Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/431

417 of . It can scarcely be doubted that the following were portions of that work: ' (Westermann believes this to have been the title of the whole work), — ', — ', - ', of which a great portion was occupied with the life of Pythagoras, and which also contained lives of Empedocles, Heracleitus, Democritus, Zeno, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Antisthenes, Diogenes, Stilpo, Epicurus, Theophrastus, Heracleides, Demetrius Phalereus, Chrysippus, and others, — ', under which, again, may be included the titles '. The work seems also to have contained lives of historians (Marcell. Vit. Thuc. 18), and of poets, for we have the title. It is not improbable that the treatise also belonged to the same great work, but the subject creates a suspicion that it may belong to Hermippus of Berytus. There is more uncertainty about the work  and about several miscellaneous quotations on points of geography, music, and astronomy. If the Hermippus whom Athenaeus quotes under the surname of (xi. p. 478, a.) be a different person, the work  and the astronomical quotations would naturally be referred to him. Lastly, Stobaeus (Serm. 5) quotes from the work of a certain Hermippus, . Perhaps this work should be assigned to Hermippus of Berytus. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. pp. 138 — 140, ed. Westermann; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 495; Lozynski, Hermippi Smyrnaei Peripatetici Fragmenta, Bonn, 1832, 8vo.; Preller, in Jahn's Jahrbücher für Philologie vol. xvii. p. 159; Clinton, Fast. Hellen. vol. iii. p. 518.)

 3. Of Berytus, a grammarian, who flourished under Trajan and Hadrian. By birth he was a slave, but having become the disciple of Philo Biblius, he was recommended by him to Herennius Severus, and attained to great eminence by his eloquence and learning. He wrote many works, among which were an account of dreams in five books (Tertull. De Anim. 46), and a book  (Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. p. 291). He is also quoted again by Clemens (Strom. i. p. 132), and by Stephanus Byzantinus, s. v.. (Suid. s. vv. ; Vossius, De Hist. Graec. pp.262, 263, ed. Westermann.)

 4. There is a dialogue on astrology, in two books, under the name of, which is not the name of the author but of the principal speaker. It was printed by Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. vol. xii. p. 261, old edition; comp. vol. iv. p. 159, ed. Harless), and has been re-edited by O. D. Bloch, (Hermippus, incerti auctoris Christiani Dialogus s. de Astrologia Libri II. Gr. ex apog. cod. Vatic. Havniae, 1830, 8vo.)

 HERMO'CHARES. [.]

 HE'RMOCLES, of Rhodes, a statuary, who made the bronze statue of Combabus in the temple of Hera at Hierapolis in Syria. He lived, therefore, in the reign of Antiochus II. (Soter), about 280, and belonged, no doubt, like Chares, to the Rhodian school of artists, who were the followers of Lysippus. (Lucian, de Dea Syria, 26.)

 HERMO'CRATES. 1. Son of Hermon, a Syracusan, and one of the most eminent citizens of that state at the time of the Athenian invasion. We have no account of his early life or rise, but his family must have been illustrious, for, according to Timaeus (ap. Longin. iv. 3; comp. also Plut. Nic. 1 ), it claimed descent from the god Hermes, and it is evident that he was a person of consideration and influence in the state as early as 424, as he was one of the deputies sent by the Syracusans to the general congress of the Greek cities of Sicily, held at Gela in the summer of that year. Thucydides, who puts a long speech into his mouth on that occasion, ascribes mainly to his influence the resolution adopted by the assembled deputies to terminate the troubles of Sicily by a general peace. (Thuc. iv. 58, 65; Timaeus, ap. Polyb. xii. Frag. Vat. 22.) In 415, when the news of the impending invasion from Athens came to be generally rife, though still discredited by many, Hermocrates again came forward to urge the truth of the rumour, and the necessity of immediate preparations for defence. (Thuc. vi. 32 — 35.) It does not appear that he at this time held any public situation or command; but in the following winter, after the first defeat of the Syracusans by the Athenians, he represented this disaster as owing to the too great number as well as insufficient authority of their generals, and thus induced them to appoint himself, together with Heracleides and Sicanus, to be commanders-in-chief, with full powers. (Thuc. vi. 72, 73; Plut. Nic. 16; Diod. xiii. 4; who, however, places their appointment too early.) He was soon after sent to Camarina, to counteract the influence of the Athenian envoys, and gain the Camarinaeans to the alliance of Syracuse, but he only succeeded in inducing them to remain neutral. (Thuc. vi. 75, 88.) According to Thucydides, Hermocrates had already given proofs of valour and ability in war, before his elevation to the command; but his first proceedings as a general were unsuccessful: his great object was to prevent the Athenians from making themselves masters of the heights of Epipolae, above the town, but they landed suddenly from Catana, carried the Epipolae by surprise, and commenced their lines of circumvallation. The Syracusans next, by the advice of Hermocrates, began to construct a cross wall, to interrupt the Athenian lines; but they were foiled in this project too: the Athenians attacked their counterwork, and destroyed it, while they themselves were repulsed in all their attacks upon the Athenian lines. Dispirited by their ill success, they laid the blame upon their generals, whom they deposed, and appointed three others in their stead. (Thuc. vi. 96—103.) The arrival of Gylippus soon after superseded the new generals, and gave a fresh turn to affairs; but Hermocrates, though now in a private situation, was not less active in the service of his country: we hear of his heading a chosen band of warriors in resisting the great night attack on the Epipolae, immediately after the arrival of Demosthenes (Diod. xiii. 11): he is also mentioned as joining with Gylippus in urging the Syracusans to try their fortune again by sea, as well as by land: and when, after the final defeat and destruction of their fleets, the Athenian generals were preparing to retreat by land, it was Hermocrates who anticipated their purpose, and finding it impossible to induce his countrymen to march forth at once and occupy the passes, nevertheless succeeded, by an ingenious stratagem, in causing the 