Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1085

Rh METRODORUS. 5. Snrnamed 6 i^eopTj^an/cos, ii disciple first of Theophrastus, afterwards of Stilpo, is mentioned only by Diogenes Laertius (ii. 113). 6. Of Scepsis, a contemporary and friend of De- metrius of Scepsis, to wliom he was indebted for his advancement, when he abandoned philosophy, and betook himself to politics. He was originally poor, but gained distinction by his writings, the style of which was peculiar and new, alid married a wealthy Carthaginian lady. He attached himself to Mithridates Eupator, accompanied him into Pontus, and was raised to a position of great in- fluence and trust, being appointed supreme judge, without appeal even to the king. Subsequently, however, he was led to desert his allegiance, when sent by Mithridates on an embassy to Tigranes, king of Armenia. Tigranes sent him back to Mithridates, but he died on the road. According to some accounts he was despatched by order of the king ; according toothers he died of disease (Strab. xiii. pp. 609, 610). Methodorus is frequently men- tioned by Cicero ; he seems to have been particu- larly celebrated for his powers of memory (Cic. de Oral. ii. 88. § 360 ). This is also mentioned by Pliny (//. A'', vii. 24). In consequence of his hos- tility to the Romans he was surnamed the Roman- hater (Plin. H.N. xxxiv. 7 or 16). He was a contemporary of L. Crassus, the orator, who heard him when in Asia (Cic. de Oral. iii. 20. § 75). Athenaeus (xii. p. 552, c.) quotes a work by this Metrodorus, TiepL dK^nrTiKrjs. We also find men- tion of a Metrodorus as the author of a nepnjyrjcris (Placidus Lutatius on Statins, iii. 478). Notices which might very well have been derived from a work of that kind, are given by Pliny (//. N. v. 31. s. 38, viii. 14), on the authority of a Metro- dorus ; and as similar notices (H. N. iii. 16. s. 20, xxviii. 7. s. 23, xxxvii. 4. s. 15) are taken by him from Metrodorus of Scepsis, the latter was very probably the author of the Uepi-^yriais in question. Strabo also (xi. p. 504) quotes from Metrodorus of Scepsis a geographical notice respecting the Amazons. (Voss. de Hist. Graeds^ p. 180, ed. West.) 7. Of Stratonice in Caria. He was at first a disciple of the school of Epicurus, but afterwards attached himself to Carneades. Cicero speaks of him as an orator of great fire and volubility {de Omt. i. 11. § 45). He flourished about B.C. 110. (Diog. Laert. x. 9 ; Cic. Acad. ii. 6. § 16, 24. § 78 ; Fabric. DM. Graec. vol. iii. p. 607.) 8. A distinguished grammarian, the brother of Anthemius of Tralles ""AnthkmiusJ, mentioned by Agathias, v. 6. (Voss. de Hist. Graecis, p. 470.) 9. A native apparently of Alexandria or Egypt, mentioned by Photius (Cod. 115, 116) as the author of a cycle for the calculation of the time of Easter. He lived after the time of Diocle- tian, but nothing more exact is known respect- ing him. (Fabric. BibL Graec. vol. x. p. 712 ; Noris. Dissert, de Cydo Fasch. Ravenn. c. 3, p. 183.) [C. P. M.] METRODO'RUS (MTjTpo'Sopos), the author of two epigrams in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Amd. vol. ii. p. 476 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii. p. 180.) His age is very uncertain, and it is even doubtful whether both the epigrams ought to be ascribed to the same poet. (Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. xiii. pp. 917, 918 ; Fabric. Bill. Graec. vol. iv. p. 482.) [P. S.] METRODO'RUS, of Athens, a painter and METROPHANES. 1071 philosopher, of such distinction, that when Aemt- lius PuuUus, after his victory over Perseus (b. n, 168), requested the Athenians to send him their most approved philosopher, to educate his children, and their best painter, to represent his triumph, they selected Metrodorus as the most competent man for both offices ; and PauUus concurred in their opinion. (Plin. //. N. xxxv. 11. s. 40. § 30.) [P. S.] METRODO'RUS (MrjrptJSwpos), the name of several physicians. 1. A pupil of Chrysippus of Ciiidos, and tutor to Erasistratus, who lived in the fourth and third centuries B. c. He was the third husband of Pythias, the daughter of Aristotle, by whom he had a son named after her celebrated father. (Sext. Empir. Cont. Matliem. i. 12, p. 271. ed. Fabric.) 2. A pupil of Sabinus, in the first and second centuries after Christ, is mentioned by Galen as one of those who had commented on part of the Hippocratic Collection {Comment, in Hippocr. Epid. III. i. 4, '' Epid. F/." i.29, vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 508, 877), and is probably the physician who was one of the followers of Asclepiadea. (Galen, De Simpl. Medicam. Temper, ac FacuU. i. 29, 35, vol. xi. pp. 432, 442.) 3. The author of the work quoted by Pliny {H. N. XX. 81), and entitled 'ETrtToyui) twv 'Pi^otu- jxovnivwv, appears to have been a dilferent person (though sometimes reckoned as the same), and may be supposed to have been a contemporary of Cratevas in the first century B.C. (Plin. H.N. XXV. 4.) 4. The physician mentioned by Cicero {Ep. ad Famil. xvi. 20) as attending on his freedman Tiro, B. c. 46. One of the above (perhaps the third) is quoted by Marbodus {De Geinmis), and called by him " maximus auctor." (See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 337, ed. vet.) [W. A. G.] METRO'PHANES {MvTpo({.dyns), a general of Mithridates the Great, who sent him with an army into Greece, to support Archelaus, B. c. 87. He reduced Euboea, as well as Demetrias and Magne- sia in Thessaly, but was defeated by the Roman general Bruttius Sura. (Appian, Mithr. 29.) He is again mentioned in b. c. 73, as commanding, together with the Roman exile L. Fannius, a de- tachment of the army of Mithridates, which was defeated by Mamercus during the siege of Cyzicua. (Oros. vi. 2 ; comp. Sail. Hist. lib. iii. p. 217, ed. Gerlach. min.) [E.H. B.] METRO'PHANES {UrTpo(i>dvns), the name of three later Greek writers, mentioned by Suidas {s. v.). 1. Of Eucarpia, in Phrygia (comp. Steph. Byz. 5. w. EwKopTrfo), wrote a work on Phrygia, and also the following treatises on rhetoric : — TlepX iSewu yov, Uepl (TTotrewj', and commentaries on Her- mogenes and Aristides, in consequence of which he is regarded by some as the author of the Scholia on Aristides. (Westermann, Gesch. der Griech. Beredtsamkeit, § 104, n. 15.) 2. Of Lebadeia, in Boeotia, the son of the rhe- torician Cornelianus, was the author of the follow- ing works: — llipl rwu xopa/cTTjpwj/ of Plato, Xenophon, Nicostratus, and Philostratus, MeAcraj, and AoyoL iravrryvpiKoi. 3. A descendant of the sophist Lachares, against whom the sophist Superianus wrote a book. This Metrophanes is mentioned by Damascius in his