Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1213

Rh NICOPHANES. and was trained in a monastery on the confines of Pontus and Paplikgonia. About A. D. 91, he ■was sent by the abbot of liis monastery on a mis- sionary tour. In the course of it lie visited Crete, recently freed from the Saracens, and reclaimed the inhabiUints to Christianity. He was employed A. D. .981 to intercede with the Bulgarians, who were making inroads into the Grecian empire, and died, about a. d. 998. He was canonised, his name being in the calendar of both the Greek and Latin churches, on the 26th of November. Fi"om his life, written originally in Greek, and translated by Sirmondus, Baronius (Annales, vol. x.) has extracted the account of numerous miracles per- formed by him. Two treatises against the Ar- menians ascribed to liim (Cave speaks doubtfully of the last), are printed, in Greek and Latin, by Cotelerius (Not. ad Putres Apostol. pp. 152, 237). Besides these, other unpublished works of Nicon are mentioned. (Fabric, Bill. Graec. vol. x. p. 299, vol. xi. p. 27o ; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol. ii. p. 103.) 3. A monk of Rhaethus in Palestine. Under the reign of Constantine Ducas, about a. D. 1060, instigated, it is said, by the fear lest the Saracens should in their conquests obliterate the records of the Christian faith, he compiled a work entitled, rictj/Se/CTTjs Tccj/ epfjLrjveiWv t(uv ^slmv eUToAuv rov Kvpiou. It consists of two books, and sixty-three chapters, containing extracts from the Scriptures, the ecclesiastical canons, the fathers, and other ecclesiastical documents, besides the civil law. Except some extracts given by Cotelerius {Monu- meyit. Eccles. Graec), no part has been published. Fabricius {BibL Graec. vol. xi. p. 275, &c.) gives an account of the sources from which Nicon has drawn his extracts, as well as of other writings attributed to him. [W. M. G.] NICON (Nucwv), an architect and geometrician of Pergamus in Mysia, the father of the physician Galen. (Suid. s. v. Tdr}yus ; Joann. Tzetz. C/iil. xii. 9.) He himself superintended the early edu- cation of his son, by whom he is highly praised in several places, not only for his knowledge of astronomy, grammar, arithmetic, and various other branches of philosophy, but also for his patience, justice, benevolence, and other virtues. (Galen, De Dignosc. et Cur. Animi Morh. c 8, vol. v. p. 41, &c., De Prob. et Prav. Aliment. Suae. c. 1, vol. vi. p. 755, &c., De Ord. Libror. suor. vol. xix. p. 59.) He died when his son was in his twentieth year, A. d. 149, 150. (/. c. vol. vi. p. 756.) ' [W. A. G.] NICON {NIkwv), a physician, mentioned by Cicero, b. c. 45 {ad Fam. vii. 20), the tutor of Sextus Fadius, and the author of a work UepL TloXvcpayias, De Edacitate. He is perhaps the person quoted by Celsus {De Medic, v.* 1 8. § 26, p. 87), and called in some editions Micon. [W. A. G.] NICO'PHANES {^iKo(p&vns a native of Me- galopolis. He was a man of distinction, and was connected with Aratus by the rites of hospitality. In accordance with a secret agreement entered into with Aratus, Nicophanes and Cercidas induced the Megalopolitans to send an embassy to the con- gress of the Achaeans, to induce them to join them in seeking for assistance from Antigonus. They were themselves deputed for this object, in which they were successful, B.C. 225. (Polyb. ii. 48, &c) [C.P.M.] NICOTIIANES, a Greek painter, who appears, ^ NTCOSTHENES. 1199 from the way in which he is mentioned by Pliny {IT. N. XXXV. 10. s. 36. ^ 23), to have been a younger contemporary or successor of Apelles. Pliny says that in beauty few could compare with him ; but it must have been that meretricious kind of beauty, into which the finished grace of Apelles might easily be degraded by an imitation, for Polemon numbered him among the iropvoypdcpoi. (Athen. xiii. ]>. 567, b.) * In apparent contradiction to this judgment are the words of Pliny (/. '•.) : " Cothurnus ei et gravilas artis.' But Silli^ pro- poses to amend the passage by altering the punc- tuation, thus: *''• Ajmumerutur his et Nicojihanes, elegans et cnncinnus., ita ut venustaie ei puuci compa- rcntur : cothurnus ei et gravilas artis rmdtuin a Zeuwide et Jpelle abed.' A simpler, and perhaps equally satisfactory explanation is, that this is one of the many examples of Pliny's want of the power of discrimination. [P. S.] NICOPHON and NICOPHRON (Ni/coc^oJi/, 'NiK6(f)pociv). The former is undoubtedly the correct orthography ; Suidas is the only authority for the latter. He mentions the name four times (s. vv. NiKocppccv., dpdx'^'n, oip<pos., Koi/niaai.), in the two first of which he calls him NiKocppwv, but every where else, both by him and others, NiKo(pa}v is the name given. He was the son of Theron, an Athe- nian, and a contemporary of Aristophanes at the close of his career. Athenaeus (iii. 126, e.) states that he belonged to the old, but he seems rather to have belouued to the middle comedy. 1. We learn from the argument to the Plutus III. of Aristophanes that he competed for the prize with four others, B. c. 388, Aristophanes exhibiting the second edition of his Plutus, and Nicophon a play called "Adtavis, of which no fragments remain, and which is nowhere else mentioned. 2. Suidas (s. v. NiKocppuv) and Eudocia alone mention another play of his, 'E^ q[5ou duLciu. Besides these, he wrote other four plaj's, which are more frequently mentioned, 3. A(ppo- Slttjs yovai (Said, s.vv. NLKOcppou, dpdxvV-f^^P^poS ; Pollux, X. 156 ; Schol. ad Jrisfoph. Aves, 82, 1283). 4. UauSccpa (Suid. s.vv. Ni/c., /coi/xiVai ; Athen. vii. p. 323, b. ; Pollux, vii. 33). 5. Xeipo- •ydaropes (Athen. iii. p. 126, e. ix. p. 389, a. ; Schol. ad Aristoph. Aces, 1550). Suidas calls this play 'E7xeipo7a(TTo^es. Meineke, on the authority of the Etym. M. p. 367, 32, gives to Nicophon three lines quoted by Athenaeus (xiv. p. 645, b.) from a play bearing the name of Xeipoydcr- rnpes, which had before been given to Nicochares, and in this he is followed by Dindorf. 6.. l,fipijvii (Suid.; Athen. iii. p. 80, b. vi. p. 269, e. ix. p. 368, b.). Besides these references there are others of less importance, collected by Meineke. No more than about twenty-seven lines of his writings nv main ; and from these, we can only say, as to his merits as a comic Avritcr, that he seems to have possessed no small fund of humour. (Meineke, Frag. Poet. Comic, vol. i. p. 256, &c. vol. ii. p. 848, &c. ; Clinton, F. 11. vol. ii. p. 101.) [ W. M.G.J NICO'STHENES. ]. A Greek painter, of whom we only know that he was the teacher of Theodoras of Samos, and of Stadieus. (Plin. //. A^. XXXV. 11. 8. 40. § 42.) 2. A vase painter, by Plutarch (Z)e Aud. Poet. p. 18. b.) of a painter Chaerephanes, who is not elsewhere mentioned, and whose name Sillig suspects to be a corruptioA of Nicophanes.
 * A similar, or rather Avorse character is given