Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/949

Rh DAMASCENUS. even before lie attained the age of pubert)', he ob- tained the reputation of being the most accom- plished nmong the youths of his age ; and at that early age he composed tragedies and comedies, which met with geneml applause. But lie soon abandoned these poetical pursuits, and devoted himself to rhetoric, music, mathematics, and the philosophy of Aristotle. Herod carried on his philosophical studies in common with Nicolaus, and the amicaljle relation between the two men was strengthened bj' these common pursuits. In B. c. 14, he previiiled upon Herod to interfere with Agrippa on behalf of the citizens of Ilium, who were to be severely punished for having been ap- piirently wanting in attention to Agrippa's wife, Julia, the daughter of Augustus. It was about the same time that he used his influence with He- rod to prevail upon Agrippa to put an e)id to the annoyances to which the Jews in Ionia were con- stantly exposed. In a conversation with Herod Nicolaus once directed his attention to the advan- tages which a prince might derive from history; and the king, who was struck by the trutli of the observation, entreated Nicolaus to write a history. Nicolaus complied with the request, and compiled a most voluminous work on universal history, the accomplishment of which, in his opinion, surpassed even the hardest among the labours of Heracles. Ill B. c. 13, when Herod went to Rome to pay Augustus a visit, he took Nicolaus with him, and both travelled in the same vessel. On that occa- sion, Nicolaus made Augustus a present of the finest fruit of the palm-tree, which Augustus henceforth called Nicolai, a name by which that fruit was known down to the middle ages. Some writers speak of cakes {irAaKovin-es) which Nico- laus presented to Augustus, but this is evidently a mistake. (Suid. s. r. Nt/cdAaos ; Athen. xiv. p.G52; Plut. Sympos. viii. 4 ; Isidor. Orig. xvii. 7 ; Plin. //. N. xiii. 4.) When Herod, by his success against some Arab chiefs, had drawn upon himself the enmity of Augustus, and the latter declined to receive any ambassadors, Herod, who knew the influence which Nicolaus possessed with the em- peror, sent him to negotiate. Nicolaus, by very skilful management, succeeded in tumiiig the anger of Augustus against the Arabs, and in re- storing the friendship between Augustus and He- rod. When Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons of Herod, were suspected of plotting against tlieir father, Nicolaus endeavoured to induce the king not to proceed to extremities against his sons, but in vain : the two sons were put to death, and Nicolaus afterwards degraded himself by defend- ing and justifying this cruel act of his royal friend. On the death of Herod, Archelaus succeeded to the throne, chiefly through the exertions of Nico- laus. We have no account of what became of Nicolaus after this event, and how long he sur- vived it. Plutarch {I.e.) describes Nicolaus as possessing a tall and slender tigure, with a red face. In private life, as well as in intercourse with others, he was a man of the most amiable disposition : he was mo- dest, just, and liberal in a high degree ; and al- though he disgraced himself by his flattery and partiality towards Herod, he neglected the great and powerful at Rome so much, that he is censured for having preferred the society of plebeians to that of the nobles. The information which we have hei-e given is derived paiiiy from a life of DAMASCENUS. 931 Nicolaus, written by himself, of which a consider- able portion is still extant, from Suidas, and from Josephus. {Aniiq. Jud. xvi. 15, 16, 17, xvii. 7, 1 1 .) The writings of Nicolaus were partly poetical, partly historical, and partly philosophical. With regard to his tragedies, we know only the title of one, called 'S.uxravis or SwcreJj'j'Tjs (Eustath. ad Diotiys. Perkg. 976), but no fragments are extant. A considerable fragment of one of his comediea, which consists of 44 lines, and gives us a favour- able opinion of his poetical talent, is preserved in Stobaeus. The most important, however, among his works were those of an historical nature. 1. The first is his autobiography, which we have already mentioned. 2. A universal history, which con- sisted of 144 books. (Athen. vi. p. 249.) Suidaa states, that it contained only 80 books, but the 124th is quoted by Josephus. {Aniiq. Jud. xii. 3.) The title laropla KadoAiKTJ^ under which this work is mentioned by Suidas, does not occur elsewhere. As far as we can judge from the fragments still ex- tant, it treated chiefly of the history of the Asiatic nations ; but whether the 'AaravpiaKai laropiai of which Photius {Bibl. Cod. 189) speaks is the same as the universal history, or only a portion of it, or whether it was a sepirate work, cannot be deter- mined with any certainty. The universal history was composed at the request of Herod, and seems to have been a hurried compilation, in which Ni- colaus, without exercising any criticism, incorpo- rated whatever he found related by earlier histo- rians. 3. A life of Augustus. This work is lost, like the rest, with the exception of excerpta which were made from it by the command of Constantinus Porphyrogenitus. These excerpta shew that the author was not much concerned about accuracy, and that the biography was more of a eulogy than of a history. Some writers have been of opinion, that this biography formed a part of the universal history ; but there seems to be no ground for this hypothesis. 4. A life of Herod. There is no express testimony for a separate work of this name, but the way in which Josephus speaks of the man- ner in which Nicolaus treated Herod, and defended his cruelties, or passed them over in silence, if he could not defend them, scarcely admits of a doubt as to the existence of a separate work on the life of Herod. 5. 'HdcSy TrapaSo^an/ auuayurp], that is, a collection of singular customs among the various nations of the earth. It was dedicated to Herod (Phot. Bil>l. Cod. 189), and Stobaeus has preserved many passages from it. Valesius and others think that these passages did not originally belong to a separate work, but were extracted from the uni- versal history. Of his philosophical works, -which consisted parth- of independent treatises and partly of paraphrases of Aristotle's Works, no fragments are extant, except a few statements in Siraplicius' connnentaries on Aristotle. The extant fragments of Nicolaus were first edited in a Latin version by N, Cragius, Geneva, 1593, 4to. The Greek ori- ginals with a Latin translation were first edited by H. Valesius in his "Excerpta Polybii, Diodori," &c., Paris, 1634, 4to. The best and most com- plete edition, with Latin translations by Valesius and H. Grotiiis, is that of J. C. Orelli, Leipzig, 1804, 8vo. It also contains a good dissert;itiou on the life and writings of Nicolaus by the Abbe Sevin, which originally appeared in the Meinoms de I' Acad, des Inscript. vi. p. 486, Sac. In 1811, Orelli published a supplement to his edition, which 3o2