A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CRATES.
CRATES (KprT-qs), a very ancient Greek musician, the disciple of Olympus, to whom some
ascribed the composition for the flute, which was
called vo'ros Io vicE'Apaxos, and which was more
usually attributed to Olympus himself. (Plut. de
Mus. 7, p. 1133, e.) Nothing further is known
of him. [P. S.]
CRATES (Kpdr'os), of TARsus, an Academic
philosopher, is expressly distinguished by Diogenes
Laertius (ii. 114, 117) from Crates of Athens,
with whom he has been often confounded. [A.S.]
CRATES (Kp-rns) of THEBES, the son of Ascondus, repaired to Athens, where he became a
scholar of the Cynic Diogenes, and subsequently
one of the most distinguished of the Cynic philosophers. He flourished, according to Diogenes
Laertius (vi. 87), in B. c. 328, was still living at
Athens in the time of Demetrius Phalereus (Athen.
x. p. 422, c.; Diog. Laert. vi. 90), and was at
Thebes in B. c. 307, when Demetrius Phalereus
withdrew thither. (Plut. Mor. p. 69, c.)
Crates was one of the most singular phaenomena
of a time which abounded in all sorts of strange
characters. Though heir to a large fortune, he
renounced it all and bestowed it upon his native
city, since a philosopher had no need of money;
or, according to another account, he placed it in
the hands of a banker, with the charge, that he
should deliver it to his sons, in case they were
simpletons, but that, if they became philosophers,
he should distribute it among the poor. Diogenes
Laertius has preserved a number of curious tales
about Crates, which prove that he lived and died
as a true Cynic, disregarding all external pleasures,
restricting himself to the most absolute necessaries,
and retaining in every situation of life the most
perfect mastery over his desires, complete equanimity of temper, and a constant flow of good spirits.
While exercising this self-controul, he was equally
severe against the vices of others; the female sex
in particular was severely lashed by him; and he
received the surname of the " Door-opener," because it was his practice to visit every house at
Athens, and rebuke its inmates. In spite of the
poverty to which he had reduced himself, and notwithstanding his ugly and deformed figure, he inspired Hipparchia, the daughter of a family of distinction, with such an ardent affection for him,
that she refused many wealthy suitors, and threatened to commit suicide unless her parents would
give their consent to her union with the philosopher. Of the married life of this philosophic couple Diogenes Lasrtius relates some very curious
facts.
Crates wrote a book of letters on philosophical
subjects, the style of which is compared by Ladertins (vi. 98) to Plato's; but these are no longer
extant, for the fourteen letters which were published from a Venetian manuscript under the name
of Crates in the Aldine collection of Greek letters
(Venet. 1499, 4to.), and the thirty-eight which
have been published from the same manuscript by
Boissonade (Notices et Extraits des Manuscr. de la
Bibl. du Roi, vol. xi. part ii. Paris, 1827) and
which are likewise ascribed to Crates, are, like
the greater number of such letters, the composition
of later rhetoricians. Crates was also the author
of tragedies of an earnest philosophical character,
which are praised by Laertius, and likewise of
some smaller poems, which seem to have been
called laiyvua, and to which the la'incs eyKdst'ov

CRATEVAS. 885
quoted by Athenaeus (iv. p. 158, b.) perhaps belonged. Plutarch wrote a detailed biography of
Crates, which unfortunately is lost. (Diog. La8rt.
vi. 85-93, 96-98; Brunck, Anal. i. p. 186;
Jacobs, Anth. Graec. i. p. 118; Brucker, Hist.
Philosoph. i. p. 888; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. iii. p.
514.) [A. S.]
CRATES (KphTrls) of TRALLES, an orator or
rhetorician of the school of Isocrates. (Diog. Lairt.
iv. 23.) Ruhnken assigns to him the Aoyoi
%Avn-yopmKot which Apollodorus (apo. Diog. 1. c.)
ascribes to the Academic philosopher, Crates.
(Hist. Orit. Oral. Graec. in Opusc. i. p. 370.)
Menagius (Comm. in Diog. c.) is wrong in supposing that Crates is mentioned by Lucian. (Rict.
Praecept. 9.) The person there spoken of is Critias the sculptor. [P. S.]
CRATES. 1. An artist, celebrated for making
cups with carved figures upon them. (Athen. xi.
p. 782, b.)
2. A famous digger of channels at the time of
Alexander. (Diog. Laert. iv. 23; Strab. ix. p. 407;
Steph. Byz. s. v. 'AvOvav.) [L. U.]
CRATESI'POLIS (KparieriaroAis), wife of
Alexander, the son of Polysperchon, was highly
distinguished for her beauty, talents, and energy.
On the murder of her husband at Sicyon, in B. c.
314 [see p. 126, a], she kept together his forces,
with whom her kindness to the men had made
her extremely popular, and when the Sicyonians,
hoping for an easy conquest over a woman, rose
against the garrison for the purpose of establishing
an independent government, she quelled the sedition, and, having crucified thirty of the popular
leaders, held the town firmly in subjection for
Cassander. [See p. 620.] In B. c. 308, however,
she was induced by Ptolemy Lagi to betray Corinth and Sicyon to him, these being the only
places, except Athens, yet possessed by Cassander
in Greece. Cratesipolis was at Corinth at the
time, and, as her troops would not have consented
to the surrender, she-introduced a body of Ptolemy's
forces into the town, pretending that they were a
reinforcement which she had sent for from Sicyon.
She then withdrew to Patrae in Achaia, where
she was living, when, in the following year (a. c.
307), she held with Demetrius Poliorcetes the remarkable interview to which each party was
attracted by the fame of the other. (Diod. xix.
67, xx. 37; Polyaen. viii. 58; Plut. Deometrius,
9.) [E. E.]
CRATESI'PPIDAS (KparyTr-nrmrieas), a Lacedaemonian, was sent out as admiral after the
death of Mindarus, B. c. 410, and took the command at Chios of the fleet which had been collected by Pasippidas from the allies. He effected,
however, little or nothing during his term of office
beyond the seizure of the acropolis at Chios, and
the restoration of the Chian exiles, and was succeeded by Lysander. (Xen. Hell. i. 1. ~ 32, 5. ~ 1;
Diod. xiii. 65, 70.) [E. E.]
CRATEVAS (Kparev'as), a Greek herbalist
( pioro6^os) who lived about the beginning of the
first century B. c., as he gave the name Mitliridatia
to a plant in honour of Mithridates. (Plin. H. N.
xxv. 26.) He is frequently quoted by Pliny and
Dioscorides, and is mentioned by Galen (De
Simplic. Medicam. ensperaam. ac Facult. vi. prooem,
vol. xi. pp. 795, 797; Conmment. in Hippocr. " De
Nat. Hom." ii. 6, vol. xv. p. 134; De Anid. i. 2,
vol. xiv. p. 7), among the eminent writers on