Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/453

Rh POLLUX. Siiidas has preserved the titles of the following. 1. 'Ouofj-aa-TiKov tv ^L§Kiois /, an Onomasticon in ten books. 2. AiaAe^eis rjroi AaAiat, Dissertations. 3. MeAerai, Declamations. 4. Els Ko/xoSov Kai- crapa. iindaXd/iuos, an oration on the marriage of the Caesar Commodus. 5. Paj;iai/CsAo7os, a panegyric on Rome. 6. 2aA7ri7KT7]sr/ dycicv fxovaiKos, a Trum- peter, or a musical contest. 7. Karo Sw/cparouT, a speech against Socrates. 8. Kara l^ivcoireuv, against the Sinopians. 9. UaueW-^uios, a speech delivered before the assembled Greeks. 10. 'Ap- KoStffcy, a speech addressed to the Arcadians or in praise of the Arcadians. All these works have perished with the excep- tion of the Onomasticon, which has come down to 118. The latter is divided into ten books, each of which contains a short dedication to the Caesar Commodus, and the work was therefore published before a. d. 177, since Commodus became Augustus in that year. Each book forms a separate treatise by itself, containing the most important Avords relating to certain subjects, with short explanations of the meanings of the words, which are frequently illustrated by quotations from the ancient writers. The alphabetical arrangement is not adopted, but the words are given according to the subjects treated of in each book. The object of the work was to present youths with a kind of store-house, from which they could borrow all the words of which they had need, and could at the same time leani their usage in the best writers. The con- tents of each book will give the best idea of the nature of the work. L The first treats of the gods and their worship, of kings, of speed and slowness, of dyeing, of commerce and manufactures, of fertility and the contrary, of time and the divi- sions of the year, of houses, of ships, of war, of horses, of agriculture, of the parts of the plough and the waggon, and of bees. 2. The second treats of man, his eye, the parts of his body and the like. 3. Of relations, of political life, of friends, of the love of country, of love, of the relation between masters and slaves, of money, of travelling, and numerous other subjects. 4. Of the various branches of knowledge and science. .5. Of hunt- ing, animals, &c. 6. Of meals, the names of crimes, &c. 7. Of the different trades, &c. 8. Of the courts, the administration of justice, &c. 9. Of towns, buildings, coins, games, &c. 10. Of various vessels, &c. Li consequence of the loss of the great number of lexicographical works from which Pollux compiled his Onomasticon, this book has become one of the greatest value for acquiring a knowledge of Greek antiquity, and explains many subjects which are known to us from no other so.irce. It has also preserved many frag- ments of lost writers, and the great number of authors quoted in the work may be seen by a glance at the long list given in Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 145, &c.) The first three editions of the Onomasticon con- tain simply the Greek text, without a Latin translation and with numerous errors : they are by Aldus, Venice, 1502, fol., by B. Junta, Flo- rence, 1520, fol., by S. Grynaeus, Basel, 1536, 4to. The first Greek and Latin edition was by Wolf- gang Seber, Frankfort, 1608, 4to., with the text corrected from manuscripts ; the Latin translation given in this edition had been previously published by Walther at Basel, 1541, 8vo. The next edi- tion is the very valuable one iu Greek and Latin POLYAENUS. 441 by J. IT. Lederlin and Tib. Hemstershuis, Am- sterdam, 1706, fol. ; it contains copious notes by Goth. Jungermann, Joach. Klihn, and the two editors. This was followed by the edition of W. Dindorf, Leipzig, 1824, 5 vols. 8vo., containing the works of the previous commentators. The last edition is by Imm. Bekker, Berlin, 1846, which gives only the Greek text. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 141 ; Vossius, De Hist. Graecis, p. 278, ed. Westermann ; Heni- sterhuis, Praefatio ad Pollucem ; C. F. Ranke, Commeiitatio de Polluce et Luciano, Quedlinburg, 1831 ; Grafenhan, GeschicJde der Klassichen Phi- lologie, vol. iii. p. 166, &c., Bonn, 1846 ; Clinton, Fasti Romani, sub ann. 176, 183.) POLLUX, JU'LIUS, a Byzantine writer, is the author of a chronicon, which treats at some length of the creation of the world, and is therefore entitled 'Itrropia (pvaiK-q. Like most other By- zantine histories, it is an universal history, begin- ning with the creation of the world and coming down to the time of the writer. The two manu- scripts from which this work is published end with the reign of Valens, but the Paris manuscript is said to come down as low as the death of Romanus, A. D. 963, and also to contain what is wanting at the conclusion of the anonymous continuation of Constantinus Porphyrogenitus. The whole work is made up of extracts from Simeon Logotheta, Theophanes, and the continuation of Constantinus, and relates chiefly ecclesiastical events. It was first published from a manuscript at Milan by J. B. Bianconi, under the title of Anonymi Scriptoris Historia Sacra, Bononiae, 1779, fo. Ign. Hardt found the work in a more perfect state, and with the name of the author prefixed to it in a manu- script at Munich, and, believing that it had not yet been printed, published it at Munich, 1792, 8vo., under the title of t/idii PoUucis Historia Pliysica, nunc primuin Gr. et Lat. ed. ^c. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 144 ; Vossius, He Hist. Graecis, p. 278, ed. Westermann ; SchoU, Ge- schichte der Griechisclien Litleratur, vol. iii. p. 257.) POLUS (ncoAos). 1. A sophist and rhetori- cian, a native of Agrigentum. He was a disciple of Gorgias (or, according to other authorities, of Licym- nius, Schol. ad Plat. Phuedr. p. 812), and wrote a work on rhetoric, called by Suidas Tex'^V, as also a genealogy of the Greeks and barbarians who were engaged in the Trojan war, with an account of their several fates ; a catalogue of the ships, and a work Uepl Ae^euu. He is introduced by Plato as an interlocutor in the Gorgias. (Suidas, s. v. ; Philostr. Vit. Sophist, i. 1 3, with the note of Olea- rius ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 801.) 2. A Pythagorean, a native of Lucania. A fragment from a work by him on Justice is pre- served by Stobaeus. (Serin. 9.) 3. A celebrated tragic actor, the son of Charicles of Sunium, and a disciple of Archias of Thurii. It is related of him that at the age of 70, shortly be- fore his death, he acted in eight tragedies on four successive days. (Plut. Dem. p. 859, An se7ii ger. sit Resp. 3. p. 785, b ; Lucian. Necyom. vol. i. p, 479, ed. Hemst.) [C. P. M.] POLYAENUS {UoKvaivos), historical. I. One of the leading men at Syracuse, B. c. 214. (Li v. xxiv. 22.) 2. Of Cyparissus, was in the company of Philo- poemen, when the latter killed Machanidas in b.c. 207. (Polyb.xL 18. §2.)