 56, 67, 72 •, Fabric. Bibl. Craec. vol. ii. p. 591.) [W. F. D.] CTE'SICLES (KTTjcTiKAr^s), the author of a chronological work {xpoviKd or xp<5''o')i ^^ which two fragments are preserved in Athenaeus (vi. p. X. p. 445.) [L.S.] CTE'SICLES, the author af a beautiful statue at Samos, about which a similar story is told by Athenaeus (xiii. p. 606, a.) as that respecting the injury sustained bv the Cnidian Venus of Praxi» teles. ' [L. U.]