Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/347

Rh PHILUS. PHILUS, the name ot a family of the patrician Furia gens. 1. P. FuRius Sp. f. M. n. Phil us, was consul B. c. 223 with C. Flaminius, and accompanied his colleague in his campaign against the Gauls in the north of Italy. [Flaminius, No. 1.] He was elected praetor in the third year of the second Punic war, B. c. 2 1 6, when he obtained the juris- dictio inter cives Romanos et peregrinos ; and after the fatal battle of Cannae in this year, he and his colleague M. Pomponius Matho summoned the senate to take measures for the defence of the city. Shortly afterwards he received the fleet from M. Claudius Marcellus, with which he proceeded to Africa, but having been severely wounded in an engagement off the coast he returned to Lilybaeura. In B. c. 2 1 4 he was censor with M. Atilius Re- gulus, but he died at the beginning of the following year, before the solemn purification {lustrum) of the people had been performed ; and Regulus accordingly, as was usual in such cases, resigned his office. These censors visited with severity all persons who had failed in their duty to their country during the great calamities which Rome had lately experienced. They reduced to the condition of aerarians all the young nobles, who had formed the project of leaving Italy after the battle of Cannae, amogg whom was L. Caecilius Metellus, who was quaestor in the year of their consulship, B. c. 214. As, however, Metellus was elected tribune of the plebs for the following year not- withstanding this degradation, he attempted to bring the censors to trial before the people, imme- diately after entering upon his office, but was pre- vented by the other tribunes from prosecuting such an unprecedented course. [Metellus, No. 3.] Philus was also one of the augurs at the time of his death. (Liv. xxii. 35, 55, 57, xxiii. 21, xxiv. 11, 18, 43, XXV. 2 ; Val. Max. ii. 9. § 8.) 2. P. FuRius Philus, the son of the preceding, informed Scipio in B.C. 216, after the battle of Cannae, of the design of L. Caecilius Metellus and others to leave Italy, to which reference has been made above. (Liv. xxii. 53.) 3. P. FuRius Philus, praetor B.C. 174, ob- tained Nearer Spain as his province. On his return to Rome he was accused by the provincials of repetundae. The elder Cato spoke against him : on the first hearing the case was adjourned {ampli- atus), but fearing a condemnation, when it came on again, Philus went into exile to Praeneste, B. c. 171. (Liv. xli. 21, xliii. 2 ; Cic. in Caecil. Div. 20 ; Pseudo-Ascon. in loc. p. 124, ed. Orelli ; Meyer, Oral. Rom. Fragm. p. 97, 2nd ed.) 4. L. FuRius Philus, probably brother of the preceding, was praetor b. c. 171, and obtained Sar- dinia as his province. He was one of the ponti- fices, and died in B.C. 170. (Liv. xlii. 28, 31, xliii. 13.) 5. L. FuRius Philus, was consul b. c. 136 with Sex. Atilius Serranus. He received Spain as his province, and was commissioned by the senate to deliver up to the Numantines C. Hos- tilius Mancinus, the consul of the preceding year. [Mancinus, No. 3.] On that occasion Philus took with him as legati Q. Pompeius and Q. Me- tellus, two of his greatest enemies, that they might be compelled to bear witness to his uprightness and integrity. A contemporary of the younger Scipio and of Laelius, Philus participated with them in a love PHILYLLIUS. 335 for Greek literature and refinement. He cultivated the society of the most learned Greeks, and was himself a man of no small learning for those times. He was particularly celebrated for the purity with which he spoke his mother-tongue. He is intro- duced by Cicero as one of the speakers in his dialogue De RepuUica, and is described by the latter as a man " moderatissimus et continentis- simus." (Dion Cass. Fragm. Ixxxv. p. 36, ed. Reimar. ; Val. Max. iii. 7. § 5 ; Cic. de Of. iii. 30, de Rep. iii. 18, Brut. 28, de Or. ii. 37, pro Arch. 7, de Leg. Agr. ii. 24, de Rep. i. 1 1, ad Att. iv. 16, Lael. 4, 6, 19, 27.) His praenoraen was Lucius, and not Publius, as it is erroneously given in one passage of Cicero (ad Att. xii. 5. § 3), and by many modern writers. 6. M. FuRius Philus, occurs only on coins, a specimen of which is annexed. Tiie obverse re^ presents the head of Janus with the legend m. FOVRi. L.P., the reverse Pallas or Rome crowning a trophy, and below phili. COIN OP M. FURIUS PHILUS. L. PHILU'SCIUS, was proscribed by Sulla and escaped, but was again proscribed by the triumvirs in B. c. 43, and perished. (Dion Cass. xlvii. 11.) PHFLYRA (^ivpa). 1. A daughter of Oceanus, and the mother of Cheiron by Cronus. (Pind. Nem. iii. 82 ; ApoUon. Rhod. ii. 1241 ; comp. Cheiron.) 2. The wife of Nauplius, according to some tra- ditions, for she is commonly called Clymene (Apol- lod. ii. 1 . § 4). [L. S.] PHILY'LLIUS (^ivXios an Athenian comic poet, contemporary with Diodes and Sannyrion (Suid. s. V. AioKKrjs). He belongs to the latter part of the Old Comedy, and the beginning of the Middle ; for, on the one hand, he seems to have attained to some distinction before the time when the Ecclesiazusae of Aristophanes was acted, B. c. 392 (Schol. ad AristopJu Plut. 1195), and, on the other, nearly all the titles of his plays belong evi- dently to the Middle Comedy. He is said to have introduced some scenic innovations, such as bring- ing lighted torches on the stage (Schol. Plut. I. c. ; Ath. XV. 700, e.). With regard to his language, Meineke mentions a few words and phrases, which are not pure Attic. His name is corrupted by the Greek lexicographers and others into *iAAwAtos, ^ia7os, *(AoAoos, ^tAAuSeos, and other fonns. The following titles of his plays are given by Suidas and Eudocia, and in the following order: — Alyevs, hvyr]., "Avreia {haipas ovojxa)., AwSe/carr?, 'HpafcArjs, UKvvrpta -ff Nau(rt«oa, TlSXis (better IIoAeis), *p6wpu;iros, "AraAaj/Trj, 'Evn, where the last two titles look suspicious, as being out of the alphabetical order. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. I vol. i. pp. 258—261, ii. pp. 857—866; Bergk, I Comment, de Reliq. Com. Att. Ant. p. 428.) [P. S.J