Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/281

Rh PHILIPPIDES. R dissertation by F. F. Brisken, entitled Philinus et Ilahnemannus, sen Veteris Sedae Empiricae cum Ilodiema Secta Homoeopathica Comparatio, Berol. 1834, 8vo. [W. A. G.J PHILrPPICUS, or more correctly PHILETI- CUS (^iAiTTTTi/fJs or *iA67rt/co's), emperor of Con- stantinople from December, a. d. 711, to the fourth of June, 713. The account of his accession to the throne is related in the life of the emperor Jus- tinian II. Rhinotmetus. His original name was Bardanes ; he was the son of Nicephorus Patricius ; and he had distinguished himself as a general during the reigns of Justinian and his predecessors ; he was sent into exile by Tiberius Absimarus, on the charge of aspiring to the crown. After having been proclaimed by the inhabitants of Cherson and by the army, with which he was commanded to ex- terminate those people by the emperor Justinian II., he assumed the name of Philippicus, or, as ex- tant coins of him have it, Filepicus ; Theophanes, however, calls him Philippicus previous to his ac- cession. After the assassination of the tyrant Jus- tinian, Philippicus ruled without opposition, though not without creating much dissatisfaction through his dissolute course of life, and his unwise policy in religious matters. Belonging to the sect of the Monothelists, he deposed the orthodox patriarch Cyrus, and put the heretic John in his stead. The whole East soon embraced, or at least tended to- wards, Monothelism ; the emperor brought about the abolition of the canons of the sixth council ; and the names of the patriarchs, Sergius and Honorius, who had been anathematized by that council, were, on his order, inserted in the sacred diptychs. Phi- lippicus had scarcely arrived in his capital when Terbilis, king of Bulgaria, made his sudden appear- ance under its walls, burned the suburbs, and re- tired with many captives and an immense booty. During this time the Arabs took and burnt Amasia (712), and in the following year (713) Antioch in Pisidia fell into their hands. The em- peror did nothing to prevent these or further dis- asters ; a plot, headed by the patricians Georgius, surnamed Boraphus, and Theodore Myacius, was entered into to deprive him of his throne ; and the fatal day arrived without Philippicus being in the least prepared for it. On the 3rd of June, 713, he celebrated the anniversary of his death ; splendid entertainments were given in the hippodrome, the emperor with a brilliant cavalcade paraded through the streets of Constantinople, and when the even- ing approached, the prince sat down with his courtiers to a sumptuous banquet. According to his habit, Philippicus took such copious libations that his attendants were obliged to put him to bed in a senseless state. On a given signal, one of the conspirators, Rufus, entered the bed-room, and, with the assistance of his friends, carried the drunken prince off to a lonely place, where he was deprived of his eyesight. A general tumult ensued, and the people, disregarding the pretensions of the conspirators, proclaimed one of their own favourites, Anastasius II. Philippicus ended his life in ob- scurity, but we have no particulars referring to the time of his death. (Theophan. pp. 311, 316— 3-21 ; Niceph. Const, p. 141, &c. ed. Paris, 1616, 8vo.; Zonar. vol. ii. p. 96, &c. ed. Paris ; Cedrenus, p. 446, &c.; Paul. Diacon. de Gest Longob. vi. 31 • — 33 ; Suid. s.v. ^LXiinriicos ; Eckhel, Doc^r. Am7«. Tol. viii. pp. 229 230.) [W. P.] PHILl'PPIDES (*iAt7r7rI5?js), of Athens, the PHILIPPIDES. 269 son of Philocles, is mentioned as one of the six principal comic poets of the New Comedy by the grammarians {Proleg. ad Aristoph. p. 30 ; Teetz. Proleg. ad Lycophr. p. 257, with the emendation of ^lAtirTTiSTjs for ^tAio-rtW, see Philistion). Ac- cording to Suidas, he flourished in the 111th Olym- piad, or B. c. 335, a date which would throw hira back rather into the period of the Middle Comedy. There are, however, several indications in the frag- ments of his plays that he flourished under the successors of Alexander ; such as, first, his attacks on Stratocles, the flatterer of Demetrius and Anti- gonus, which would place him between 01. 118 and 122 (Plut. Demetr. 12, 26, pp. 894, c. 900, f., Amator. p. 730, f.), and more particularly his ridi- cule of the honours which were paid to Demetrius through the influence of Stratocles, in b. c. 301 (Clinton, F. H. sub arm.) ; again, his friendship with king Lysimachus, who was induced by hira to confer various favours on the Athenians, and who assumed the roj^al title in 01. 118. 2, b. c. 306 (Plut. Demetr. 12); and the statements of Plutarch (J. c.) and Diodorus (xx. 1 1 0), that he ridiculed the Eleusinian mysteries, into which he had been initiated in the archonship of Nicocles, b. c. 302. It is tnie, as Clinton remarks (F. H. vol. ii. introd. p. xlv), that these indications may be reconciled with the possibility of his having flou- rished at the date given by Suidas ; but a sounder criticism requires us to alter that date to suit these indications, which may easily be done, as Meineke proposes, by changing pia. 111, into pi5', 114, the latter Olympiad corresponding to b. c. 323 (Mei- neke, Menand. et Philem. Reliq. p. 44, HiM. Crit. Com. Grace, p. 471 ; in the latter passage Meineke explains that the emendation of Suidas proposed by him in the former, pwS', was a misprint for p'S'). It is a confirmation of this date, that in the list above referred to of the six chief poets of the New Co- medy, Philippides comes, not first, bift after Phile- mon, Menander, and Diphilus : for if the list had been in order of merit, and not of time, Menander would have stood first. The mistake of Suidas may be explained by his confounding Philippides, the comic poet, with the demagogue Philippides, against whom Hyperides composed an oration, and who is ridiculed for his leanness by Alexis, Aristo- phon, and other poets of the Middle Comedy ; an error into which other writers also have fallen, and which Clinton (/. c.) has satisfactorily refuted. Philippides seems to have deserved the rank as- signed to him, as one of the best poets of the New- Comedy. He attacked the luxury and corruptions of his age, defended the privileges of his art, and made use of personal satire with a spirit approaching to that of the Old Comedy (see Meineke, //w^. Crit. pp. 437, 471). Plutarch eulogizes him highly (Demetr. I. c). His death is said to have been caused by excessive joy at an unexpected victory (Gell. iii. 15) : similar tales are told of the deaths of other poets, as for example, Sophocles, Alexis, and Philemon. It appears, from the passage of Gellius just quoted, that Philippides lived to an advanced age. The number of his dramas is stilted by Suidas at forty-five. There are fifteen titles extant, namely : — ^ Khwvia^Qvaai^ ^A/xipidpaos, 'Avavioxris^'Apyvpiou d(f>avi(riJ.6s, Avoi, Baaavi^ofiivt]^ AaiCLciSai, Macr- TpOTTos, '0w6la, Sf/uirAeouo-ai, or perhaps Suvftc- TTAeoucraj, ^i,dSe<pot, ^lAaOijuaios, ^iXdpyvpos^ ^iKapxos, *»Acupt7rfSi7s. In the 'Afxcpidpaos we have one of those titles which show that the poets