Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/952

Rh 934 DAMASUS. the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate, and ren- dered amenable to their own courts alone. The extant works of Damasus are : I. Seven epistles written between the years 372 — 384, addressed to the bishops of Illyria, to Paulinus, to Acholius and other bishops of Mace- donia, and to St. Jerome, together with an Epistola Svnodica against ApoUinaris and Timotheus. These refer, for the most part, to the controversies then agitating the religious world, and are not without value as materials for ecclesiastical history. The second, to Paulinus, consists of two parts, which in some editions are arranged separately, so as to make the whole number amount to eight. In addition to the above, which are entire, we have several fragments of letters, and it is known that many have perished. See the " Epistolae Pontifi- cum Romanorum,'" by Constant, Paris, 1721. II. Upwards of forty short poems in various measures and styles, religious, descriptive, lyrical, and panegyrical, including several epitaphs. None of these, notwithstanding the testimony of St. Je- rome (/. c), dictated probably by partial friendship, are remarkable for any felicity either in thought or in expression. The rules of classical prosody are freely disregarded ; we observe a propensity to indulge in jingling cadences, thus leading the way to the rhyming versification of the monks, and here and there some specimens of acrostic dexte- rity. These pieces were published separately in several of the early editions of the Christian poets ; by A. M. Merenda, Rom. fol. 1754 ; and a selec- tion comprising his "Sanctorum Elogia" is included in the " Opera Veterum Poetarura Latinorum " by Maittaire, 2 vols. fol. Lond. 1713. Among the lost works of this author are to be reckoned several epistles ; a tract de Virginitaie^ in which prose and poetry were combined ; summaries in hexameter verse of certain books of the Old and New Testament (Hieron. Epist. ad Eiistoch. de Ciistod. Virgin. and Ada Marti/rum Romanorum Petri Exorcistae et Marcellini (Eginhart. ap. Sun- uiiu, de probatis sanctt. Histor. vol. iii. p. ofil). Several Deereta; a book entitled Liber de Viiis Pontificum Romanorum ; and all the epistles not named above are deemed spurious. The earliest edition of the collected works is that prepared by Sarrazanius and published by IJbaldinus under the patronage of cardinal Fran- cesco Barberini, Rom. 4to. 1638. They are con- tained also in the DibliotJiec. Max. Patrum. vol. iv. p. 543, and vol, xxvii. p. 81, and appear in their most correct form in the Bib/iolfwca Patrum of Galland, vol. vi. p. 321 . (For the life and character of Damasus, see the testimonies and biographies collected in the edition of Sarrazanius ; Hieron. de Viris. III. c. 103, Chro- nic, p. 186, ad Nepot.; Ambros. adv. Symmach. ii.; Augustin. Serm.A9-, Suidas,s. v. Aa/iao-os; Amm. Marc, xxvii. 3, a very remarkable passage. The petition of two presbyters opposed to Damasus is preserved in the first volume of the works of P. Sirmond. — Nic. Antonius, Bibliothec. Vet. Hisjmu. ii. 6 ; Bayerus, Damasus et Laurentius Nispanis asserti et vindicati^ Rom. 1 756 ; Gerbert de Cantu et Music, sacra, i. pp. 44, 60, 91, 242; Fabric. Bibl. Med. et Infim. Lat. ii. p. 4 ; Funccius, de Veget. L. L. Senect. cap. iii. § Ix., &c. ; Tillemont, Me- moires Ecclesiast. vol. viii. p. 386, &c. ; Schriick, Kircliengeschichte^ viii. p. 122, &c.; Surius, de pro- batis sanctt. Hist. viii. p. 428.) [W. R.] DAMIO. DA'MEAS (Aajuc'as) or DE'MEAS. 1. A sta- tuary of Croton, who made a bronze statue of iiis fellow-citizen, Milo, which Milo carried on his shoulders into the Altis. This fixes the artist's date at about B.C. 530. (Pans. vi. 14. $ 2.) 2. Also called Damias, a statuary, bom at Clei- tor, a city in Arcadia, was the disciple of Poly- cleitus, and was associated with other artists in the execution of the great votive offering which the Lacedaemonians made at Delphi after the vic- tory of Aegospotami. (b. c. 405.) Dameas cast the statues of Athena, Poseidon, and Lysander. (Pans. X. 9. § 4 ; Plin. xxxiv. 8. s. 19 ; Thiersch. Epochen.Tp.'276.) [P. S.] DAMIA. [Al'xesia.] DAMIA'NUS (Aauiavoy), of Ephesus, a cele- brated rhetorician and contemporary of Philostra- tus, who visited him at Ephesus, and who has preserved a few particulars respecting his life. In his youth Damianus was a pupil of Adrianus and Aelius Aristeides, whom he afterwards followed as his models. He appears to have taught rhetoric in his native place, and his reputation as a rhetorician and sophist was so great, that even when he had arrived at an advanced age and had given up rhe- toric, many persons flocked to Ephesus to have an opportunity of conversing with him. He belonged to a very illustrious family, and was possessed of great wealth, of which he made generous use, for he not only instructed gratis such young men as were unable to remunerate him, but he erected or restored at his own expense several useful and public institu- tions and buildings. He died at the age of seventy, and was buried in one of the suburbs of Ephesus. It is not known whether he ever published any scientific treatise on rhetoric or any orations or declamations. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 23 ; Suid. s. V. Aafiiavos; Eudocia, p. 130.) [L. S.] DAMIA'NUS (AoMiavo's), a celebrated saint and martyr, who was a physician by profession and lived in the third and fourth centuries after Christ. He is said to have been the brother of St. Cosmas, with whose name and life his own is commonly associated, and whose joint history ap- pears to have been as follows. They were born in Arabia : their father's name is not known, their mother's was Theodora, and both are said to have been Christians. After receiving an excel- lent education, they chose the medical profession, as being that in which they thought they could most benefit their fellow men ; and accordingly they constantly practised it gratuitously, thus earning for themselves the title of 'Avdpyvpoi^ by which they are constantly distinguished. They were at last put to death with the most cruel tor- tures, in company with several other Christians, during the persecution by Diocletian, A. D. 303 — I 311. Justinian, in the sixth century, built a I church in their honour at Constantinople, and an- other in Pamphylia, in consequence of his having been (as he supposed) cured of a dangerous illness through their intercession. [Cosmas.1 [W.A.G.] = DAMIA'NUS HELIODO'RUS". [Hblio- DORUS.] DA'MIO, afreedraan and servant of P. Clodius, who in B. c. 58 prevented Pompey from leaving his house and from assisting Cicero. ('Ascon. in Milon. p. 47, ed. Orelli.) It is uncertain whether he is the same as Vettius Damio, into whose house Cicero fled from the persecutions of the Clodian party. (Cic. ad Att. iv. 3.) [L. S.]