Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1160

Rh 1146 NEARCHUS. us, to form any judgment of his merits. The various authors, however, that quote him seem with rare exceptions, to place great reliance on his accuracy and judgment. He is very largely referred to by Diogenes Laertius. and by Athenaeus, and by several of the early Christian writers, as well as by others. Vossius {de Hist. Graec. cap. xv.) refers to several of them, but by far the most com plete list is that given by Clinton (F. H. vol. iii. p. 509). He gives as the writings of Neanthes; 1. Memoirs of king Attains. 2. Hellenica. 3, Lives of illustrious men. 4. Pythagorica. 5. Td Karoi. TcoKiv ixvOiko.. 6. On Purification. 7. Annals. He probably also wrote an account of Cyzicura, as we may infer from a passage in Strabo (p. 45). And Harles (Fabric. BibL Graec. vol. ii. p. 311, vol. vi. p. 134) attributes to him a work Trepi KUKo^rjAias prjTopiK-fls, as well as many panegyrical orations. (Vossius, Clinton, Harles, IL cc. ; Westermann, Gesch. der Griech. Beredt. p. 86.) [W. M. G.] NEARCHUS (Ne'apxos.) 1- Tyrant of Elea or Velia in Magna Graecia, known only from an anecdote of him in connection with the philosopher Zenon, whom he put to the torture for having con- spired aG;ainst his life. [Zenon]. (Diod. x. Ejcc. Vales, p. 557, Eoce. Vat. p. 36 ; Val. Max. iii. 3. ext. 3 ; Diog. Laert. ix. 29.) 2. A friend and follower of Agathocles, who was sent by him to Syracuse with the tidings of his successes in Africa. (Diod. xx. 1 6.) 3. A Tarentine, who adhered to the cause of the Romans throughout the second Punic war, not- withstanding the defection of his countrymen. He was on terms of friendly intimacy with Cato the Censor, who lived in his house after the recapture of Tarentum by Fabius Maximus (b. c. 209), and de- rived from him instruction in the tenets of the Pytha- gorean philosophy, of which Nearchus wasafollower. (Plut. Cat. Maj. 2 ; Cic. de Sen. 12.) [E. H. B.J NEARCHUS (Ne'apxos), son of Androtimus, one of the most distinguished of the friends and officers of Alexander. He was a native of Crete, but settled at Amphipolis. (Arr. Ind. 18 ; Diod. xix. 1 9. Stephanus Byzantinus, s. v. Atjttj, calls him a native of Lete in Macedonia, but this is certainly a mistake.) Of his family or parentage we know- nothing, but he appears to have occupied a promi- nent position at the court of Philip, where he attached himself to the party of Alexander, and was banished, together with Ptolemy, Harpalus, and others, for participating in the intrigues of the young prince. After the death of Philip, he was recalled, and, in common with all those who had suffered on the same account, treated with the utmost distinction by Alexander. (Plut. Alejc. 10; Arr. Anah. iii. 6.) After the conquest of the maritime provinces of Asia, Nearchus was ap- pointed to the government of Lycia, together with the adjoining provinces south of the Taurus (Arr. I. c), a post which he continued to fill without interruption for five years. In B. c. 329 he joined Alexander at Zariaspa in Bactria with a force of Greek mercenaries ; and from this time, instead of returning to his government, he accompanied the king in his subsequent campaigns. He appears to have held at first the rank of chiliarch of the hypaspists, a somewhat subordinate situation ; but his acquaintance with naval matters, as well as the personal favour he enjoyed with Alexander, in- duced the latter during bis Indian expedition to NEARCHUS. confide to Nearchus the chief command of the fleet which he had caused to be constructed on the Hydaspes. (Arr. Anah. iv. 7. § 4, 30. § 1 1, vi. 2. § 6, Ind. 18.) During the descent of that river and the Indus to the sea, his duties were compara- tively easy, and he is only mentioned as command- ing the fleet whenever the king himself was not with it ; but it is 'evident that he had given suffi- cient proof of his skill and capacity, so that when Alexander, after having reached the mouth of the Indus, meditated the sending round his ships by sea from thence to the Persian gulf, he gladly ac- cepted the offer of Nearchus to undertake the command of the fleet during this long and perilous navigation. When we consider the total ignorance of the Greeks at this time concerning the Indiani seas, and the imperfect character of their naviga- tion, it is impossible not to admire the noble con- fidence with which Nearchus ventured to promise that he would bring the ships in safety to the shores of Persia, "" if the sea were navigable, and the thing feasible for mortal man." (Arr. Ind. 19. 20, Anah. vi. 5, 19 ; Curt. ix. 38 ; Diod. xvii. 104; Plut. Alex. GQ.) Nor did his conduct throughout the expedition fall short of his promises ; and Arrian expressly attributes the safe result of the enterprise on more than one occasion to the prudence and judgment, as well as courage, of the commander. {Ind. 32.) Nearchus was compelled to remain in the Indus for some sime after Alexander had set out on his return, waiting for the cessation of the etesian winds, or south-western monsoon. Meanwhile, the Indians had gathered again, after the king's de- parture, in considerable force, and began to annoy him with their attacks, which caused him to hasten his departure, and he set out on the 21st of Sep- tember B. c. 325, before the winds had become altogether favourable. The consequence was, that after sailing out of the Indus, and a short distance along the coast, he was compelled to remain twenty- four days in a harbour near the confines of the Indians and Oreitae, to which he gave the name of the port of Alexander. Leaving this on the 23d of October, he continued his voyage along the coast of the Oreitae, and after encountering many dangers from rocks and shoals, and losing three of his ships in a storm, he arrived at a place called Cocala, where he halted ten days to repair his vessels. During this interval he entered into communication with Leonnatus, who had been left behind in charge of the province of the Oreitae, and from whom he received supplies of provisions, and reinforcements of men to replace those whom he had found the least efficient of his crews. From this time, until he reached the coast of Carmania, Nearchus was entirely dependent upon his own resources, and had to contend not only with the perils of an unknown navigation, but with the greatest distress from want of provisions, as they coasted along the sandy and barren shores of the Ichthyophagi, and with the discontent of his own followers, to which that scarcity gave rise. Through- out this period he displayed the utmost firmness as well as energy ; and the courage with which he confronted alike the novel dangers which threatened them from whales (Arr. Ind. 30), and the mys- terious perils of the island reputed to be enchanted {lb. 31), proves him to have been a man altogether above the level of his age and country. At a fishing village called Mosarna, he for the first time