Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1303

Rh XENOCRATES. til at either Plutarch or the author of the epigram has made a mistake respecting the country of Xenocles. For this reason we must not overlook the possibility, suggested by Jacobs {Animadv. in Anth. Graec. vol. i. pt. i. p. 240), that the river and bridge and mysteries referred to in the epigram may have been in Rhodes and not in Attica. 2. A maker of fictile vases, three or four of whose w^orks, in an antique and beautiful style, are preserved in different collections (Mus. Blacas, pi. xix. pp. 55 — 60 ; Cab. Durand, No. 65, pp. 24—26; Bulletin. Arclieol. 1840, p. 128; Ger- hard, Griech. u. Etrusk. Trinkschal. d. Konigl. Jhis. in Berlin, pi. i., and Neuerworhene antik. Denkm'dler, No. 1 662, p. 26). There is another vase by the same maker in the Pinacothek at Munich, which is remarkable for not being painted : it has simply the artist's name inscribed upon it, on a yellow band, in the following manner : — + ^ENOK V E^ EPOIE^EN. (R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Scliorn, pp. 62, 63, 2d ed.) [P. S.] XENC/CRATES (Hevo/cpdrTjs), historical. 1. Brother of Theron, tyrant of Agrigentum. He was victor in the chariot race at the Pythian games in B. c. 494. His son Thrasybulus seems to have acted as charioteer on the occasion. Pindar's sixth Pythian ode is addressed to him on the occasion. 2. A Theban Boeotarch, a contemporary of Epa- minondas. Before the battle of Leuctra, at the request of Epaminondas, he sent to Lebadea for the shield of Aristomenes, which the oracle of Tropho- iiius had directed them to procure, and suspended it so as to be visible to the Lacedaemonians, most of whom knew it. (Paus. iv. 32. § 6, comp. ix. 13. § 6.) [C. P. M.J XENO'CRATES (Hevo/cparTjs), the philoso- pher, was a native of Chalcedon (Cic. Acad. i. 4 ; Athen. xii. p. 530, d. ; Stob. Ed. Phys. i. 3 ; Suid. s. V. ; comp. Strabo, xii. p. 666, b. He is called a Carchedonian only through a clerical error in Clem. Alex. Cohort, p. 33, and Strom, v. 430 &c.). According to the most probable cal- culation (Diog. Laert. iv. 14; comp. Censorin. c. 15 ; Wynpersee, p. 6, &c.) he was born 01. 96. 1 (B.C. 396), and died 01. 116. 3 (b.c. 314) at the age of 82. He is stated to have attached himself first to Aeschines the Socratic (Athen. ix. p. 507, c), and afterwards, while still a youth, to Plato. (Diog. Laert. iv. 6.) His close connection with Plato is indicated (to pass over insignificant or untrustworthy stories in l>iog. Laert. &c., see Wyn- persee, p. 13, &c.) by the account that he accom- panied him to Syracuse, (Diog. Laert. iv. 6, &c.) After the death of Plato he betook himself, with Aristotle, to Hermias, tyrant of Atarneus and Assus (Strab. xii. p. 610), and, after his return to Athens, was repeatedly sent on embassies to Philip of Macedonia, and at a later time to Antipater (01. 114. 3), during theLamian war. (Diog. Laert. iv. 8, 9, ib. Interp.) The want of quick apprehension and natural grace (Diog. Laert. iv. 6 ; Plut. Covj. Fraee. p. 141) he compensated by persevering and thorough-going industry (Diog. Laert. iv. 6, 1 1 ; comp. Plut. de reda Rat. and. p. 47, e), pure bene- volence (Diog. Laert. iv. 10 ; Aelian, V.H. xiii. 3), puritv of morals (Diog. Laert. iv. 7 ; Plut. Comp. Cimon. e. Lucullo, c. 1 ; Cic. de Off. i. 30 ; Valer. Max. ii. 10), unselfishness (Diog. Laert. iv. 8, &c ; Cic. Tiisc. V. 32 ; see Menag. on Diog. Laert.), and XENOCRATES. 