Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/532

Rh 490 N I C N I C to the warmth of his feelings and his keen interest in his subject, Nicolas was apt to involve himself in keen controversy, he never cherished personal animosity, and his motives were otherwise above suspicion. A complete list of the writings of Nicolas will be found in the Gentleman s Magazine for October 1848. NICOLE, PIEKRE (1625-1695), one of the most distin guished of the Port-Royalists, a scholar of great excellence, and, according to Bayle (who had no particular reason for praising him), &quot; one of the best writers in Europe,&quot; was born at Chartres in 1625. Like his friend Pascal he was a precocious boy, though his precocity showed itself in classics and in miscellaneous reading, not in mathematics, and it was Avhen he was transferred from his native town to Paris to finish his education that the rising school of Port Royal fixed its attention upon him. At an early age he was made a master in the Port Royal school, where his special department was classical instruction, though he is said to have taken no small part in the famous Art de Penser or Port Royal logic. He shared in the history of the school, and with the exception of Arnauld and Pascal may be said to have been its most accomplished member. Not a little of the materials of the Provinciates is said to be due to him, and at the completion of Pascal s great work he translated it into Latin. One of the most virtuous men in France, he was a favourite of the notorious duchess of Longueville for politico-theological reasons, and he was the immediate master of Racine. This latter circumstance brought about an incident thoroughly dis creditable to the dramatist. Nicole was the author of certain Lettres sur les Visionnaires or a un Visionnaire, as they are most frequently cited. The actual title of the collected work is Les Imaginaires et les Visionnaires (1667). In these he had attacked Desmarets de Saint Sorlin, and with the excessive puritanism which characterized his sect had reflected on fiction and the drama generally. Racine, without a shadow of personal provocation, replied in two letters of great asperity, of which the first was actually published, and the second only delayed (it was published after its author s death) owing to the judicious counsel of Boileau. But Nicole made no reply, and indeed public opinion condemned Racine without hesitation. Nicole, who, owing to the theological disputes in which he was concerned, had never fully taken orders, and who had been compelled at one time to leave France, devoted himself in his later years chiefly to moral philosophy. The first volume of his Essais de Morale appeared in 1671, and the rest of his life was chiefly occupied on this book, though he wrote many others. He was warmly admired by many of the best judges among his contemporaries, Madame de Sdvign6 deserving especial mention, and numerous selec tions of his ethical works have appeared in recent times. Modern opinion hardly recognizes in Nicole the right to hold the place close to Pascal which his own time accorded to him. His style is clear, simple, and correct, but a little flat and monotonous ; his thought sensible, just, and charitable, but somewhat destitute of depth, subtlety, and originality. He was certainly one of the best men of his time, but as certainly not one of the greatest ; and his reputation was due first to his scholarship, secondly to his moderation. He died of apoplexy, November 16, 1695, and had latterly somewhat separated himself from the Jansenists. Numerous stories are told of his personal timidity and unreadiness in oral argument. It does not appear that his works (by far the most important of which is the already-mentioned Essais de Morale, Paris, 1671, sq.) were ever collected. NICOMEDES I., son of Zipcetes, succeeded his father as king of Bithynia in 278 B.C. He enlarged and consoli dated the kingdom, which had been founded by his father in 288, and founded the great city of Nicomedia as the capital. He was for some time engaged in war with Antiochus of Syria, and invited the Gauls under Leonnorius and Lutarius to cross into Asia Minor and help him against his foreign and domestic enemies. His reign seems to have been long, prosperous, and uneventful ; the year of his death is unknown. NICOMEDES II., fourth in descent from the preced ing, was son of Prusias II. He was so popular with the people that his father became jealous and sent him to Rome. Here he was so much favoured by the senate that Prusias sent an ambassador, Menas, to Rome, giving him secret orders to assassinate Nicomedes. Menas revealed the plot, and persuaded the prince to rebel against his father. Supported by Attalus II., king of Pergamum, he was completely successful, and ordered his father to be slain before the altar of Zeus in Nicomedia. Nicomedes reigned from 149 to 91 B.C., and during his long reign adhered steadily to the Roman alliance. He made himself for a time master of Paphlagonia, and married Laodice, widow of Ariarathes VI., in order to have a claim on her deceased husband s kingdom of Cappadocia. NICOMEDES III., son and successor of the preced ing. His brother Socrates contested the kingdom with him, relying on the alliance of the great Mithradates. Nicomedes was established on the throne by Roman help in 90 B.C., but expelled by Mithradates in 88, after a great defeat in Paphlagonia. In 84 he was restored by the Romans. In 81 Julius Caesar, sent to him by his com mander, became so intimate with him as to give rise to great calumnies at home. He died in 74 B.C., and be- qeathed his kingdom to the Romans. NICOMEDIA, a town at the head of the Sinus Astacenus, which opens on the Propontis, was built in 264 B.C. by Nicomedes I., king of Bithynia, and has ever since been one of the chief towns in this part of Asia Minor. It still retains the ancient name under the form Ismid, and it is the terminus of a short railway. Its situation made it a convenient centre of government. It was the metropolis of Bithynia under the Roman empire (see NIC^EA) ; Diocletian made it the capital of the East, and fixed his court there. It retained its importance even after Constantinople was founded, for the roads from all parts of Asia Minor to the capital converge at Nicomedia. NICOPOLI. See NIKOPOLI. NICOPOLIS, or ACTIA NICOPOLIS, an ancient city of Epirus, founded 31 B.C. by Octavian in memory of his victory over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. The colony, composed of settlers from a great many of the towns of the neighbouring countries (Ambracia, Anactorium, Calydon, Argos Amphilochicum, Leucas, &c.), proved highly successful, and the city was considered the capital of southern Epirus and Acarnania, and obtained the right of sending five representatives to the Amphictyonic council. On the spot where Octavian s own tent had been pitched he erected a sanctuary to Neptune adorned with the beaks of the captured galleys ; and in further celebra tion of his victory he instituted the so-called Actian games in honour of Apollo Actius. The city was restored by the emperor Julian, and again after the Gothic invasion by Justinian ; but in the course of the Middle Ages it was supplanted by the town of Prevesa. The ruins of Nicopolis, now known as Paleoprevesa (Old Prevesa), lie about 3 miles north of that city, on a small bay of the Gulf of Arta (Sinus Ambracius) at the narrowest part of the isthmus of the peninsula which separates the gulf from the Ionian Sea. Besides the acropolis, the most con spicuous objects are two theatres (the larger with twenty- seven rows of seats) and an aqueduct which brought water to the town from a distance of 27 miles. See Wolfe in Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc., 1833; Leake, Northern Greece; Bursian, Geog. von Griechenland.