Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1301

Rh XENOCLES. quitted their standards for that of Clearchus ; and, Cyrus having afterwards allowed the latter to re- tain them, Xenias and Pasion abandoned the army Ht Myriandrus, and sailed away to Greece. (Xen. Anab. I 1. § 2, 2. §§ 1, 3, 10, 3. § 7, 4. §§ 7, 8.) [Pasion, No. 1.] 2 An Elean, of great wealth, who was a proxe- nus of Sparta, and was also connected by private ties of hospitality with king Agis II. In B. c, 400, during the war between Sparta and Elis, Xenias and his oligarchical partizans made an attempt to bear down their adversaries by force, and to subject their country to the Lacedaemo- nians. Sallying out into the streets, they mur- dered sevOTal of their opponents, and among them a man whom they mistook for Tlirasydaeus, the leader of the democratic party. Thrasydaeus, how- ever, who had fallen asleep under the influence of wine, soon rallied his friends, defeated the oligarchs in a battle, and drove the chief men among them into exile. (Xen. Hell. iii. 2. §§ 27, 28 ; Paus. iii. 8 ; Diod. xiv. 17) [Thrasydaeus.] [E. E.j XE'NION (Eei/twi/), a Greek historian, wrote on Crete, and on Italy, and probably on other countries. (Etymol. s. v. 'ApKicriov ; Macrob. Sat. i. 9 ; Schol. ad Lycophr. 1214 ; Steph. Byz. s.vv. EJavaros, Kauapa, et alibi ; Vossius, (?e i/w^. Graec, p. 509, ed. Westermann.) XENOCLEIA (EevJ/cAeia), a Delphian priestess, who refused to give an oracular response to Heracles before he was purified of the murder of Iphitus ; but she was compelled by him, for he threatened to take away her tripod. (Paus. x. 13. § 4.) [L. S.] XENOCLEIDES (Eej/oKXe/STjs). 1. A Co- rinthian, the son of Euthycles, was sent in command of the Corinthian fleet against Corcyra (b. c. 432). For an account of his operations the reader is referred to Thucydides (i. 46, &c.). In B. c. 425 he was sent out to Ambracia in command of 300 heavy-armed soldiers. The troops made their way with considerable difficulty by land. (Thucyd. iii. 114). 2. A Chalcidian, who, after the expulsion of Euthymidas, assumed the direction of affairs, in conjunction with Mictio. When Chalcis was threatened by Antiochus and the Aetolians, Xeiio- cleides and Mictio procured help from Eretria and Carystus. When the Achaeans had resolved to send aid to the Chalcidians, Xenocleides succeeded in conducting the troops into the town before they were intercepted by Antiochus. However, when Antiochus arrived at Aulis. notwithstanding the remonstrances of Mictio and Xenocleides, who were devoted, to the Roman interest, the Chalcidians opened their gates to him. On the approach of Antiochus the partizans of the Romans retired from the city. (Liv. xxxv. 38, 50, 51.) [C. P. M.] XE'NOCLES (EevoKAr)?), a Spartan, was one of those who, under Herippidas, were sent out to supersede Lysander and his colleagues as counsel- lors to Agesilaus in his Asiatic expedition, B, c. 395. On his arrival, Xenocles with one other officer was appointed by the king to the command of the cavalry. When Agesilaus, having been re- called to Greece, in b. c, 394, was on his march through Thessaly, he sent Xenocles and Scythes to Larissa to propose terms of peace ; but the Larissaeans arrested the two envoys, who however were soon restored under a treaty. ( Xen. Hell. iii. 4. § 20 ; Diod. xiv. 80 ; Plut. Ages. 16. [E.E.] XENOCLES. I28d XE'NOCLES (Sefo/cATjs), literary. 1, 2. There were two Athenian tragic poets of this name, of the family of Carcinus ; the one the son of the elder Carcinus, and the father of the younger Car- cinus ; the other the son of the younger Carcinus^ and therefore the grandson of the elder Xenocles, [Carcinus.] Thus it appears that this family maintained some celebrity on the tragic stage of Athens during four generations, which is as long as the artistic duration of the family of Aeschylus. Apart from this claim upon our attention, the his- tory of this family has exercised the critical skill of some of the greatest scholars of the day, on account of the interesting, but obscure allusions made to the members of it by the Athenian comic poets and other writers. Indeed, to have developed a consistent and probable account of the family of Carcinus out of the few difficult passages of Ari- stophanes, Plato, and Pherecrates, in which they were attacked, and out of the mixture of truth and nonsense contained in the scholia on Aristophanes, in Suidas, and a few other ancient writers, may be regarded as a triumph of criticism, the merit of which is due to Meineke, to whose investigation some valuable particulars have been added by Welcker, Kayser, and Wagner. The complicated minuteness of the question forbids the attempt, within our present limits, to discuss it fully : we can only give the general result, Carcinus the elder, who Avas about contemporary with Aeschylus, had three sons, according to Aristophanes and some of the grammarians, or four, according to Pherecrates and others of the grammarians. (Aristoph, Vesp. 1493, 1500 ; Schol. ad loc. ; Pherecr. ap. Schol. Aristoph. I. c, as amended by Meineke ; Schol. ad Aristoph. Nvh. 1263, Pac. 778, Ran. 86,) The discrepancy be- tween two comic poets who were contemporary with the family, respecting the number of the sons .of Carcinus, is a curious circumstance ; and we are inclined to suspect that some joke is contained in the passage of Pherecrates, who first calls them three, and then makes another person reply " No ! they are not three, but four," There is also a great diversity as to the names of the sons of Carcinus. {^cio. ad Aristoph. II. cc.) Besides the names of Xenocles and Xenotimus, on which all the scholiasts are agreed, they mention Xenarchus, Xenocleitus, Diotimus, which is perhaps a mere variation of Xenotimus, and Datis, which is not a Greek name at all, but appears to be a nickname applied to Xenocles, on account of certain faults in his language, the appellation being derived from the well-known story about the blunder made by Datis, the Persian general, when he attempted to speak Greek, which gave rise to the term SaTiafios (Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac. 289, 290). Of these sons of Carcinus two (or three) were engaged as choreutae in acting their father's dramas, in which great prominence was given to the orchestic element ; and their dancing is ridiculed by Aristophanes {Pac. 775—790, Vesp. 1497, foil.), and Pherecrates (/. c), Xenocles alone was a tragic poet ; and in this character he is several times attacked by Ari- stophanes, He appears to have been of a mean personal appearance ; for, in one passage, Aristo- phanes distinguishes him from his brothers thus {Vesp. 1500), 6 (TfxiKp^TaTos, ts ri]i/ rpaytpdlav iroiei, and, in another passage, among other examples of