1291 a moral earnestness, Avhich compelled esteem and trust even from the Athenians of his own age (Diog. Laert. iv. 7; Cic. ad Att. i. 15; Plut. dp, Adulat. et Amic. discr. p. 71, e). Yet even he experienced the fickleness of popular favour, and being too poor to pay the protection-money {/xeToiKiou), is said to have been saved only by the courage of the orator Lycurgus (Plut. Flamin. c. 12, X. Orat. Vilae, 7 ; but compare Phodon, c. 29), or even to have been bought by Demetrius Phalereus, and then emancipated. (Diog. Laert. iv. 14.) He became president of the Academy even before the death of Speusippus, who was bowed down by sickness, and occupied that post for twenty-five years. {Id. iv. 14, comp. 3.) If we consider that Aristotle and Theophrastus wrote upon the doctrines of Xenocrates (Diog. (Laert. v. 25, 47), that men like Panaetius and Cicero entertained a high regard for him (Cic. de Fin. iv. 28, Acad. i. 4), we must not dream of being able, even in any degree, to estimate com- pletely and accurately his mind or the philoso- phical direction which it took. How he strove to make himself master of the knowledge of his age, and to establish his own fundamental doctrines or those of Plato, by applying them to particular cases, we see by the titles of his treatises, bare as they have come down to us. With a more comprehen- sive work on Dialectic (ttjs ivepl rh SiaXeyetrdai Trpayfj-aTeias j8i§Aia iS') there were coimected se- parate treatises on science, on scientificness (irepl iinaTr},u7is a, Trepi iTnaTr]fMoavv7]s a'), on divisions (5iaipe(T€t,s rf), on genera and species (Trepl yevwu /cat dSwv a'), on ideas (irepl Idewy), on the opposite (ir€p] Tov ivavTiov), and others, to which probably the work on mediate thought (jwv Trepl t^j/ 5ta- voiavrf, Diog. Laert. iv. 13, 12 ; comp. Cic. Acad. iv. 46) also behmged. Two works by Xenocrates on Physics are mentioned (Trepi (pvaecos r' — cpvai- Krjs aKpodaeccs t'. ib. 11, 13), as are also books upon the gods (Trepl &eaiy ;8', ib. 1 3 ; comp. Cic. de Nat. Dear. i. 13), on the existent {-rrepl rod ovTOS, ib. 12), on the One (irepl rod hSs, ib.), on the indefinite (Trepl rou aopiarov, ib. 1 1 ), on the soul (vepl l/vxvs, ib. 1 3), on the affections (irepl rSiv iradav a, ib. 12), on memory (vrepl fxvT]fi7]S^ ib.), &c. In like manner, with the more general ethical treatises on happiness {tvepX eiiSaifxovlas $ ib. 12), and on virtue (irepl aperris fi', ib.) thero were connected separate books on individual vir- tues, on the voluntary, &c. {ibid.) His four books on royalty he had addressed to Alexander (aroi- X^^a Trphs 'AXe^avSpov irepl fiaaiKeias S'; comp. Plut. adv. Colot. p. 1126, d.). Besides these he had written treatises on the State (Trepi rroKireias o', Diog. Laert. iv. 12 ; iroAiriKos a, ib. 13), on the power of law (irepi Suvdj-Lccas vS/jlov a', ib. 12), &c., as well as upon geometry, arithmetic, and astrology (ib. 13, 14). Xenocrates appears to have made a still more definite division between the three departments of philosophy, for the purpose of the scientific treat- ment of them, than Speusippus (Sext. Emp. adt Math. vii. 16), but at the same time to have aban- doned Plato's heuristic (eupiariKr]) method of con- ducting through doubts (onroptat), and to have adopted in its stead a mode of bringing forward his doctrines in which they were developed dog- matically (Sext. Emp. Hypotyp. i. 2 ; comp. Cic. Acad. i. 4; Diog. Laert. iv. li, 16). Xenocrates also seized more sharply and distinctly the sepa.-