Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1084

Rh 1070 MRTRODORUS. SJy), was a great favourite of the dictator Sulla. (Plut. SuU. 2, 36.) METROCLES (MtjtpokXtjs), of Maroneia, a brother of Hipparchia, was at first a disciple of Theophrastus, but afterwards he entered the school of Crates, and became a cynic. He seems to have been a man of great ability, and having reached an advanced age, he drowned himself. He wrote several works, all of which he is said to have burnt ; one of them bore the title of Xpdai, of which a line is preserved in Diogenes Laertius (vi. 6 ; corap. vi. 33, ii. 102 ; Stob. Serin, tit. 116. 48). [L. S.] METRODO'RUS (MrjTpdSupos), an officer of Philip V. of Macedon, with whom, in B. c. 202, the Thasians capitulated on condition that they should not be required to receive a garrison, nor to pay tribute, that they should have no soldiers bil- leted on them, and should retain their own laws. Philip, however, broke this agreement and reduced them to slavery. (Polyb. xv. 24.) We learn from a fragment of Polybius that Metrodorus greatly excited Philip's displeasure, but by what conduct, or on what occasion, does not appear. (Polyb. Fragm. Hist, xxxii. ; Suid. s. v. ^Auard- ceis.) It was perhaps the same Metrodorus who is mentioned by Polybius as an ambassador from Perseus to the Rhodians, in B. c. 168. (Polj'^b. xxix. 3, 5.) [E. E.] METRODO'RUS {Mr]Tp6Bcopos), literary. 1. Of Cos, the son of Epicharmus, and grandson of Thyrsus. Like several of that family he addicted himself partly to the study of the Pythagorean philosophy, partly to the science of medicine. He wrote a treatise upon the works of Epicharmus, in which, on the authority of Epicharmus and Pytha- goras himself, he maintained that the Doric was the proper dialect of the Orphic hymns. Metro- dorus flourished about b. c. 460. (lamblich. Vil. Pyth. c. 34. p. 467, ed. Kiessling ; Fabric. Bill. Graec. vol. i. p. 852 ; Bode, Gesch, der Hellen. DicUkunst, vol. i. p. 190.) 2. Of Lampsacus, a contemporary and friend of Anaxagoras. He wrote on Homer, the leading feature of his system of interpretation being that the deities and stories in Homer were to be under- stood as allegorical modes of representing physical powers and phenomena. He died B. c. 464. (Plat, /ora, c. 2. p. 530, c ; Diog. Laert. ii. 11 ; Tatian. Assyr. in orat. Tlpos "EWtjuas, p. 1 60, b ; Fabric. BiU. Graec. vol. i. p. 517 ; Voss. de Hint. Graecis^ p. 180, ed. West.) 3. Of Chios, a disciple of Democritus, or, ac- cording to other accounts, of Nessus of Chios. He flourished about B. c. 330. He was a philosopher of considerable reputation, and professed the doc- trine of the sceptics in their fuUesst sense. Cicero {Acad. ii. 23. § 73) gives us a translation of the first sentence of his work Ilepi <|)U(rea)s : " Nego scire nos sciarausne aliquid an nihil sciamus : ne id ipsura quidem nescire aut scire ; nee omnino sitne aliquid, an nihil sit." The commencement of the same work is quoted in Eusebius {Praep. Evang. xiv. p. 765). Athenaeus (iv. p. 1 84, a) quotes from a work by Metrodorus, entitled TpcoXKo.. A work, liepl laToplas, is cited by the scholiast on ApoUonius (iv. 834) as the production of a man named Metrodorus ; but we have no means of de- termining which of the name is refeired to. Me- trodorus did not confine himself to philosophy, but studied, at least, if he did not practise, medicine, on which he wrote a good deal. It is probably he METRODORUS. who is quoted more than once by Plin}'. lie was the instructor of Hippocrates and Anaxarchiis. (Diog, Laert. ix. 58 ; Suidas, s. vv. Arj/xuKpiTos, Tltippuu ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol.ii. p. 660 ; Voss. de Hist. Graecis, pp. 54, 470, ed. West.) 4. A distinguished Greek philosopher, a native, according to some accounts (Strab. xiii. p. 580 ; Cic. Tusc. Disp. v. 37. § 109), of Lampsacus ; according to others (Diog. Laert. x. 22, though the text in that passage seems to be corrupt), of Athens. This is to some extent confirmed by the fact that his brother, Tiraocrates, was an Athenian citizen of the deme Potamus, in the tribe Leontis [TiMOCRATEs] ; but the former account seems to be supported by the best authority. Metrodorus was the most distinguished of the disciples of Epi- curus, with whom he lived on terms of the closest friendship, never having left him since he became acquainted with him, except for six months on one occasion, when he paid a visit to his home. He died in B. c. 277, in the 53d year of his age, seven years before Epicurus, who would have appointed him his successor had he survived him. He left behind him a son named Epicurus, and a daughter, whom Epicurus, in his will, entrusted to the guar- dianship of Amynomachus and Timocrates, to be brought up under the joint care of themselves and Hermachus, and provided for out of the property which he left behind him. In a letter also which he wrote upon his death-bed, Epicurus commended the children to the care of Idomeneus, who had married Batis, the sister of Metrodorus. The 20th of each month was kept by the disciples of Epicurus as a festive day in honour of their master and Metrodorus. Leontium is spoken of as the wife or mistress of Metrodorus. The philosophy of Metrodorus appears to have been of a more grossly sensual kind than that of Epicurus. (Cic. de Nat. Dear. i. 40, Tunc. Disp. V. 9, de Fin. ii. 28. § 92, 30. § 99, 31. § 101.) Perfect happiness, according to Cicero's account, he made to consist iu having a well-constituted body, and knowing that it would always remain so. He found fault with his brother for not ad- mitting that the belly was the test and measure of every thing that pertained to a happy life. Of the writings of Metrodorus Diogenes Laertius mentions the following : 1. Tlpos rods larpovs, in three books ; 2. YiepX alaB'^ffewv, addressed to Timocrates (Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 40) ; 3. Uepl ixeyaopvxias ; 4. Tlept TTJs 'EiriKovpov d^pwarias ; 5. Upoi rovs dioKiKTiKovs ; 6. Upos toi)s aocpiaras, in nine books ; 7. Uipl ttjs iirl (Tocplav iropeias ; 8. llepl TTJS fx€Ta§or}s ; 9. Hepl itKourov ; 1 0. Upos ArjiJ-oicpiTuu ; 11. llepl iuyet/eias. But besides these, Metrodorus wrote: 12. Ilepi IloirjTaJ*/, in which he attacked Homer. (Plut. Moral, p. 1087, a. 1094, d.) 13. Upos Tifiapxov (Plut. adv. Colot. p. 1117, b); and 14. Ile^i avyndeim (Athen. ix. p. 391, d.) Athenaeus (xii. p. 546, f.) also men- tions his letters, and quotes a passage from one addressed to Timocrates. These letters may pos- sibly consist of or include some of the treatises above enumerated. The passage which Athenaeus quotes is similar in import to what Cicero refers to (d Nat. Deor. i. 40). The treatise Tlepl <{>iocro(pias^ mentioned by Plutarch {adv. Colot. extr.), is perhaps the same as the seventh in the preceding list (Diog. Laert. x. 22, &c., with the notes of Menagius ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 606 J Bode, Gexh. der Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. i. p. 11.)