Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/340

Rh 328 PHILOSTRATUS. nius pointed out the impossibility of a man who was twenty-four years old in the reign of Caracalla, being placed near the time of an emperor dead upwards of 110 years before. Pie conjectures (and his idea has since then been universally acquiesced in ) that it was Elagabalus, slain A. D. '2'22^ whom Aelian had attacked ( T. H. praefat. p. .50). At the close of his work, Philostratus the biographer praises his powers in forensic, popular, and extem- poraneous eloquence, in rhetorical exercises, and for his writings, and naming him with Nicagoras and Apsines, he says, ovk e^ue Se? ypd(peiv, koI yap ay Kal dirKTTTiOeLrjv us x^P'O'^'M^*'"^? eveidrj (piXiajuoi irpos avTovs r)v. It has been held that this last c ause infers the death of the Lemnian, previously to the finishing of these memoirs. (Fabric. Bill. Graec. vol. v. p. 555.) But this by no means follows. Among the parties mentioned is Nica- goras, of whom he expressly says, that he is {faTi) herald in the Eleusinian rites ( Kayser has iffTfcpdri, not on the best authority). Then X"P*- adu€vos, in its plain meaning, would lead us to suppose that Philostratus was afraid of appearing to flatter, not the dead, but the living. And as to ■^Vy that is accounted for by the indirect narration, and as preceded by au diri(rTr]d€ir)v. From this then we can infer nothing as to the time of his death. But Suidas says he died and was buried in Leranos. It is hardly possible that he can have been a grandson of the biographer, as Kayser in his pre- face supposes, as the latter was writing vigorously in the reign of Philip (a. d. 244^ — 249), when, according to the computation already given, the Lemnian, born in 191, would have been between 53 and 58 years old. We have already seen that the biographer notices no relationship. Hence the Prooemium to the EiKoves, printed along with the EtKOJ'es of the elder writer, is highly suspicious. He mentions that the work of the same nature, written by his namesake and grandfather tov/x^ ofiuvvfiq) Kal fi-nTpoirdTopi, led him to undertake his. If so we must add another to the Philostrati, and suppose that the Lemnian married the bio- grapher's daughter, and that this writer was the issue of the marriage. But the truth is, that al- though this work is not destitute of merit, it has very much the appearance of a clever imitation by a later sophist, who found Philostratus a convenient name. This is confirmed by the fact, that while the EIk6u€s of the elder writer furnish favourable materials for imitation, quotation, and reference to subsequent poets, collectors, grammarians, and critics, not a single quotation from this by any subsequent writer can be traced, and only three MSS. have yet been discovered. The writer, whoever he was, after rather a clumsy Prooemium, discusses seventeen pictures, which are almost all mythological, and in describing them he appeals to the poets more than his predecessor does. From the first, this work has been uniformly printed along with the E'lKoves of the other Phi- lostratus. It formed a part of Blaise de Vigenere's translation into French ; with Callistratus, it forms the eighth volume of Jacobs's translation, already mentioned. 4. The Aegvptian, was in Africa with Juba when Cato and Scipio took the command against Julius Caesar, B. c. 47, on which occasion a rebuke given to Juba for the honours paid to Philostratus, led to the reconciliation of the two noble Romans, PHILOTAS. who had previously been at variance. (Plut. Cat. Min. 57.) He afterwards attached himself to the party of Antony and Cleopatra, and his morals were not improved by the connection. (Epigram, apud Philostrat. V.S. i. 5.) Hence the indignation of Augustus, when he entered Alexandria b. c. 30, at finding a professed follower of the Academic school so degraded. He granted him his life, however, that no odium might attach to the philo- sopher Areius, whom Philostratus, with long white beard and funereal garb, followed, importuning for mercy. (Plut. Ant. 80.) His familiarity with princes, and his wealth, the result of a life of labour, are contrasted with the condition to which, alive and dead, he was subjected by the Roman soldiers, in an epigram of Crinagoras. (Anthol. Graec. ed. Jacobs, vol. ii. p. 139, vol. viii. p. 415.) Philo- stratus ranks him among the sophistical philoso- phers, and speaks of him as devoting himself to the panegyrical and varied styles of rhetoric. (Phil. V.S. I.e.) Vossius, who has read the lives of the Philostrati very carelessly, places this contemporary of Augustus as contemporary with Philostratus the Lemnian, misled by the word ol5a, which he translates vidi, instead of novi. Vidi is the trans- lation of Morellius. This strange error has escaped the notice of Westermann. {De Hist. Graec. p. 280.) 5. An historian mentioned by Josephus {Ant. X. 11. § 2) as having written accounts of India and Phoenicia ; and again (c. Apion. i. 20, p. 1343, ed. Hudson) as having written in his history of the siege of Tyre. It is probable that it was in conse- quence of being confounded with this writer that Philostratus the biographer was sometimes called the Tyrian. Even Vossius, through singular in- advertence, thinks that Josephus refers to the writer of the life of Apollonius {de Hist. Graec. Lc), at which passage Westermann, correcting the mistake, suggests that this writer is alluded to by Cassianus Bassus. {Geopon. i. 14.) 6. An historian who flourished in the reign of the emperor Aurelian. (Svncellus, Chronograph. p. 384.) ' [W. M. G.] PHILO'STRATUS, C. FU'FIUS, an artist, whose name appears on a gem ; but it cannot be said with certainty whether the name is that of the engraver or of the owner. {Spilsbury Gems, No. 31 ; Sillig, Catal. Arii/.s.v.) [P. S.] PHILO'TAS (#iAwTas), a descendant of Pene- leus of Thebes, is said to have led a colony to Priene. (Pans. vii. 2. § 7 ; Strab. xiv. p. 633, &c.) [L. S.] PHILOTAS (*iA«tfTas). LA Macedonian, father of Parmenion, the general of Alexander the Great (Arr. Anab. iii. 11. § 16). It appears that he had two other sons, Asander and Agathon. (Id. ib. i. 17. § 8; Diod. xix. 75.) 2. Son of Parmenion, was one of the most dis- tinguished officers in the service of Alexander. He appears to have already enjoyed a high place in the friendship and confidence of that monarch before his accession to the throne (Plut. Alew. 10) ; and in the first military enterprises of the young king against the Thracians, Triballi, and Glaucias, king of Illyria, Philotas bears a conspicuous part (Arr. Anab. i. 2, 5). In the organization of the army for the expedition to Asia, Philotas obtained the chief command of the whole body of the eTa?pot, or native Macedonian cavalry, a post of such im- portance as to rank probably second only to that