Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1337

Rh ZEUXIS. ambassadors sent to the Scipios to treat for peace, on which mission he proceeded to Rome. (Polyb. xxi. 13. 14, xxii. 7 ; Liv. xxxvii. 41, 45.) [C. P. M.] ZEUXIS, a philosopher of the sceptical school, the disciple of Aenesidemus. Diogenes Laertius (ix. 106) mentions a work by him — Uepl Sittwv xSyuv. [C. P. M.] ZEUXIS (Zevlts), the name of two physicians who are sometimes confounded together: — 1. A contemporary of Strabo, probably about the middle or end of the first century b. c. He was at the head of a celebrated Herophilean school of medicine established at Men-Carus in Plirygia, between Laodicea and Carura, and was succeeded in this post by Alexander Philalethes. (Strabo, xii. 8. p. 77, ed. Tauchn.) 2. A native of Tarentum (Galen, Comment, in flippocr. " Epid. F/." i. praef. vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 793,794), one of the earliest commentators on the writings of Hippocrates (id. ibid. ; Comment, hi Hippocr. "jDe Humor.'^ i. 24, vol. xvi. p. 196), and also one of the oldest of the Empirici. (id. Comment, in Hippocr. " Praedid. /." ii. 58, vol. xvi. p. 636.) He lived after Herophilus, Cal- limachus (id. Comment, in ' Hippocr. '•'■ Epid. VI." i. 5, vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 826, 827.), Bacchius (id. ibid. i. 1, vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 793, 794; iv. 9, vol. xvii. pt. ii. p. 145) and Glaucias (id. Comment, in Hippocr. " De Humor.'' ii. 30, vol. xvi. p. 327 ; Comment, in Hippocr. " Epid. VI." i. praef. ; ii. 65, vol. xvii. pt. i. p. 793, 794, 992) ; and apparently before Zenon (Erotiani, Gloss. Hippocr. p. 216, ed. Franz.) ; and his date may therefore be placed about the middle of the third century b. c. He expounded the whole of the Hippocratic Collection (Galen, Comment, in Hippocr. " De Humor. i. praef. 24, vol. xvi. pp. 1, 196 ; Comment, in Hippocr. " Praedict. /." ii. 58, vol. xvi. p. 636 ; Comment, in Hippocr. " Z)e Offic. Med."' i. praef. vol. xviii. pt. ii. p. 631), but his commentaries were not much esteemed in Galen's time, and had become scarce. (Id. Comme?it. in Hippocr. '■Epid. III. ii. 4, vol. xvii. pt. i. p. 605.) A brass coin struck at Smyrna is supposed by Mead to refer to this physician, but this is un- certain. (See Mead, Dissert, de Nummis quibusdam a Smyrnaeis in Medicor. Honorem percussis ; Littre, Oeuvres d'' Hippocr. vol. i. pp. 89, 104 ; Sprengel, Ge>^ch. der Arzneikunde^ vol. i. ed. 1846 ; Darem- berg, Cours sur fHist. et la Litter, des Sciences Med., Annee 2, Lev'on 4.) [W. A. G.] ZEUXIS (Zeu|is), artists. 1. The celebrated painter, who excelled all his contemporaries except Parrhasius, and whose name is one of the most renowned in the history of ancient art, was a native of Heracleia ; but which of the cities of that name had the honour of his birth we are not in- formed. Most modern writers follow the opinion of Hardouin, who fixed upon Ileracleia in Lucania. for no better reason tlian that Zeuxis executed a celebrated picture for the neighbouring city of Croton ; and on a precisely similar ground others decide in favour of Heracleia Lyncestis, in Mace- donia, because Zeuxis enjoyed the patronage of Archelaiis. It is evident how these two opinions show the worthlessness of each other ; both rest on facts which are better accounted for by the celebrity of the artist, which was doubtless co- extensive with the Grecian name ; and, as for the former, it is most probable, as will be seen pre- sently, that Zeuxis was born some time before the foundation of the Italian Heracleia, which was not ZEUXIS. 1325 built till after the destruction of Siris, in b. c. 433. It is rather singular that none of the commentators (so far as we know) have thought of that city which was the most celebrated of any of its name for the great men whom it sent forth, namely, Heracleia on the Pontus Euxeinus. The question deserves investigation whether, when Heracleia is mentioned without any distinctive addition by an Athenian writer of the time of Xenophon and Plato, we^ are not justified in assuming that the reference is to Heracleia on the Euxine. The probability of this city having been the birth-place of Zeuxis is confirmed by the well-known fact, that the artist belonged to the Asiatic school of paint- ing ; a fact which is also indicated in the tradition which made him a native of Ephesus (Tzetz. ChiL viii. 196), the head-quarters of the Asiatic school. In the same way Apelles and other eminent artists of the Asiatic school are called natives of Ephesus, though known to have been born at other places.* The date of Zeuxis has likewise been a matter of dispute, which has arisen from the confused account of it given by Pliny, who is our chief authority for the artist's life. (//. N. xxxv. 9. s. 36. § 2.) He says that " The doors of the art, thrown open by Apollodorus of Athens, were en- tered by Zeuxis of Heracleia in the fourth vear of the 95th Olympiad (b. c. 400— 399) ... who is by some placed erroneously in the 79th Olvmpiad (or 89th, for the best MSS. vary ; b. c. 464—460 or 424 — 420), when Demophilus of Himera and Neseas of Thasos must of necessity have flourished, since it is doubted of which of them he was the disciple." Now, passing over what is said of Demophilus and Neseas — which cannot help us, as it is doubtful who the former artist was, and we have no other mention of the latter, — it appears to us that this passage, when cleared of a mistake into which Pliny was led in a way which can be explained, contains the true period of Zeuxis, namely, from about 01. 89 to 01. 96, B. c. 424 — 400; the mistake referred to. as made by Pliny, being the assumption of the period at which Zeuxis had attained to the height of his reputation, as that at which he began to flourish. And here we have the reply to the argument of Sillig in favour of reading lxxix. rather than Lxxxix. ; for the latter, he contends, is the true date for the begin- ning of the artist's career, and is not inconsistent with his having flourished at 01. 95. 4 ; whereas the former, involving as it does an interval of sixtj^-seven years, is inconsistent with the last date. The premises are sound ; but the true con- clusion in each branch of the argument appears to us to be the direct opposite of that drawn by Sillig. The date of 01. 89 is certainly quite consistent with the fact that Zeuxis was still flourishing in 01. 95. 4 ; but it is altogether inconsistent with his having beff/m to flourish at the latter date, which is the view expressly stated by Pliny, who therefore very consistently rejects the former date ; of the statement referred to, and of a chronological mistake of Lucian's, makes a second painter Apelles, of Ephesus, should consistently have invented a second Zeuxis, of Ephesus ; and so in several other instances, in which two places are mentioned in connection with an artist's name — the one being that of his birth, the other that of the school to which he belonged.
 * A modern writer on art, who, on the strength