Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/245

Rh PHALAECUS. Heliades or Phaethontiades, (Ov. Blet, ii. 346 ; comp. Heliades.) 2. A daughter of Helios by Neaera, guarded the flocks of ber father in Thrinacia in conjunction with her sister Lampetia. (Horn. Od. xii. 1 32 ; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 971.) [L. S.] PHAETUS, a writer on cookery of uncertain age, (Athen. xiv. p, 643, e. f.) PHAGITA, CORNE'LIUS. [Cornelius, No. 2.] PHALAECUS {^dlaiKos a tyrant of Ambra- cia, in whose way Artemis once sent a young lion, while he was hunting. When Phalaecus took the young animal into his hand, the old lioness rushed forth and tore him to pieces. The people of Am- bracia who thus got rid of their tyrant, propitiated Artemis Hegemone, and erected a statue to Arte- mis Agrotera. (Anton. Lib. 4.) [L. S.] PHALAECUS {^daiKos son of Onomarchus, the leader of the Phocians in the Sacred War. He was still very young at the death of his uncle Phayllus (b. c. 351), so that the latter, though he designated him for his successor in the chief com- mand, placed him for a time under the guardian- ship of his friend Mnaseas. But very shortly afterwards Mnaseas having fallen in battle against the Boeotians, Phalaecus, notwithstanding his youth, assumed the command in person, and carried on hostilities with various success. The war had now resolved itself into a series of petty invasions, or rather predatory incursions by the Phocians and Boeotians into each other's territory, and continued without any striking incident until 13. c. 347. But it seems that Phalaecus had failed or neglected to establish his power at home as iirmly as his predecessors had done : and a charge was brought against him by the opposite party of having appropriated part of the sacred treasures to his own private purposes, in consequence of which he was deprived of his power. No punishment, however, appears to have been inflicted on him ; and the following year (b. c. 346) we find him again appointed general, without any explanation of this revolution : but it seems to have been in some manner connected with the proceedings of Philip of Macedon, who was now preparing to interpose in the war. It is not easy to under- stand the conduct of Phalaecus in the subsequent transactions ; but whether he was deceived by the professions of Philip, or had been secretly gained over by the king, his measures were precisely those best adapted to facilitate the projects of the Macedonian monarch. Instead of strengthening his alliance with the Athenians and Spartans, he treated the former as if they had been his open enemies, and by his behaviour towards Archi- damus, led that monarch to withdraw the forces which he had brought to the succour of the Pho- cians. All this time Phalaecus took no measures to oppose the progress of Philip, until the latter had actually passed the straits of Thermopylae, and all hope of resistance was vain. He then hastened to conclude a treaty with the Mace- donian king, by which he provided for his own safety, and was allowed to withdraw into the Peloponnese with a body of 8000 mercenaries, leaving the imhappy Phocians to their fate. (Diod. xvj. 38—40, 56, 59 ; Paus. x. 2. § 7 ; Aesch. de F. Leg. p. 45 — 47 ; Dera. de F. Leg. pp. 359, 364 ; Thirlwall's Greece^ vol. v. chap. 44.) Phalaecus now assumed the part of a mere PIIALANTHUS. 233 leader of mercenary troops, in which character we find hira engaging in various enterprizes. At one time he determined to enter the service of the Tarentines, then at war with the Lucanians ; but a mutiny among his own troops having compelled him to abandon this project and return to the Peloponnese, he subsequently passed over to Crete, and assisted the Cnossiaus against their neighbours of Lyttus. He was at first successful, and took the city of Lyttus ; but was afterwards expelled from thence by Archidamus king of Sparta : and having next laid siege to Cydonia, lost many of his troops, and was himself killed in the attack. We are told that his besieging engines were set on fire by lightning, and that he, with many of his followers, perished in the con- flagration ; but this story was probably invented to give a colour to his fate of that divine ven- geance which was believed to wait upon the whole of his sacrilegious race. His death appears to have been after that of Archidamus in b. c. 338. (Diod. xvi. 61—63 ; Paus. x. 2, § 7.) [E. H. B.] PHALAECUS {^a.XaiKos a lyric and epi- grammatic poet, from whom the metre called *a- AaiKeiov took its name. (Hephaest. p. 57. Gaisf.) He is occasionally referred to by the grammarians (Terentian. p. 2424 ; Auson. Epist 4), but they give us no information respecting his works, except that he composed hymns to Hermes. The line quoted by Hephaestion (l. c.) is evidently the first verse of a hymn. He seems to have been distinguished as an epigrammatist (Ath. x. p. 440, d.) ; and five of his epigrams are still preserved in the Greek Anthology (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 421), besides the one quoted by Athenaeus (l. c). The age of Phalaecus is uncertain. The conjecture of Reiske {ap. Fab. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 490) is founded on an epigram which does not properly belong to this writer. A more probable indication of his date is furnished by another epigram, in which he mentions the actor Lycon, who lived in the time of Alex- ander the Great (Meineke, Hist. Grit. Com. Graec. p. 327) ; but this epigram also is of somewhat doubtful authorship. At all events he was pro- bably one of the principal Alexandrian poets. The Phalaecian verse is well known from its frequent use by the Roman poets. The Roman grammarians also call it Hendecasyllabus. Its normal form, which admits of many variations, js -z'- = It is much older than Phalaecus, whose name is given to it, not because he invented, but be- cause he especially used it. It is a very an- cient and important lyric metre. Sappho fre- quently used it, and it is even called the ficrpov 'S.aTTcpiKov 7iToi ^aaiKelov (Atil. Fort p. 2674, Putsch ; Terentian. p. 2440). No example of it is found in the extant fragments of Sappho ; but it occurs in those of Anacreon and Simonides, in Cratinus, in Sophocles (Fhiloct. 136 — 151), and other ancient Greek poets. [P. S.] PHALACRUS, one of the Sicilians oppressed by Verres. He was a native of Centuripa, and the commander of a ship. (Cic. Verr. v. 40, 44, 46.) PHALANTHUS (*aAav0os), a son of Age- laus, and grandson of Stymphalus, and the re- puted founder of Phalanthus in Arcadia. (Paus. viii. 35. § 7.) [L. S.] PHALANTHUS (*aAaj/0os), a Phoenician leader, who held for a long time against the Do*