Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/640

Rh 626 ISIDORUS. he saw that the number of the Arcadians rendered resistance hopeless, he disdained to leave his post, but sent away the young soldiers of his force to Sparta to serve her in her impending danger, while he himself and the older men remained behind, and died fighting bravely. (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. §§ 24 — 26 ; Diod. xv. 64 ; comp. Pint. Pelop. 24, Ages. 31.) This is probably the same Ischolaus who is mentioned by Polyaenus (ii, 22). [E. E.] ISCHO'MACHUS ('lo-xoVaxos), an Athenian, whose fortune, according to Lysias, was supposed during his life to amount to more than seventy ta- lents (above 17,000^.), but on his death he was found to have left less than twenty, i. e. under 5,000/. ( Lys. pro Arid. Bon. p. 1 56.) It appears, however, that he squandered his money on flatterers and parasites. (Heracl, Pont. ap. Athen. xii. p. 537, c.) The union of meanness and prodigality is so common as to furnish no reason against supposing this Ischomachus to have been the same person whose stingy and grasping character we find at- tacked by Cratinus (ap. ^^/^e/i. i. p. 8, a.). We can, however, hardly identify him with the Ischo- machus whom Xenophon introduces {Oe.con. 6, &c.) as holding a most edifying conversation Avith his newly-married wife on the subject of domestic economy, of which he is represented as a bright example. Whether either of these was the Ischo- machus whose daughter was married to the noto- rious Callias, is again a doubtful point. (Andoc. De Myst. p. 16.) The Ischomachus mentioned in the Hymenaeus of Araros {ap. Atlmi. p. 237, a.) was perhaps, says Meineke {Fragm. Com. Graec. vol. ii. p. 176), a grandson of the man who is satirised by Cratinus. But the name was possibly used by Araros as the representative of a class, and in that case is no other than the mean feeder of parasites in the older poet. [E. E.] ISCH YS ("lo-xi^s), a son of Elatus, and the be- loved of Coronis at the time when she was with child (Asclopius) by Apollo. The god wishing to punish her faithlessness, caused Artemis to kill her, together with Ischys. fCoRONis.] [L. S.] I'SEAS ('Icreas), tyrant of Ceryneia in Achaia, at the period of the first rise of the Achaean league. Alarmed at the rapid progress of the confederacy — the four cities of Dyme, Patrae, Tritaea, and Pharae, which formed the original league, having been already joined by Aegium and Bura — he judged it prudent to provide for his personal safety by voluntarily abdicating the sovereign power, whereupon Ceryneia immediately joined the Achae- ans. (Polvb. ii. 41.) [E. H. B.] ISIDO'ilUS ('Ifn'Swpos). 1. Of Aegae, an epigrammatic poet, five of whose epigrams are con- tained in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 473 ; Jacobs, Anlh. Graec. vol. iii. p. 177») Nothing further is known of him; but, from the style of his epigrams, Brunck conjectured that he was not a very late writer, and that he might perhaps be considered as a contemporary of Antiphilus, who flourished about the time of Nero. (Brunck, Lection, p. 228; Jacobs, Anih. Graec. vol. xiii. p. 905.) 2. A son of Basilidks, the Gnostic heretic, wrote a work, inpi rrpuacpuovs /vxrjs, which only exists in MS. (Fabric. Bild. Graec. vol. x. p. 495. ) 3. Of Charax, a geographical writer, whose ttjs Uapdlas Tripir)yrTiK6s is quoted by Athenaeus (iii. p. 93, d.), and whose Srafl/icol UapQiKoi (probably a pirt of the above work) are printed among the ISIDORUS. works of the minor geographers in the collections of Hoschel (1600), Hudson (1703), and Miller {Supplement aux demieres ediiions des petits Geo- graphes., Paris, 1839 ; comp. Letronne, Fragmem des Pollmes Gtogr. de Scymnus, Paris, 1840.) That his geographical work embraced not only Parthia, but probably the whole of the then known world, may be inferred from several quotations from Isi- dorus in Pliny. (//. A^. ii. 108, s. 112 ; iv. 4. s. 5; 22, s. 37; v. 6, et alib.) He seems to have lived under the early Roman emperors. A passage in his (TTadfioi, in which he refers to the flight of Tiridates (p. 4 ; comp. Tac. Annal. vi. 44), seems to fix his time in or after the reign of Tiberius. He is quoted, however, by Lucian {Macroh. 15), in a way which seems at first sight to imply that he lived in the time of Ptolemy I., that is, before the existence of the Parthian empire which he de- scribes. There is no occasion, however, to assume another Isidore of Charax ; we would rather assume either that the Artaxerxes of whom Lucian speaks was one of the Arsacidae, or that the words e^ri tCjv trar^poov are not to be taken literally, or that here, as in many other instances, Lucian's inci- dental chronology is worth nothing. (Dodwell, Dissert, de Isidore Characeno ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. pp. 612—614.) 4. A cvNic philosopher, who had the courage to utter a sarcasm against Nero in public. (Sueton. Ner. 39.) 5. Of Gaza, a Neo-Platonic philosopher, the friend of Proclus and INIarinus, whom he succeeded as chief of the school. He again retired, however, into private life. His wife, according to Suidas {s. V. 'TTrarfa), was Hypatia, herself also celebrated in the history of philosophy ; but it seems doubtful whether Suidas has not committed an anachronism in this statement. (Wernsdorf, Dissert, iv. de Hypatia, philosopha A lexandrina ;Hypatia.) His mother, Theodote, was also one of a family of phi- losophers, being the sister of Aegyptus, the friend of Hermeias. (Suid. s. v. 'Epfidas.) The life of Isidorus, by Damascius, is quoted by Photius, Biblioth. Cod. 242 ; see also Suid. s. v. 'lo-i5woos, '2,vpiav6s, Maplvos, 'Sapairiuu. 6. Of Pelusium, a Christian exegetical writer, at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century. He was a native of Alexandria (Phot. Blljliotk. Cod. 228, p. 247. a. 3, ed. Bekker), but he spent his life in a monastery near Pelusium, of which he was the abbot, and where he practised the most severe asceticism. He was a great ad- mirer of Chrysostom, in defending whom he vehe- mently attacked the patriarchs Theophilus and Cyril of Alexandria. (Phot. BiU. Cod. 232, p. 291, a. 42— b. 3.) He died about B. c. 450. A book which he wrote against the Gentiles is lost, but a large number of his letters are still extant. They are almost all expositions of Scripture, and are valuable for the piety and learning which they display. They amount to the number of 2013, and it is not improbable that these are only a pait of his letters, written for the benefit of some parti- cular monastery. On the other hand, many of them are believed to be spurious. They are divided into five books, of which the first three were printed, with the Latin translation and notes of J. de Billy, at Paris, 1585, fol. ; reprinted, with the addition of the fourth book, by Conrad Ritters- hausen, Heidelberg, 1605, fol. ; the fifth book was first published from a MS. in the Vntiaui, by the