Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/491

Rh HIPP ARCH us. cnmstance that the boundary between the discoveries of Hipparchus and those of Ptolemy himself is in several points a question which can only be settled from the writings of the latter, if at all. Strabo, Suidas, &c,, state that Hipparchus was of Nicaea, in Bithynia ; and Ptolemy {De Adpar. InerTani. sub fin. ), in a list in which he has expressly pointed out the localities in which astronomers made their observations, calls him a Bithynian. But the same Ptolemy {Spiiax. lib. v. p. 299, ed. Halma) states that Hipparchus himself has noted his own observation of the sun and moon, made ai Rhodes in the 197th year after the death of Alex- ander. Hence some have made the Rhodian and the Bithynian to be two different persons, without any reasonable foundation. There is a passage in the Syntaotis (lib. iii. p. 1 60, ed. Halma), from which Delambre {Astron.Anc. Disc. Prel. xxiv. and vol. ii. p. 108) found it difficult to avoid inferring that Ptolemy asserted Hipparchus to have also observed at Alexandria, which had been previously asserted, on the same ground, by Weidler and others. But he afterwards remembered that Ptolemy always supposes Rhodes and Alexandria to be in the same longitude, and therefore compares times of observ- ation at the two places without reduction. As to the time at which Hipparchus lived, Suidas places him at from B.C. 160 to c. c. 145, but without naming these epochs as those of his birth and death. Of his life and opinions, inde- pendently of the astronomical details in the Syn- taxis, we know nothing more than is contained in a passage of Pliny {H.N. ii. 26), who states that the attention of Hipparchus* was first directed to the construction of a catalogue of stars by the ap- pearance of a new star, and a moving one (perhaps a comet of unusually star-like appearance). Hence he dared, rem Deo improbain, to number the stars, and assign their places and magnitudes, that his successors might detect new appearances, disappear- ances, motion, or change of magnitude, coelh in haercditate cu7ictis relicto. Bayle has a curious mistake in the interpretation of a port of this pas- sage. He tells us that Hipparchus thought the souls of men to be of celestial origin, for which he cites Pliny as follows : '•' Idem Hipparchus nun- quam satis laudatus, ut quo nemo magis approba- verit cognationem cum homine siderum, animaaqtie nostras partem esse coeli.^'' This means, of course, that Pliny thought that no one had done more than Hipparchus to show the heavenly origin of the human mind. The following are a list of writings attributed to Hipparchus: — 1. Ilepl twv dirhavwv dvaypacpai, mentioned by Ptolemy (lib. vii.). A work was added, under the name of Hipparchus, by P. Vic- tor, to his edition of the comment on Aratus, pre- sently mentioned, under the title cKOecris danpicr- /Mu, which is nothing more than an extract from the seventh book of the Syntaxis. Suidas and Eudocia mention a work with the Jbllo-.ving title. remarkable an impulse to the astronomical career of Tycho Brahe, whose merits, as far as practical astronomy is concerned, much resemble those of Hipparchus. It is frequently stated that both were originally led to astronomy by the sight of new stars, which is certainly not true of the former, nor have we any reason to infer it from what Pliny .yiys of the hitter. HIPPARINUS. 477 ■jrepl rijs ruu dirKavoiu (rvPToi^ecas ical rod Kara- aTTipiyfjiQv KOI ei's tovs dpiarovs {darepia/JLovs ?), which may be the same as the above. 2. Uepl fj-eyeOoHv kuI aTrocTTTj/xaTwi', mentioned by Pappus and Theon. A further account of this work is given under Ptolemaeus. Kepler had a manu- script, which Fabricius seems to imply was tliis work, and which was to have been published by Hansch, but which did not appear. 3. De duo- decim Signorum .^c^seejiszowe, mentioned by Pappus. 4. riepl TTjs /caret ttKoltos ixrji^iaias rrjs (TtXr]VT}s KLV7]ae(A}s, mentioned by Suidas and Eudocia. 5. Uepl pi.rviaiov xpouou^ mentioned by Giilen. 6. ITepl ifiavalov fxeyeBovs, mentioned by Ptolemy. 7. Ilepl rijs fieTaTTTciaews t&v rpoiriKwu Kal laif- fiepiuoou a-n/xdoou., mentioned by Ptolemy. 8. Taiu 'Apdrou Kcd EvSu^ov (paivojxevwv i^rjy-^aecov fii§ia y'. This is the comment alluded to in Aratus. It has always been received as the undoubted work of Hipparchus, though beyond all question it must have been written before any of his great discoveries had been made. Nevertheless, it may be said of this criticism, that it is far superior to any thing which had then been written on astro- nomy, or which was written before the time of Ptolemy by any but Hipparchus himself. Delambre has given a minute account of its contents (Asiron. Anc. vol. i. pp. 106 — 189): he remarks that the places of the stars, as known to Hipparchus when he wrote it, are not quite so good as those of his subsequent catalogue, which can be recovered from the Syntaxis ; this is equivalent to saying that they are much better than those of his predecessors. The comparison of Eudoxus and Aratus, which runs throughout this work, constitutes the best knowledge we have of the former. [Eudox- us]. We cannot but suppose that the fact of this being the only remaining work of Hipparchus must arise from the Syntaxis containing the substance of ail the re.'^t : this one, of course, would live as a cri- ticism on a work so well known as that of Aratus. It has been twice published : once by P. Victor, Florence, 1567, folio, and again by Petavius in his Uranologion, Paris, 1630, folio. 9. IIpos rov ^EpaTocrhevrjv Kal rd eu tt} Tewypacpla avrov Ae^- Bevra, a criticism censured by Strabo, and ap- proved by Pliny. 10. Bi€inv irepl twv hid fidpovs KUTw (p€pofj.4vwv, cited by Simplicius. 1 1. Achilles Tatius says that Hipparchus and others wrote irepl eKeipeuv i^Kiov Ka-rd rd eirrd KXl/iara, from which we cannot infer that this is the title of a work. (Ptolera. Syntaxis; Fabric. Bibl. Grace. vol. iv. p. 26, &c.; Petavius, Uranologion ; Weidler, Hist. Astnm. ; Delambre, Hist, de VAstronom. anc. vol. i. pp. 6, 106, &c., Diicours. prelimin. p. xxi. ; Bailly, Hist, de fAstronom. viodenu vol. i. p. 77 ; Montucla, Hist, des Matliemai. vol. i. p. 257. &c. ; Gartz in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclop. s. v. ; Mar- coz, Astronomie solaire d''Hippan]ue soumise a une critique rigoreuse et ensuiie rendue a sa verite pri- mordia/e, Paris, 1828.) [A. De M.] HIPPARI'NUS ('l7nrap:«/os). 1. A Syracusan, father of Dion. He is mentioned by Aristotle {Pol. v. 6) as a man of large fortune, and one of the chief citizens of Syracuse, who, having squandered his own property in luxury and ex- travagance, lent his support to Dionysius in ob- taining the sovereignty of his native city. Accord- ing to Plutarch {Dion., 3), he was associated with Dionysius in the command as general auto- crator, a statement which is understood by Mitford
 * It was a similar circumstance which gave as