Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/860

Rh 84« LYCOMEDES. 3. A son of Apollo and Parthenope (Pans. vii. .4. § 2.) [L. S.] LYCOME'DES (Auko/itJStjs). 1. An Athenian, son of Aeschreas, was the first Greek who captured a Persian ship at Artemisium, in B. c. 480, on which occasion he gained the prize of valour. (Her, viii. 11.) He was perhaps the same as the father of the Athenian general Archestratus, mentioned by Thucydides (i. 57). Lycoraedes was also the name of the father of Cleomedes, one of the Athe- nian commanders against Melos in B,c. 416. (Thuc. V. 84.) 2. A Mantinean, according to Xenophon and Pausanias, wealthy, high-born, and ambitious. Diodorus calls him in one passage a Tegean ; but there can be no question (though Wesseling would raise one) of the identity of this Lycomedes with the Arcadian general whom he elsewhere speaks of as a Mantinean. (Xen. Hell. vii. 1. § 23; Pans, viii. 27 ; Diod. xv. 59, 62 ; Wess. ad Diod. xv. 5.9 ; Schneider, ad Xen. Hell vi. 5. (J 3.) We first hear of him as one of the chief founders of Mega- lopolis in B. c. 370, and Diodoras (xv. 59.) tells us that he was the author of the plan, though the words of Pausanias (viii. 27, ix. 14.) would seem to ascribe the origination of it to Epaminondas. (Comp. Arist. Pol. ii. 2, ed. Bekk. ; Xen. Hell. vi. 5. § 6, &c.) In B. c. 369 Lycomedes was general of the Arcadians and defeated, near Orchomenus, the forces of the Lacedaemonians under Polvtropus. (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. § 14 ; Diod. xv. 62.) "in the following 5'ear we find symptoms of a rising jea- lousy towards Thebes on the part of the Arcadians, owing in great measure to the suggestions and ex- hortations of Lycomedes, who reminded his coun- trymen of their ancient descent as the children of the soil, of their numbers, their high military qua- lifications, and of the fact that their support was quite as important to Thebes as it had been to Lacedaemon ; and it is possible that the spirit thus roused and fostered in Arcadia may have shortened the stay of Epaminondas in the Peloponnesus on this his second invasion of it. The vigour exhibited in consequence by the Arcadians imder Lycomedes and the successes they met with are mentioned by Xenophon and Diodorus, the latter of whom how- ever places these events a year too soon. Thus it was in b. c. 369, according to him, that Lycomedes marched against Pellene in Laconia, and, having taken it, made slaves of the inhabitants and ravaged the country. (Xen. Hell. vii. I. $§ 23, &c. ; Diod. XV. 67 ; Wess. ad loc.) The same spirit of inde- pendence was again manifested by Lycomedes in B.C. 367, at the congress held at Thebes after the return of the Greek envoys from Susa ; for when the rescript of Artaxerxes II. (in every way favour- able to Thebes) had been read, and the Thebans required the deputies of the other states to swear compliance with it, Lycomedes declared that the congress ought not to have been assembled at Thebes at all, but wherever the war was. To this the Thebans answered angrily that he was intro- ducing discord to the destruction of the alliance, and Lycomedes then withdrew from the congress with his colleagues. (Xen. Hell. vii. 1. § 39.) In B.C. 366, the loss of Oropus having exasperated the Athenians against their allies, who had with- held their aid when it was most needed, Lycomedes took advantage of the feeling to propose an alliance between Athens and Arcadia. The proposal was at first unfaYOurably received by the Athenians, as LYCON. involving a breach of their connection with Sparta; but they afterwards consented to it on the ground that it was as much for the advantage of Lacedae- mon as of Athens that Arcadia should be indepen- dent of Thebes. Lycomedes, on his return by sea from Athens, desired to be put on shore at a certain portion of the Peloponnesian coast, where there happened to be collected a number of Arcadian exiles ; and by these he was murdered. (Xen. Hell. vii. 4. §§ 2, 3.) [Callistratus, No. 3.] 3. A Rhodian, was appointed to command the Persian garrison placed in Mytilene by Autophra- dates and the younger Pliarnabazus, in b. c. 333. In the ensuing year the Persian garrisons were dislodged from the islands in tlie Aegaean by Alexander's officer, Hegelochus. (Arr. A7iab. ii. 1, iii. 2 ; Curt. iv. 5.) 4. Priest of the goddess Enyo or Bellona at Comana, and sovereign, therefore, of the surround- ing country. He was an adherent of Antony, and was deposed by Augustus after the battle of Ac- tium, b. c. 30. (Strab. xii. p. 558 ; Dion Cass. Ii. 2 ; comp. App. Mithr. 114.) [E. E.] LYCON (AuKWf), the name of two mythical personages, one, a son of Hippoconn, was killed by Heracles (Apollod. iii. 10. §5; Hippocoon), and the other a Trojan. (Horn. II. xvi, 335.) [L. S.] LYCON (AvKcov), historical. 1. An orator and demagogue at Athens, was one of the three accusers of Socrates and prepared the case against him. According to Stallbaum, Lycon was one of the ten regular advocates (crw^yopoi) employed by the state to conduct public prosecutions ; but there seems to be no authority for this state- ment. When the Athenians repented of their condemnation of Socrates, they put Melitus to death and banished Anytus and Lycon. (Plat. Apol. p. 23, e ; Stallb. ad loc. ; Diog. Laert. ii. 38, 39, 43 ; Menag. ad loc.) The Lycon, who is mentioned by Aristophanes (Vesp. 1301) as a drunken brawler, has been identified by some with the accuser of Socrates (Stallb. /. c. ; Kiihner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 1. § 1) ; and, if we may believe the scholiast on Plato (Apol. I. c), the latter was also the same person as the husband of the notoriously profligate Rhodia, satirized by Eupolis. From the same authority we learn that he was an Ionian by descent, belonged to the demus of Thoricus, and was noted for his poverty by C ratinus in the ttutiVt;, (Arist. Lysistr. 270 ; Schol. ad loc. ; Schn. Praef. ad Xen. Anab. p. xxxii ; Meineke, Fragm. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 117, ii. pp. 131, 441, 442, 515, 535.) 2. A Syracusan, who, when the Zacynthian assassins had entered the house of Dion unarmed, and were in want of a weapon to despatch him, handed a dagger to one of them through the win- dow, B.C. 353. (Plut. Dion, 57 ; Diod. xvi. 31 ; Corn. Nep. Dion^ 9.) 3. An admiral of Antigonus, king of Asia, was sent by him, in b. c. 31 3, to the aid of Callatia in Moesia, against Lysiraachus, from whom it had revolted, and who was besieging it. Lycon, how- ever, appears to have eflfected nothing. (Diod. xix. 73.) 4. Of Scarphea, a comic actor, who, while per- forming on one occasion before Alexander the Great, inserted in a speech of the comedy a line asking the king for ten talents. Alexander laughed and gave them to him. (Plut. Alex. 29, de Alex. Fort. ii. 2 ; Athen. xii. p. 539, a.) The Lycon,