Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/859

Rh SOCRATES. tween the mountains Masius and Antitaurus, of which he was appointed king by Nero, in A. d, 5i. He espoused the cause of Vespasian, when the latter was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Syria, in A. i>. 69, and he subsequently served imder Titus in the Avar against the Jews. Josephus calls him king of Emesa. (Tac. Jnn. xiii. 7, Hist. ii. 81, V. 1 ; Joseph. B. J. vii. 28.) 3. King of Armenia, was placed on the throne by the Romans in the reign of M. Aurelius, [Arsacidae, p. 363, a.] SOCLES (2a>K:A.T7s), an Athenian sculptor, of the demus of Alopece, who is mentioned in the celebrated inscription relating to the erection of the temple of Athena Polias, as one of the makers of the bas-reliefs of the frieze of that temple. (Scholl, Arch'dologhche Mitlhcilungen aus G riechenland., p. J 25 ; R. Rochette, Ijcttre a M. Sckorn, pp. 403, 404, 2d ed. ) [P. S.] SOCRATES (2w/cpaT77s), historical. 1 . An Athenian, son of Antigenes, was one of the three commanders sent out with a fleet in B. c. 431, to ravage the coasts of the Peloponnese. They effected nothing beyond mere predatory landings on the coast, being foiled in an attack on Methone by the opportune arrival of Brasidas. (Thuc. ii. 23, 25.) 2. An Achaean, a leader of mercenary troops, who was one of those that took part in the ex- pedition of the younger Cyrus, b. c. 401. He was already serving in Asia when that prince began to assemble his forces, and hastened to join him at Sardis with a body of five hundred heavy armed mercenaries. Of these it is clear that he retained the command throughout the expedition, though his name is not again particularly mentioned until after the battle of Cunaxa, when we find him as one of the generals taking part in the council of war held to deliberate on the overtures made by the Persian king through the medium of Phalinus. He was afterwards one of the four leaders who accompanied Cleurchus to the tent of Tissaphernes, when all the five were treacherously seized by that satrap, and subsequently put to death by order of Artaxerxes himself. (Xen. Anab. i. 1. §11, 2. § 3, ii. 5. § 31, 6. §§ 1, 30; Diod. xiv. 19, 25.) 3. Father of the Athenian orator Deinarchus. He is called by some writers Sostratus. ( Phot. BM. p. 496, b. ed. Bekker ; Suidas s. v. Aelvapxos.) 4. A Boeotian, who was one of the officers employed by Sosibius and Agathocles, the minis- ters of Ptolemy Philopator king of Egypt, to raise and discipline a mercenary force with which to oppose Antioclius the Great. He commanded a body of 2000 peltasts, with which he rendered good service during the campaign in Syria, and at the battle of Raphia, B. c. 217. (Polvb. v. 63, 65, 82.) 5. Surnamed the Good (o xpV(J't6s), was a bro- ther of Nicomedes III. king of Bithynia. On the death of his father, Nicomedes II., he was per- suaded, contrary it is said to his own wishes, by Mithridates the Great, to assert his claim to the throne in opposition to his elder brother, and with the assistance of an army furnished him by the king of Pontus, easily expelled Nicomedes, and made himself master of Bithynia. Nicomedes, however, now had recourse to the senate of Rome ; which pro- nounced in his favour, declared war against So- crates, and reinstated the elder brother on the throne. Socrates fled for refuge to the court of SOCRATES. 847 Mithridates, but that monarch was not yet pre- pared to brave the Roman power, and conse- quently found it convenient to sacrifice his unfor- tunate ally, and not only refused to support Socrates, but even put him to death. (Appian. Mithr. 10, 13 ; Memnon, c. 30 ; Justin, xxxviii. 5.) He is called by Memnon Nicomedes, which name he probably assumed at the same time with the crown of Bithvnia. [E. H. B.] SO'CRATES (2«/fpar775), the celebrated Athe- nian philosophei", was the son of a statuary of the name of Sophroniscus. He belonged to the deme Alopece, in the immediate neighbourhood of Athens, and according to the statement of Demetrius Phalereus and Apollodorus, was born in the 4th year of the 77th Olympiad (b. c. 468). The as- sumption that he was born ten years later (Diog. Laert. ii. 45) is confuted by his expression in the Apology of Plato, that, thouj^h he was more than seventy years old, that was his first appearance before a judicial tribunal, since the date of the conviction that ensued is well established (01. 95. 1). Whether in his youth he devoted himself to the art of his father, and himself executed the group of clothed Graces which was shown on the Acropolis as a work of Socrates (Pans. ix. 35, comp. i. 22 ; Diog. Laert. ii. 19 ; Porph. ap. Cyrill. cont Julian, p. 208, Spanh.), we must leave un- decided ; the statements that in his youth he had in turn given himself up to an employment un- worthy of a freeman, or even to a licentious life (Aristoxenus, ap. Diog. Laert. ii. 20, comp. 19 ; Porphyr. ap. Theodoret. Gi: Affect Cur. xii. 174, ed. Sylb. ; comp. Luzac, Ledt. Alt. p. 240, &c.), we cannot regard as authenticated. Nevertheless it appears that it was not without a struggle that he became master of his naturally impetuous ap- petites (Cic. de Faio, 5 ; Alex. Aphrod. de Fato, p. 30, ed. Lond. ; comp. Aristox. ap. Plut. de Herod. Malign, p. 856, c). That he was a disciple of the physiologists Anaxagoras and Archelaus. rests on the evidence of doubtful authorities (Diog. Laert. ii. 18, &c., 23, i. 14 ; Porph. ap. TJieodoret. I.e. p. 174 ; Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 301 ; Cic. Tusc. Disp. V. 4 ; Sext. Emp. adv. Math. x. 360, &c. ; comp. C. F. Hermann, de Socratis Magidris et Disciplina juvenilis Marb. 1837). Plato and Xenophon know nothing of it ; on the contrary, in the former {Phaed. p. 97) Socrates refers his knowledge of the doctrine of Anaxagoras to the book of that philo- sopher, and in the latter (Xen. Syinp. i. 5) he desig- nates himself as self-taught. But that, while living in Athens, at that time so rich in the means of mental culture, he remained without any instruction, as the disparaging Aristoxenus maintains (Plut. Ac; comp. Cyrill. c. Julian, p. 186 ; Porph. ap. TJieo- doret. i. p. 8), is confuted by the testimony of Xenophon {Mem. iv. 7. § 3) and Plato {Meno, p. 82, &c.) respecting his mathematical knowledge, and the thankfulness with which he mentions the care of his native city for public education (Plato, Crito, p. 50). Although he complains of not hav- ing met with the wished for instruction at the hands of those whom he had regarded as wise (Plat. Apol. p. 21 ; comp. Xen. Oecon. 2. 16), intercourse with the most distinguished men and women of his age could not remain entirely without fruit for one who was continually striving to arrive at an understanding with himself by means of an under- standing with others (Plat. Charm, p. 166). In this sense he boasts of being a disciple of Prodicus