Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/472

Rh 458 HIERONYMUS. panied that leader until his final captivity. In the last battle inGabiene (B.C. 316) Hieronymus him- self was wounded, and fell a prisoner into the hands of Antigonus, who treated him with the utmost kindness, and to whose service he henceforth attached himself. (Diod. xix. 44.) In B. c. 312, we find him entrusted by that monarch with the charge of collecting bitumen from the Dead Sea, a project which was frustrated by the hostility of the neighbouring Arabs. (Id. xix. 100.) The state- ment of Josephus (c. Apion. i. 23) that he was at one time appointed by Antigonus to the govern- ment of Syria, is in all probability erroneous. After the death of Antigonus, Hieronymus continued to follow the fortunes of his son Demetrius, and he is again mentioned in B. c. 292 as being appointed by the latter governor or harmost of Boeotia, after his first conquest of Thebes. (Plut. Demetr. 39.) Whether he was reinstated in this office when Thebes, after shaking off the yoke for a while, fell again under the power of Demetrius, we are not told, nor have we any information concerning the remaining events of his long life ; but it may be inferred, from the hostility towards Lysiinachus and Pyrrhus evinced by his writings at a period long subsequent, that he continued unshaken in his attachment to Demetrius and to his son, Antigonus Gonatas, after him. It appears that he survived Pyrrhus, whose death, in B. c. 272, was mentioned in his history (Paus. i. 13. § 9), and died at the advanced age of 1 04, having had the unusual ad- vantage of retaining his strength and faculties un- impaired to the last. (Lucian. Macrob. 22.) The historical work of Hieronymus is cited under various titles (o ras rwu StaSo'xwi' laToplas yeypacpcis, Diod. xviii. 42 ; ev rfj irepl twv iiriyo- vwv irpa-yixarda, Dionys. i. 6), and these have sometimes been regarded as constituting sepa- rate works ; but it seems probable, on the whole, that he wrote but one general work, comprising the history from the death of Alexander to that of Pyrrhus, if not later. Whether he gave any de- tailed account of the wars of Alexander himself is at least doubtful, for the few facts cited from him previous to the death of that monarch are such as might easily have been incidentally mentioned ; and the passage in Suidas (s. v. 'Upcovvfios), which is quoted by Fabricius to prove that he wrote a history of that prince, is manifestly corrupt, Pro- bal)ly we should read rd en-' 'AAe|af5pM, instead of TO VTT *Ae^du5pov, as proposed by Fabricius. Nor is there any reason to infer (as has been done by the Abb6 Sevin, Mem. de I'' Acad, des Inscr. vol. xiii. p. 32), that his history of Pyrrhus formed a distinct work, though he is repeatedly cited by Plutarch as an authority in his life of that prince. (Plut. Pyrrh. 17, 21.) It was in this part of his work, also, that he naturally found occasion to touch upon the affairs of Rome, and he is conse- quently mentioned by Dionysuis as one of the first Greek writers who had given any account of the history of that city (Dionys. i. 6). But that Dionysius himself did not follow his authority in regard to the expedition of Pyrrhus to Italy is clear from the passages of Plutarch already cited, in which the statements of the two are contrasted. Hieronymus is enumerated by Dionysius {de comp. 4) among the writers whose defective style ren dered it almost impossible to read them through. He is also severely censured by Pausanias for his partiality to Antigonus and Demetrius, and the in- HIERONYMUS. justice he displayed in consequence in regard to Pyrrhus and Lysimachus. Towards the latter monarch, indeed, he had an additional cause of enmity, on account of Lysimachus having destroyed his native city of Cardia to make way for the foundation of Lysimacheia. (Paus. i. 9. § o, 13. § 9.) There can be little doubt that the history of Alexander's immediate successors (the hid'Soxoi and eTT^-yofot), which has descended to us, is de- rived in great part from Hieronymus, but it is im- possible to determine to what extent his authority was followed by Diodorus and Plutarch. (See on this point Heyne, De Font. Diodori, p. cxiv. in Dindorf's edition of Diodonis ; and concerning Hieronymus in general, Vossius, de Hisloricis Graecis., p. 99, ed. Westermann ; Sevin, Reclierckes stir la Vie et les Ouvrages de Jerome de Cardie^ in the Man. de PA cad. d'' Inscr. vol. xiii. p. 20, &c. ; and Droysen, Hellenism, vol. i. pp. 670, 683.) [E. H. B.] HIERO'NYMUS {^Updwfxos), king of Syra- cuse, succeeded his grandfather, Hieron II,, in B. c. 216. He was at this time only fifteen years old, and he ascended the throne at a crisis full of peril, for the battle of Cannae had given a shock to the Roman power, the influence of which had been felt in Sicily ; and though it had not shaken the fidelity of the aged Hieron, yet a large party at Syracuse was already disposed to abandon the alli- ance of Rome for that of Carthage. The young prince had already given indications of weakness, if not depravity of disposition, which had alarmed his grandfather, and caused him to confide the guardianship of Hieronymus to a council of fifteen persons, among whom were his two sons-in-law, Andranodorus and Zoippus. But the objects of this arrangement were quickly frustrated by the ambition of Andranodorus, who, in order to get rid of the interference of his colleagues, persuaded the young king to assume the reins of government, and himself set the example of resigning his office, which was followed by the other guardians. Hie- ronymus now became a mere tool in the hands of his two uncles, both of whom were favourable to the Carthaginian alliance: and Thrason, the only one of his counsellors who retained any influence over his mind, and who was a staunch friend of the Romans, was soon got rid of by a charge of conspiracy. The young king now sent ambassadors to Hannibal, and the envoys of that general, Hip- pocrates and Epicydes, were welcomed at Syracuse with the highest honours. On the other hand, the deputies sent by Appius Claudius, the Roman praetor in Sicily, were treated with the utmost con- tempt ; and it was evident that Hieronymus was preparing for immediate hostilities. He sent am- bassadors to Carthage, to conclude a treaty with that power, by the terms of which the river Himera was to be the boundary between the Carthaginians and Syracusans in Sicily: but he quickly raised his demands, and, by a second embassy, laid claim to the whole island for himself. The Carthaginians readily promised every thing, in order to secure his alliance for the moment : and he assembled an army of fifteen thousand men, with which he was pre- paring to take the field, having previously dis- patched Hippocrates and PJpicydes to sound the disposition of the cities subject to Rome, when his schemes were suddenly brought to a close. A band of conspirators, at the head of whom was Deino- menes, fell upon him in the 8lro(ts of Loontini, and