Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/556

Rh 642 HYPSICRATES. Casiri makes mention, from Arabic writers, of a work of Hypsicles on the magnitudes and distances of the heavenly bodies. But the only astronomical work of his remaining is Trepl rrjs rvu ^udiwv dva- (popds, which was published (Gr. Lat.) with the Optics of Heliodorus by Erasmus Bartholinus, (Paris, 1567, 4to.) This liher anaphoricus exists in Arabic, edited by Costha ben Luca, and emen- dated by Alchindus. It was one of those which were read preparatory to the study of the Syntaxis, a distinction which it also preserved among the Saracens. Delambre wonders that a book contain- ing matter which is as easily and more correctly treated in the Syntaxis itself should have gained such a position : but the date of it may remove the cause of surprise. With respect to the two books of the Elements above mentioned, it is clear enough that Euclid did not write them, because they begin with a preface, a thing which is not found even at the commence- ment of the Elements ; because that preface makes mention of ApoUonius *, who came after Euclid ; and because the author states himself to be the pupil of Isidore, as above noted. The Arabic writers, according to Casiri, represent Hypsicles as only emendating these books ; and the early trans- lations of the Elements from the Arabic do not mention his name. The direct evidence for his connection with these books seems to be the oc- currence of his name on the manuscripts as the author, unsupported by the testimony of any writer of authority : but this, from the date, they could not have had. It is in favour of it, how- ever, that different species of manuscripts, of every order of authority, unite in one testimony. Those, for instance, from which Zamberti translated, though they make the fourteenth book only an addition to the thirteenth, and turn the fifteenth into the four- teenth, give both the addition and the so-called fourteenth book as the work of Hypsicles. (Suidas; Fabric. BibL Graec. vol. iv. pp. 20, 213 ; Gartz, de Interpret. Euclid. Arabic.) [A. De M.] HYPSr CRATES (^t^iKp&r-ns). 1. An histo- rical writer, who wrote an account of Phoenicia in the Phoenician language, which was translated into Greek by a man named "Ao-jtos, or Aatros. (Tatian. Orat. ad Gent. 58 ; Euseb. Praep. Evang. X. p. 289.) 2. An historical writer, a native of Amisus. He is mentioned by Lucian {Macrob. 22) as having lived to the age of ninety-two, and been distin- guished for his learning. It is perhaps this writer whom Strabo quotes (vii. p. 479, xi. p. 709). 3. A writer Tlepl TIivdKwu^ mentioned by Dio- genes Laertius (vii. 188). 4. A Roman grammarian, a contemporary of M. nobis traders. But Achilles Tatius does not show the least symptom of astrology; and we are inclined to suppose, with Fabricius, Wiedler, &c., that the Achilles mentioned by Firmicus is another person. And moreover, in looking at the above quotation, it seems as likely as not that Firmicus only means to say that his two friends, Abraam and Achilles, had endeavoured to supply him, and not the public, with some information. count for the Arabic story, which is, that ApoUonius iJie carpenter was the first who wrote Elements, and that Euclid was employed by Ptolemy to amend and enlarge them. HYRCANUS. Tereiiiius Varro. He is mentioned by Varro [de Ling. Lat. v. 88), by Stephanus (s. v. Aidiuip)^ and GcUius (xvi. 12), who speaks of him as having written libros sane nobiles super his quae a Graecis accepta sunt. [C. P. M.] H YPSIPYLE. [Thoas, Jason, Adrastus.J H YPSUS ("T^/os), a son of Lycaon, believed to have been the founder of Hvpsus. (Pans. viii. 3. §1,35. <$ 6.) ' [L.S.] HYRCA'NUS, .JOANNES ('rpnauds), prince and high-priest of the Jews, was the son and successor of Simon Maccabaeus, the restorer of the independence of Judaea, In B. c. 137, Antiochus VII. having established himself on the throne of Syria after the defeat and death of Tryphon, determined to effect the reduction of Judaea to its former condition of a tributary pro- vince of the Syrian monarchy, and sent a force, under his general, Cendebeus, to invade the coun- try. Simon, being now a man of advanced years, confided the command of the force which he op- posed to them, to his two sons, Judas and Jo- annes Hyrcanus: they were completely success- ful, defeated Cendebeus, and drove him out of Judaea. But Simon did not long enjoy the fruits of this victory, being treacherously seized and as- sassinated by his son-in-law, Ptolemy, the governor of Jericho, B. c. 135. Two of his sons, Judas and Mattathias, perished with him, but Hyrcanus escaped the snares of the assassin, and assumed the dignity of high-priest and prince of the Jews, and advanced with an army against Ptolemy, who took refuge in the fortress of Dagon, where he was able to defy the arms of Hyrcanus. It is not improbable that the crime of Ptolemy had been previously concerted with Antiochus Sidetes : at least, that monarch immediately took advantage of it to invade Judaea with a large army ; and, Hyrcanus being unable to meet him in the field, laid siege to Jerusalem itself. The siege was closely pressed, and the Jews suffered severely from famine ; but at length Antiochus consented to conclude a treaty, by which Jerusalem and its inhabitants were spared, on condition of the forti- fications being dismantled and the payment of an annual tribute, B.C. 133. (Joseph. Ant. xiii. 7. §§ 3, 4, 8. § 1 — 3, jB. J. i. 2. § 5 ; 1 Mace. XV. xvi. ; Justin, xxxvi. 1. ; Diod. Exc. Hoesclu xxxiv. I. ; Plut. Apophth. p. 184. f. ; Euseb. Arm. p. 167.) Four years afterwards Hyrcanus accom- panied Antiochus in his expedition against Parthia, and bore an important part in his first successes, but returned with his auxiliaries to Jerusalem, at the approach of winter, by which means he fortu- nately escaped the final disaster that overwhelmed the Syrian king and his army. But as soon as he heard of the death of Antiochus, he took advan- tage of the unsettled state of the Syrian monarchy to prosecute his own schemes, reduced several cities on the confines of Judaea ; among others, Sichem, in Samaria, and destroyed the temple on Mount Gerizira : after which he completely sub- dued the Idumaeans, whom he compelled to adopt the laws and customs of the Jews. (Joseph. Aiit. xiii. 9. § 1 .) At the same time he took a still more important measure in order to secure his in- dependence, by sending an embassy to Rome, which was favourably received by the senate, who confirmed the alliance already concluded by them with Simon. (Id. ibid. § 2.) Demetrius XL, who had returned from his cap- f
 * This mention of ApoUonius is supposed to ac-