Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1217

Rh NILUS. Neleus (^N^Aeus), though NeiXevs is probably the most correct form of the word, as it is the most common. He must have lived some time in or before the third century b. c, as he is mentioned by Heracleides of Tarentum (ap. Galen. Comment, in Hippocr. " De Artie. iv. 40, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 736). He is quoted by Celsus (v. 18. § 9, vi. 6. §§ 8, 11, viii. 20. pp. 86, 120, 121, 185), Caelius Aurelianus (Z)e Morb. Acut. ii. 29, p. 142), Galen {De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. ii. 2, iv. 8, viii. 5, ix. 2, vol. xii. pp. 568, 569, 765, 766, 806, voLxiii. pp. 181, 182, 239, De Antid. ii. 10, vol. xiv. p. 165), Alexander Trallianus (viii. 12. p. 268), Oribasius {Synops. iii. p. 50 ; and Coll. Medic, in Mai's Glass. Auct. e Codic. Vatic. Edit. vol. iv. pp. 123, 130, 131, 153, 155), Aetius (i. 4, 10, ii. 3, 21, 24, 108, ii. 4, 2, iii. 1, 16, 17, pp. 166, 307, 308, 353, 365, 454, 455), and Paulus Aegineta (iii. 22, 37, 46, 49, vii. 16, 18, pp. 432, 458, 470, 473, 672, 684), and was cele- brated for the invention of a machine for the re- duction of dislocations, called itXivQiov, of which a description is given by Oribasius {De Machinam. C.8. p. 167.) [W.A.G.] NILO'XENUS (NetAoVos)- 1- A native of Naucratis in Egypt, mentioned by Plutarch ( Sept. Sap. Conv. 2) as a sage who lived in the time of Solon. 2. A Macedonian, son of Satyrus. He was a friend of Alexander the Great, and was left by him with an army to superintend the affairs of the pro- vince, when he founded Alexandria on Mount Cau- casus. (Arr. iii. 28.) [C. P. M.] NILUS (NeTAos), the god of the river Nile in Egypt, is said to have been a son of Oceanus and Thetys, and father of Memphis and Chione. (Hes. Theog. 338 ; ApoUod. ii. 1. § 4 ; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 250.) Pindar {F7/th. iv. 90) calls him a son of Cronos. [L. S.] NILUS or NEILUS (NeTAos), the name of several Byzantine writers. A full account of them is given by Leo Aliatius, Diatribe de Nilis et eorum Scriptis, in the edition of the letters of Nilus [see below, No. 1], Rome, 1688, and by Harless (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 3, &c.), to which writers we must refer for further par- ticulars and authorities. It is only the most important of them, and the chief facts connected with them that can be mentioned here. 1. AscETA ET MoNACHUs (and Saint), lived in the fifth century of the Christian aera. Saxius phices him about the year a. d. 420. He was descended from a noble family in Constantinople, and was eventually raised to the dignity of eparch, or governor of his native city ; but being peile- trated, we are told, with a deep feeling of the reality of divine things, he renounced his rank and dignities, and retired with his son Theodulus to a monastery on Mount Sinai, while his wife and daughter took refuge in a religious retreat in Egypt. His son is said to have perished in an attack made upon the convent by some barbarians ; but Nilus himself escaped, and appears to have died about a. d. 450 or 451. Nilus was the author of many theological works, several of which have been printed, though they have not yet been collected into one edition. Photius gives extracts from some of his works. (Bibl. Cod. 276.) Some of the works of Nilus were first published in Latin by P. F. Zinus, Venet. 1557, 8vo. Next some other works of NINUS. 1203 Nilus, which had not been printed in the above- mentioned edition, were published by Possinus, Paris, 1639, 4to. ; but the best edition of his miscellaneous works is that of Suaresius, entitled S. Nili Tractattis sen Opuscula, Rome, 1673, fol. The letters of Nilus, which are very numerous, being more than three hundred, were first published by Possinus, Paris, 1657, 4to. ; but a better edition is the one published at Rome, 1668, fol., with the Latin version of Leo Aliatius. Of the various works of Nilus the most important are, 1. Ke^a- aia ^ Ilapaiveoeis, containing advice on the way in which a Christian should live ; in fact, a sum- mary of practical divinity. 2. Letters, for the most part on the same subject as the preceding work. 3. 'EmKTiJTov 67xe'p/5iov, in which the Manual of Epictetus, as given by Arrian, is accommodated to the use of Christians. This manual, which appears in the edition of Suaresius mentioned above, is also published in the fifth volume of Schweighauser's Epictetus, Lips. 1800. (Phot. I. c. ; Niceph. H. E. xiv, 54 ; Aliatius, Fabric. II. cc. ; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol. i. p. 428 ; Tillemont, Mem. de mist. EccL vol. xiv. p. 189.) 2. Cabasilas. [Cabasilas.] 3. Of Rhodes, of which he was metropolitan, about A. D. 1360. He is stated, however, to have been a native of Chios. He was the author of several works, of which the most important was a short history of the nine oecumenical councils, published by H. Justellus as an appendix to the iVo?nomwow of Photius, Paris, 1615, 4to.; by Voel- lius and Justellus in Bibl. Juris Canonici, 1661, fol. vol. ii. p. 1155 ; and by Harduinus, Concilia, vol. V. p. 1479. Nilus also wrote some grammati- cal works, of which an account is given by F. Passow, De Nilo, grammatico adhuc ignoto, ejtisque grammatica aliisque grammaticis Scriptis, Vratisl. 1831—32, 4to. 4. ScHOLASTicus, of whom we know nothing, except, that he is the author of an epigram in the Greek Anthology (vol. iii. p. 235, ed. Jacobs ; Brunck, Anal. iii. p. 14). NILUS, physician. [Nileus]. Nl'NNIA GENS, plebeian, and of very little note. No persons of this name are mentioned at Rome till towards the end of the republic, when we read of L. Ninnius Quadratus, a warm friend of Cicero's [Quadratus]. But as early as the second Punic war there was a noble house of this name at Capua, and the Ninnii Celeres are men- tioned among the noble and wealthy families with whom Hannibal resided during his stay in that city. (Liv. xxiii. 8.) NI'NNIUS CRASSUS,is mentioned as one of the translators of the Iliad into Latin verse (Pris- cian, ix. p. 866, ed. Putschius), but the name is perhaps corrupt. (Wernsdorf, PotY. Latin. Mi- nores, vol. iv. p. 569.) NINUS (N?;/os), the eponymous founder of the city of Ninus or Nineveh, must be regarded as a mythical and not an historical personage. His exploits are so much mixed up with those of Semiramis, his wife, whose name was much more celebrated in antiquity, that we refer the account of Ninus to the article Semiramis. [Semiramis.] There is also another Ninus, who is represented by some authorities as the last king of Nineveh, and the successor of Sardanapalus, who is usually described as the last king. See Sardanapa- lus. 4 H 2