Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/35

 mother of Alexander, still cnrricd much weight with tlio MawdoriijuiH, and lior alliance was now fagcrly coiirtnd Wy tlu; now rogont I'olyHporclion, wlict «to(l in u('.(h of lior support ngaiiiMt Cas- Bandcr ; and lie sent hor an honourable embassy, imploring lier to return to Macedonia, nnd under- take tliH cluirgo of the young prince Alexander, the son of Koxana. She, however, followed the advice of Kiim<'n<;«, that she should remain in Kp('irus until the fortune of the war was decided, nnd cont(nted herself with interposing the weight of her name and authority in favour of Polv- Bperchon in (Jreece, and of Kumenes in Asia. (l)iod. xviii. 4f), /i7, /iH, 02, 6Y>,) For n time, indeed, fortune appeared to bo unfavourable : the disasti'rs of I*lyHi)erchon in (Jreece, and the alliance concluded by Kurydico with Cussander, gave a decid(d pntponderanco to the opposite party. Hut in n.c. .'117, Olympias determined to take a more vigorous part in the contest, nnd took the field in person, together with Polysperchon, at the head of an army fiirniHhed by the king of Kpeirus. Kurydice met tlioni with e(iual daring ; but when the motlujr of Alexander appeared on the field, surrounded by n train in bacchanalian style, the Macedonians at once declared in her favour, and Kurydice, abandoned by her own troops, fled to Am])liipoliH, where she soon after fell into the hands of her imphicnble rival, and was put to death, together with her unfortunate husband, the puppet king Arrhidaeus [EtriiyDlCKJ. Not content with tliiw unnecessary act of cruelty, Olympias followed up her vengeance by the execu- tion of Nicnnor, the brother t)f Cassander, as well ns of an hundred of his leading partisans among the Macedonian nobles, and oven wreukcsd her fury upon the lifeless remains of his brother lolhis. (Diod.xix. 1 1 ; JiiHtin, xiv./i ; Athen. xiii. p, r)f»0,f. ; Pans. i. 11. §4 ; VUitAlcx. 77 ; Ael. K //.xiii. .'55.) But her sanguinary triumph was of short duration : her cruelties alienated the mijids of the Macedo- nian*, and Cassander, who was at that time in the Peloponnese, hasteiuid to raise the siege of Tegea, in which he was engaged, and tum-his arms against Macedonia. Olympias on his approach threw her- self (together with lioxana and the young Alex- ander) into Pydna, where she trusted to bo able to hold out until Polysperchon or Aeacides sliouhl come to her relief; but (Cassander succeeded in cutting off all succours from without, and kept the city closely blockaded both by sea and land throughout the winter. At length in the spring of 816, after suffering the utmost extremities of fa- mine, Olymiiias was compelled by the increasing discontent of the garrison to surrender to Cassander, stipulating only that her life should bo spared. But notwithstanding this promise, the conqueror caused her to bo arraigned before the assembly of the Macedonians for her late executions, and con- demned to death without being allowed a hearing, Olympias in vain protested against tho sentence, and demanded to be heard in her own defence. Cassander feared the effect which her personal ap- pearance might produce, and despatched a body of soldiers to put her to death. Even these men, awed by her daring and majestic carriage, hesi- tated to fulfil their orders, but the friends of the Macedonians whom she had so lately put to death, rushed in and despatched her with many wounds. She met her fate with a fortitude and dignity worthy of the mother of Alcxaudcr, Cossauder ia wild to hare denied the rites of sepulture to her remains. (I)iod. xix. 35, 36, 49 — 61 ; Justin, xiv. 6; Pans. ix. 7. § 2 ; Polyaen. iv. 11. §3; Aelian. //. A'', xii. 6 ; Euseb. yfrm. p. 1/55.) Of her character it is unnecessary to spt^ak, after the events above related : she was certainly not with- out something of the grandeur and loftiness of spirit which distinguished her son, but her un- governable passions led her to acts of sanguinary cruelty that must for ever disgrace her name. Tier life was made tho subject of a separate biograi>hy by Amyntianux, a writer in the reign of M. Aure- lius. (*u,t./m. p. 97, a.) J)aught«!r of Pyrrhus I. king of Epeirua, and wife of her own brother Alexander II. After his d(rath she asHumed the regency of the kingdom on behalf of h(!r two sons, Pyrrhui and Ptolemy ; and in order to strengthen herself against the Aetoliang gave her daughter Phthiain marriage to Demctriut II. king of Macedonia. Hy this alliance she so- cured herself in tho possession of tho sovereignty, which she continued to administer till her sons were grown up to manhood, when she resigned it into the hands of Pyrrhus. Hut tho deaths of that prince and his brother Ptolemy followed in quick succession, and Olympias herself died of grief for her double loss. (Justin, xxviii. 3.) Such IS Justin^s statitment : according to another accoimt Olympias had poiNoned n Leucadian damsel named Tigris, to whom her son Pyrrhus was attfiched, and was herself poisoned by him in nsvenge. (A then. xiii. p. 539, f; IlelliKlius, ap. Pluit.^, 530, a.)

. Daughter of Polycletus of Larissa, was tho wife of Demetrius, surnamed tho Handsome, by whom she became the mother of Antigoniis Doson, afterwards king of Macedonia. (Euseb. Arm. p. 101.) [E. II. H.]

OIjY'MPIAS, a female painter, of whom Pliny knew nothing more than that she instructed Auto- buhm. (//. N. XXXV. U.S. 40. § 43.) ['' '>.]

OLY'MPICUS (^0v^^^t^K6s sometimes called OlympiurM8, but proy>ably incorrectly, a physician of Miletus, who belonged to the sect of tho Methodici, though ho did not embrace all their doctrines. (Oalen, Introd, c. 4, vol. xiv. p. 634.) He was the tutor of Apollonius of Cyprus (Oalen, Do Meth. Med. i. 7, vol. X. p. 54), and therefore lived in the first century aft(!r Christ. Oalen does not appear to have thought very highly of him, as ho calls him criticizes severely his definition of the words vyitia and irdQoi. (Jfnd. pp. 54, &c. 67, &c.) [W. A. O.J
 * a frivolous (Atj^oSStj?) person" (//>»</. p. 53), and

OL Y'MPION ( OAuuirfw*'), an ambassador sent by Oentius, the lllyrian king, to Per8(!us, in B..c. 1 68. ( Polyb. xxix. 2, 3 ; Liv. xliv. 28.) [Gbn- TltJH ; PKHSKlJfl.]

OLYMPIODO'RUS ('Ovniri69wpos historical. 1. An Athenian, tho son of Lampon, Me commanded a body of 800 picked Athenian troops at the battle of Plataojie. Whcui tho Megarians were being hard pressed by the Persian cavalry before tho general engagement, this body of Athenians undertook to relieve them, a service from which all the other Greeks shrank. (Herod, ix. 21 ; Pint. Ariftid. p. 327, a.).

. An Athenian, against whom a law-suit was brought by his brother-in-law, Callistmtus, respecting an inheritance left by a man named Conon. Demosthenes wrote tho speech Hard 'OAu/tirto- ic&pov for CallistratUB on this occasiou. Tho par-