Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/521

Rh POSEIDONIUS. it. 10. Merc(i}pooyiKrj 'XTOix^lascns. 11. Uffu rod r)loi /jieyedovs. 12. UeplTlKeavov. . Uepl <|/uX7js. 14. ITpos ZT^vwva rov ^iSociviov, or at least a mathematical work in which his views were con- troverted. 15. 'HdiKos yot. 16. TipoTpeTrriKd, in defence of the position, that the study of philosophy ought not to be neglected on account of the dis- crepancies in the systems of different philosophers. 17. nept KaOrJKOPTos (see Cic. ad Att. xvi. 11). 18. Uepl Tra6£v. 19. A treatise on the connection between virtues and the division of the faculties of the mind (Galen, I.e. viii. p. 319). 20. Uepl KpiTTiplov, 21. Eiaaycoyrj irepl Aelews. A gram- matical work. 22. An extensive historical work, in at least forty-nine or fifty books (Athen. iv. p. 168, d.), and apparently of very miscel- laneous contents, to judge by the tolerably nume- rous quotations of it in Athenaeus, and com- prising events from the time of Alexander the Great to his own times. Suidas, by a gross blunder, attributes to Po- seidoiiius of Alexandria an historical work in fifty-two books, in continuation of the history of Polybius. Vossius (de Hist. Graec. p. 199, ed. Westermann) considers this work to be identical with the historical work of Poseidonius of Apa- meia. Bake dissents from this view, inasmuch as events were mentioned by Poseidonius earlier than those included in the history of Polybius, and assigns the work to Poseidonius of Olbiopolis. His objection is not decisive, and Westermann coin- cides with Vossius. But the account which Suidas gives of the work is enormously wrong, as he says it ended with the Cyrenaic war (b. c. 324 ), and yet was a continuation of the history of Polybius, which goes down to the destruction of Corinth by Mummius (b. c. 146). 23. A history of the life of Poinpeius Magnus (Strab. xi. p. 753). This may possibly have been a part of his larger his- torical work. 24. T^xv] tuktikt^ [de Acie instru- e?ida). 25. Various epistles. All the relics which still remain of the writings of Poseidonius have been carefully collected and illustrated by Janus Bake, in a work entitled Posi- donii Rhodii Reliquiae Dodrinae, Lugd. Bat. 1810. (Fabric. Dibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 572 ; Vossius, deHist. Graec. p. 198, ed. Westermann ; Hitter, Geschichte der PIdlosophie, bk. xi. c. 6, vol. iii. p. 700, &c. ; Bake, /. c. ). There was an earlier Poseidonius, a native of Alexandria, and a disciple of Zeno, mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (vii. 38) and Suidas, who (besides the historical work above referred to) mentions some writings, of which, however, he is more disposed to consider Poseidonius of Olbiopolis the author. The latter he describes as a sophist and historian, and the author of the following works : — HepX rov 'Attikus t(TTopias, in four books : AiSvkcx, in eleven books ; and some others. The first mentioned work is assigned by Bake to Poseidonius of Apa- meia. There were also some others of the same name »who are not worth mentioning. [C. P. M.J POSEIDO'NIUS (noo-eiSwwos), the name of two Greek physicians, who have been confounded together by Sprengel {Hist, de la Med. vol. ii. p. 92, French transl.), and placed in " the time of Valens ;" and also by M. Littre {Oeuvres d''Hip- pocr. vol. iii. p. 5), who, while correcting one half of Sprengel's chronological mistake, falls himself POSSIDIUS. 509 into the same error, and equally supposes them to have been one and the same individual, whom he places in the first century after Christ. 1. The author of some medical works, of which nothing but a few fragments remain, who quotes i^rchigenes (ap. Aet. ii. 2. 12, p. 255), and is him- self quoted by Rufus Ephesius (ap. Ang. Mai, Classic. A uctor. e Vatic. Codic. Edit. vol. iv. p. 11), and who must, therefore, have lived about the end of the first century after Christ. He is one of the earliest writers who is known to have mentioned the glandular or true plague, though this disease was, till quite lately, supposed to have been un- known till a much later period (see M. Littre, loco cit.). He is several times quoted by Aetius (i. 3. 121, ii. 2. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 18, 20, 21, 24, pp. 139, 243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 254, 255, 257, 258, 260), and Paulus Aegineta (vii. 3, 21, 22, pp. 614, 692, 693). The name frequently occurs in Galen, but it is probable that in every passage the philosopher is referred to and not the physician. If (as seems upon the whole not un- likely) this Poseidonius is the pupil of Zopyrus at Alexandria, who is mentioned by Apollonius Citi- ensis as his fellow-pupil (ap. Dietz, Schol. in Hip- pocr. et Gal. vol. i. p. 2), there is a chronological difficulty which the writer is not at present able to explain. 2. The son of Philostorgius and brother of Phil- agrius, who lived in the latter half of the fourth century after Christ, during the reign of Valentinian and Valens. (Philostorg.i/.^. viii. 10.) [W.A.G.] POSEIDO'NIUS, of Ephesus, a celebrated silver-chaser, who was contemporary with Pasi- teles, in the" time of Pompey. (Plin. //. A^. xxxiii. 12. s. 55.) Pliny mentions him also among the artists who made athletas et armatos et venatores sacrificaMesque., and adds to the mention of his name the words qui et argentum caelavit nobililer {H.N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 34). Nagler {Kunstler- Lexicon) makes the singular mistake of ascribing to him the sphere of the celebrated philosopher Poseidonius, which is mentioned by Cicero {de Nat. Deor. ii. 3i). [P-S.J POSIS, a Roman modeller, who lived in the first century B. c, and who was mentioned as an acquaintance by M. Varro, according to whom he made apples and grapes, which it was impossible to distinguish from the real objects. (Varro, ap. Plin. H. N. XXXV. 12. s. 45. The text of tlie pas- sage is very corrupt ; but there can be little doubt that the reading as restored by Gronovius gives the meaning fairly, namely : M. Varro tradit sibi cog- nitum homae Posim nomine, a quo facta poma et uvas, ut non possis discernere a veris.) These imi- tations of fruit must have been first modelled, and then painted. Their truthfulness would suggest the suspicion that they were in wax ; but, from the absence of any statement to that effect, it must be supposed that they were only in some kind of clay or stucco or gypsum. [P. S.] POSSI'DIUS, "a disciple of Augustine, with whom he lived upon intimate terms for nearly forty years. In a.d. 397 he was appointed bishop of Calama, a town in Numidia at no great distance from Hippo Regius ; but this elevation brought no tranquillity nor ease, for his career from this time forward presents one continued struggle with a succession of fierce antagonists. For a long period he was engaged in active strife with the Donatists, maintained triumphant disputations ia public with
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