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

1008 DIDYMUS.
Demosthenes, Isaeus, Hyperides, Deinarchus, and
others, were likewise commented upon by Didymus. Besides these numerous commentaries, we
have mention of a work on the phraseology of the
tragic poets (7rpl vpaycplovj.evsIs Ahlews), of which
the 28th book is quoted. (Macrob. Sat. v. 18;
IHarpocrat. s. v. Z7paXoipe?^V.) A similar work
(A`ess icwKwucI') was written by him on the phraseology of the comic poets, and Hesychius made
great use of it, as he himself attests in the epistle
to Eulogius. (Comp. Etymol. M. p. 492. 53;
Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 1139, iv. 1058.) A
third work of the same class was on words of ambiguous or uncertain meaning, and consisted of at
least seven books; and a fourth treated on false
or corrupt expressions. He further published a
collection of Greek proverbs, in thirteen books
(7rpos rTOVS 7rpl lrapoiuiJwV OWVTErXTaX 7as), from
which is taken the greater part of the proverbs
contained in the collection of Zenobius. (Schneidewin, Corpus Paroemiogr. Graec. i. p. xiv.) A work
on the laws of Solon is mentioned by Plutarch
(Sol. 1) under the title 7repi Tcev dao'vwv oWv'ACos.
Didymus appears to have been acquainted even
with Roman literature, for he wrote a work in six
books against Cicero's treatise " de Re Publica,"
(Ammian. Marcell. xxii. 16), which afterwards
induced Suetonius to write against Didymus.
(Suid. s. v. TpayKcdvXos.) Didymus stands at the
close of the period in which a comprehensive and
independent study of Greek literature prevailed,
and he himself must be regarded as the father of
the scholiasts who were satisfied with compiling or
abridging the works of their predecessors.
In the collection of the Geoponica there are various extracts bearing the name of Didymus, from
which it might be inferred that he wrote on agriculture or botany; but it is altogether uncertain
whether those extracts belong to our Alexandrian
grammarian, or to some other writer of the same
name. It is very probable that, with Suidas, we
ought to distinguish from our grammarian a naturalist Didymus, who possibly may be the same as
the one who wrote a commentary on Hippocrates,
and a treatise on stones and different kinds of
wood (repl juapxadpwv ical?ravroTrwv vAXwv), a
treatise which has been edited by A. Mai as an
appendix to the fragments of the Iliad. (Milan,
1819, fol.) See GrKfenhan, Gesch. der Klass.
Philol. im Alterthum, i. p. 405, &c.
2. An Alexandrian grammarian, commonly called the younger ( vieos): he taught at Rome, and
wrote, according to Suidas (s. v. Alausos), 7rstavrd,
awept 6dpoypapias, and many other excellent works.
In a preceding article, however, Suidas attributes
the mrnOava' (siaeavcZv Kal o-eona urarwv Av'reis) in
two books to one Didymus Areius, an Academic
philosopher, who lived at Rome in the time of
Nero. (Comp. Euseb. Praep. Evang. xi. 23; Eudoc. p. 135.)
3. With the praenomen Claudius, a Greek grammarian, who, according to Suidas (s. v. Ailvatos),
wrote upon the mistakes committed by Thucydides
against analogy, and a work on Analogy among
the Romans. He further made an epitome of the
works of Heracleon, and some other works. A
fragment of his epitome is preserved in Stobaeus.
(Serm. 101; comp. Lersch, Die Spraclipphilos. der
Alten, pp. 74, 143, &c.)
4. Of Alexandria, lived in the fourth century
of the Christian era, and must be distinguished

DIDYMUS.
from Didymus the monk, who is spoken of by Socrates. (Hist. Eccles. iv. 33.) At the age of four
years, and before he had learnt to read, he became
blind; but this calamity created in him an invincible thirst after knowledge, and by intense application he succeeded in becoming not only a distinguished grammarian, rhetorician, dialectician, mathematician, musician, astronomer, and philosopher
(Socrat. iv. 25; Sozom. iii. 15; Rufin. xi. 7;
Theodoret. iv. 29; Nicephor. ix. 17), but also in
acquiring a most extensive knowledge of sacred
literature. He devoted himself to the service of
the church, and was no less distinguished for the
exemplary purity of his conduct than for his learning and acquirements. In A. D. 392, when Hieronymus wrote his work on illustrious ecclesiastical
authors, Didymus was still alive, and professor of
theology at Alexandria. He died in A. D. 396 at
the age of eighty-five. As professor of theology he
was at the head of the school of the Catechumeni,
and the most distinguished personages of that period, such as Hieronymus, Rufinus, Palladius,
Ambrosius, Evagrius, and Isidorus, are mentioned
among his pupils. Didymus was the author of a
great number of theological works, but most of
them are lost. The following are still extant:1. " Liber de Spiritu Sancto." The Greek original
is lost, but we possess a Latin translation made by
Hieronymus, about A. D. 386, which is printed
among the works of Hieronymus. Although the
author as well as the translator intended it to be
one book (Hieronym. Catal. 109), yet Marcianaeus
in his edition of Hieronymus has divided it into
three books. The work is mentioned by St. Augustin (Quaest. in Exod. ii. 25), and Nicephorus
(ix. 17). Separate editions of it were published
at Cologne, 1531, 8vo., and a better one by Fuchte,
Helmstidt, 1614, 8vo. 2. " Breves Enarrationes
in Epistolas Canonicas." This work is likewise
extant only in a Latin translation, and was first
printed in the Cologne edition of the first work.
It is contained also in all the collections of the
works of the fathers. The Latin translation is the
work of Epiphanius, and was made at the request
of Cassiodorus. (Cassiod. de Institut. Divin. 8.)
3. " Liber adversus Manichaeos." This work appears to be incomplete, since Damascenus (Parallel.
p. 507) quotes a passage from it which is now not
to be found in it. It was first printed in a Latin
version by F. Turrianus in Possevin's Apparatus
Sanct. ad Calc. Lit. D., Venice, 1603, and at Cologne in 1608. It was reprinted in some of the
Collections of the Fathers, until at last Combefisius
in his "Auctarium novissimum " (ii. p. 21, &c.)
published the Greek original. (Paris, 1672, fol.)
4. Ilepi Tprid8os. This work was formerly believed
to be lost, but J. A. Mingarelli discovered a MS.
of it, and published it with a Latin version at
Bologna, 1769, fol. A list of the lost works of
Didymus is given by Fabric. Bibl. Grace. ix. p.
273, &c.; compare Cave, Hist. Lit. i. p. 205;
Guericke, de Schola A lexandr. ii. p. 332,&c. [L. S.]
DI'DYMUS (At&iuos), a Greek medical writer
who lived perhaps in the third century after Christ,
as he is quoted by Antius (tetrab. ii. serm. ii. c. 15,
p. 256) and Alexander Trallianus (De Med. vii.
13, p. 235), by whom he is called aroecrTaros.
He may perhaps be the native of Alexandria who
is mentioned by Suidas as having written fifteen
books on Agriculture, and who is frequently quoted
in the collection of writers called Geoponici (lib. i.