Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1215

Rh NICOSTRATUS. NICO'STRATUS, literary. 1. The youngest of the three sons of Aristophanes, according to Apollodorus. He was himself a comic poet. By Athenaeus (xiii. p. 597, d.) he is expressly called a poet of the middle comedy. But he belonged also in part to the new comedy. Harpocration (p. 266) speaks of his play called 'Opvi6iVTTJs^ as belonging to that species of comedy ; and some of the characters which he introduced in other dramas demonstrate the same. In his BaorjAers he introduced a boasting soldier (Athen. vi. p. 230, d.) ; in his ToKKTTT^s, an avaricious money-lender (Athen. xv. p. 68.5, f.) and a vaunting cook (Athen. xiv. p. 664, b.). Photius (Cod. 190, p. 153, ed. Bekk.) has got a story that Nicostratus being inflamed with a mad passion for some one named Tettigidaea, leapt off the Leucadian rock. The titles of nineteen of the plays of Nico- stratus have come down to us. Three of these, the "AvTuAAos (Athen. iii. 108, c. 118, e.), the OtVo- -nicjv (Athen. iv. p. 169, e. vii. p. 280, d. ; Suidas, s. V. ^iKeraipos), and the navSpocros (Athen. xiii. p. 587, d. XV. p. 693, a. b.) were also attributed to Philetaerus, who, according to some authorities (Schol. ad Flat. ApoL Sucr. p. 331), was the third son of Aristophanes [Philetaerus]. The re- maining plays of Nicostratus were : 7. 'lepo- ^dvTr}s. 8.Klu7]. 9."A§pa. 10. 'HaioSos. II. Aid- 6oos. 12. 'AuT€pw(Ta. 13. 'E/ccitt;, 14. Ma- yeipos. 15. "^riTis. 16. IIKovtos. 17. ^vpos. 18.'Airfavj/6fjLevos. 19. Wevdoa-riyfiarias. (Fabric. BibL Grace, vol. ii. p. 472 ; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 346, &c. ; Bode, Gesch. der Hellen. Dichtkunst., vol. iii. part. ii. p. 410.) 2. A dramatic writer mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (iv. 18). He bore the nickname of KA.i/- raiixvy'iarpa, and is probably a different person from the preceding. Meineke is inclined to believe him to have been the author of the Theseis, mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (ii. 59), though some MSS. there have the reading UvdoarpaTos. 3. A tragic actor, who lived before B. c. 420. He is confounded by Suidas {s. r.) with the son of Aristophanes. (Xen. Symp. iii. 11 ; Plut. Moral. p. 348, f., Append. Vatic, i. 65 ; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 347.) 4. A rhetorician, a native of Macedonia. He lived in the time of M. Antoninus. According to Suidas (s. V.) he was the author of the following works : AeKap-vBla, ElKoves, IIoAu/^uSia, ^aar- rovpyo'i, and several other works, encomia on the emperor, and various others. Some of his fivdoi were in a dramatic form. Philostratus (de Vit. Sophist, ii. 31) praises the elegance of his style. (Fabric. Dibl. Grace, vol. vi. p. 135.) 5. A native of Trapezus, who lived in the reign of Aurelian. He wrote an account of the exploits of Philippus, the successor of Gordianus among the Arabs ; and also an account of Decius, Gallus, Valerianus, and the son of Gallienus, up to the time of the expedition of Valerianus against Sapor, the king of the Persians, a. d. 259. (Voss. de Hist. Graec, p. 288, ed. Westermann.) 6. A writer on music, mentioned in a fragment annexed to Censorinus, and attributed to him by manv. (Voss. de Hist. Graec. p. 475.) [C. P.M.] NICO'STRATUS (Nt/coWparos), a physician, mentioned by Antiphanes the younger (ap. Athen. xiii. 51, p. 5dQ; Harpocr. s. v. 'AvrlKvpa) as having left to a courtezan, at his death, a large quantity of hellebore, whence she acquired the NIGER. 1201 nick-name Anticyra. He is perhaps the same person whose medical formulae are frequently quoted by Andromachus (ap. Gal. De Compos. Medieam. sec. Loc viii. 2, ix. 6, vol. xiii. pp. 139, 308, and Aet. iii. 1, 32, p. 478), and others, and who must, therefore, have lived in or before the first century after Christ. [W. A. G.] NICO'STRATUS, artist. [Nicomachus.] NIGER, a Latin writer (judging by his name) on Materia Medica, who lived later than Cratevas, and a little before Dioscorides (Dioscor. De Mat. Med. i. praef, vol. i. p. 2), and therefore probably about the beginning of the first century after Christ. He seems to have enjoyed some repu- tation as a writer, as he is mentioned by St. Epiphanius {adv. Haeres. i. 1. $ 3. p. 3), and several times by Galen among eminent pharma- ceutical authors {De Simplic. Medieam. Temper, ac Fcuiult. vi. praef. vol. xi. p. 797, De Aniid. i. 2. vol. xiv. p. 7, Gloss. Hippocr. praef. vol. xix. p. 64). Caelius Aurelianus calls him the friend of Tullius Bassus {De Morb. Aeut. iii. 16. p. 233), and Galen says he was a follower of Asclepiades {I. c. vol. xi. p. 794.).* He is perhaps the person called Sextus Niger by Pliny (Index to H.N. XX.), and some suppose his name to have been Petronius Niger. [Petronius.] [W. A. G.] NIGER, AQUFLLIUS, a writer referred to by Suetonius for a statement respecting the death of the consul Hirtius. (Suet. Aug. 11.) NIGER, BRUTFDIUS, aedile a. d. 22, and one of the accusers of D. Silanus (Tac. Ann. iii. Q^). He appears to be the same as the Brutidius of whom Juvenal speaks (x. 82) in his account of the fall of Sejanus, and likewise the eame as the Brutidius Niger, of whose writings the elder Seneca has preserved two passages relating to the death of Cicero. (Senec. Suas. 7.) NIGER, Q. CAECFLIUS, by birth a Sicilian and quaestor of Verres during his administration of Sicily, endeavoured to obtain the conduct of the accusation of Verres, pretending to be his enemy, but in .reality desiring to deprive the Sicilians of the powerful advocacy of Cicero. The speech of Cicero, entitled Divinatio in Q. Caeciliwn, was de- livered against this Caecilius, when the judices had to decide to which of the two the prosecution should be entrusted, NIGER, LENTULUS. [Lkntulus, No. 33.] NIGER, NO'VIUS, quaestor in B.C. 63, was appointed to investigate the cases of the Catilinarian conspirators, and Caesar, who was then praetor, was charged by L. Vettius as one of Catiline's con- spirators. Caesar subsequently cast Novius into prison for permitting a magistrate of higher rank to be accused before him. (Suet. Cae.<t. 17.) NIGER, C. PESCE'NNIUS, was descended from a respectable family of equestrian rank, which had attained to provincial distinction at Aquinum. The name of his father was Annius Fuscus, his mother was Lampridia. After having long served as a centurion he passed with credit through the various stages of military advancement under Mar- cus Aurelius and his son, was raised by the latter to the consulship, and appointed to the command of the Syrian armies, chiefly, it is said, through the interest of Narcissus, the favourite athlete of the Tauirpov rod 'AaKr]indSov we read ret Ni'ypov rov 'AffKATjTrtaStiuf. 4 H
 * That is, if in the passage in question for