Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/358

Rh 346 PHORMION. the Corinthian vessels from sailing out of the gulf, and to stop all vessels bound for Corinth. He was still here in the summer of 429, when a Pelopon- nesian fleet was sent to aid the allies of Sparta in the West. By his skilful manoeuvres with very inferior forces he gained a decisive victory over the Pelopon- nesian fleet. In a second engagement, which ensued not long after, though at first compelled to retreat, by seizing an opportunity afforded by the confusion into which the fleet of the enemy was thrown by means of a dexterous manoeuvre of one of the Athenian ships which was being chased, Phormion gained another brilliant victory. For the details, the reader is referred to Thucydides, where they are given at length. In the ensuing winter Phor- mion led an expedition along the coast of Acarna- nia, and, disembarking, advanced into the interior, where he gained some successes. (Thucyd. i. 64, 65, 117, ii. 29, 58, 68, 69, 80—92, 102, 103; Diod. xii. 37, 47, 48.) On one occasion, when called on to submit to the ivQvvj)^ he was condemned to pay a fine of 100 minae. Not being able to do so, he was made aTL/xos, and retired to Paeania. While here a re- quest came from the Acarnanians that he might be sent out as commander to them. To this the Athenians consented, but Phormion urged that it was contrary to law to send out in that way a man who was under sentence of drifxia. As the ostensible remission of the fine was not lawful, the device was resorted to (as in the case of Demo- sthenes, Plut. Dein. c. 27) of assigning to him some trifling public service (which in his case seems to have been a sacrifice to Dionysus), for which he was paid the amount of his fine. (Schol. adAi-iitoph. Pac. 348 ; Pans. i. 23. § 10 ; Bockh, ap. Meineke, Fragm. Poet. Com. Ant. ii. i. p. 527). Phormion was no longer alive in B.C. 428, when the Acarnanians, out of respect to his memory, re- quested that his son Asopius might be sent to them as general. (Thucyd. iii. 7.) The tomb of Phormion was on the road leading to the Academy, near those of Pericles and Chabrias. (Paus. i. 29. § 3.) He was a man of remarkably temperate habits, and a strict disciplinarian. (Aristoph. Equit. 560, Pax, 348, Lys. 804 ; Schol. ad Arist. Pac. 347 ; Suidas s. v. ^opixiuvos ariSds ; Athen. x. p. 419, a.) 2. A freedman of Pasion the banker. After the death of the latter he married his widow, and became guardian to his younger son Pasicles. It was not however till eleven years after the death of Pasion that he received the franchise of an Athenian citizen. (Dem. adv. Steph. p. 1126.) He was a ship-owner ; and on one occasion, when the people of Byzantium had detained some of his ships, he sent Stephanus to complain of the wrong. {lb. p. 1121.) Apollodorus, the eldest son of Pasion, brought an action against Phormion, who was defended by Demosthenes in the speech vir^p ^opixiuivos. Subsequently Apollodorus brought the witnesses of Phormion to trial for perjury, when Demosthenes supported the other side, and com- posed for Apollodorus the speeches against ^Ste- phanus. [Apollodorus.] (Demosth. /. c. ; Aesch. defals. Leg. p. 50 ; Plut. Demosth. c. 15 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. 358.) 3. Sex. Clodius Phormio, amoney lender men- tioned by Cicero {pro Caecina, 9. § 27), who does not speak of him in very flattering terms. [C. P. M.] PHO'RMION {iopixiwp), literary. 1. A dis- PHORONEUS. ciple of Plato, sent by the latter to the Eleans for the purpose of giving them some laws. (Plut. adv. Colot. p. 1126,c.) 2. A peripatetic philosopher of Ephesus, of whom ia told the story that he discoursed for se- veral hours before Hannibal on the military art and the duties of a general. When his admiring auditory asked Hannibal what he thought of him, the latter replied, that of all the old blockheads whom he had seen, none could match Phormion. (Cic. rffi Oraf. ii. 18.) [C.P.M.J PHORMIS or PHORMUS (*oVjs, Aristot. Pausan. ; *o/3/xos, Athen. Suid.). Bentley is of opinion that the former is the correct mode of spelling {Dissert, upon Phalaris, vol. i. p. 252, ed. 1836). In Themistius he is called "Aixopcpos. He came originally from Maenalus in Arcadia, and having removed to Sicily, became intimate with Gelon, whose children he educated. He distin- guished himself as a soldier, both under Gelon and Hieron his brother, who succeeded, B. c. 478. In gratitude for his martial successes, he dedicated gifts to Zeus at Olympia, and to Apollo at Delphi. Pausanias (v. 27) gives a description of the former of these — two horses and charioteers ; and he de- scribes a statue of Phormis engaged in fight, dedi- cated by Lycortas, a Syracusan. Though the matter has been called in question, there seems to be little or no doubt that this is the same person who is associated by Aristotle with Epichannus, as one of the originators of comedy, or of a parti- cular form of it. We have the names of eigiit comedies written by him, in Suidas (s. v.), who also states that he was the first to introduce actors with robes reaching to the ankles, and to ornament the stage with skins dyed purple — as drapery it may be presumed. From the titles of the plays, we may safely infer that he selected the same my- thological subjects as Epichannus. They are, "Ittttos, Kr](pevs, or Kecpdhaia, Ilepaevs, 'AraAavTr]. (Aristot. Poetic, c. 5 ; Paus., Suidas, //. cc. ; Athen. xiv. p. 652, a ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 315.) [W.M.G.] PHORO'NEUS {^opwvevs a son of Inachus and the Oceanid Melia or Archia, was a brother of Aegialeus and the ruler of Peloponnesus. He was married to the nymph Laodice, by whom he became the father of Niobe, Apis, and Car. (Hygin. Fab. 143; Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 920 ; Apollod. ii. 1. § 1 ; Paus. i. 39. § 4.) Pausanias (ii. 21. § 1) calls his wife Cerdo, and the Scholiast on Eu- ripides calls his first wife Peitho, and her children Aegialeus and Apia, and the second Europa, who was the mother of Niobe. According to Hellani- cus {aj), Eustath. ad Horn. p. 385) he had three sons, Pelasgus, lasus, and Agenor, who, after their father's death, distributed the kingdom of Argos among themselves. Phoroneus is said to have been the first who oifered sacrifices to Hera at Argos, and to have united the people, who until then had lived in scattered habitations, into a city which was called after him darv ^opooviKov. (Paus. ii. 15, in fin. ; Hygin. Fah. 274.) He is further said to have discovered the use of fire (Paus. ii. 19. § 5) ; his tomb was shown at Argos, where funeral sacrifices were oflfered to him (ii. 20. § 3). The patronymic Phoroneides is sometimes used for Argives in general, but especially to designate Amphiaraus and Adrastus (Paus. vii. 17. § 3 ; Theocrit. xxv.200.) [L. S.J
 * 'A8yU7jTos, 'Aklvovs, 'AA/cuoVes, 'lAiou HopOriais,