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

450 BACCHIADAE.
2. The father of Pherecydes. (Strab. x. p. 487;
Diog. Lahrt. i. 116. [PHERECYDES.]
3. A flute-player, who gave occasion to the proverb against bad flute-players, " He plays worse
than Babys." (Athen. xiv. p. 624, b.; comp. Zenob.
iv. 81.)
BACCHEIDAS (BaKXEISas), of Sicyon, a
dancer and teacher of music, in honour of whom
there is an ancient epigram of four lines preserved
by Athenaeus. (xiv. p. 629, a.)
BACCHEIUS or BACCHI'US, of Miletus, the
author of a work on agriculture (Var. R. R. i. 1),
who is referred to by Pliny as one of the sources
of his Natural History. (Elenchus, lib. viii. x. xiv.
xv. xvii. xviii.)
BACCHEIUS (BaKcXELos), surnamed Senior
(6 -yepw), the author of a short musical treatise
in the form of a catechism, called eho'aywy-r
"rEXyvrs JLoviTails. We know nothing of his history. Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. ii. p. 260, &c.) gives
a list of persons of the same name, and conjectures
that he may have been the Baccheius mentioned by
M. Aurelius Antoninus (de Rebus suis, i. 6) as his
first instructor. The treatise consists of brief and
clear explanations of the principal subjects belonging to Harmonics and Rhythm. Baccheius reckons
seven modes (pp. 12, 18), corresponding to the
seven species of octave anciently called by the
same names. Hence Meibomius (praef. in Arist.
Quint.) supposes that he lived after Ptolemy, who
adopts the same system, and before Manuel
Bryennius, in whose time an eighth (the Hypermixolydian) had been added. But the former
supposition does not seem to rest on satisfactory
grounds.
The Greek text of Baccheius was first edited by
Marinus Mersennus, in his Commentary on the
first six chapters of Genesis. (Paris, 1623, fol.,
p. 1887.) It was also printed in a separate form,
with a Latin version, by Frederic Morelli, Paris,
1623, 8vo., and lastly by Meibomius, in the Antiquae Musicae Auctores Septem, Amst. 1652. An
anonymous Greek epigram, in which Baccheius is
mentioned, is printed by Meibomius in his preface,
from the same manuscript which contained the
text; also by Fabricius. (1. c.) [W. F. D.]
BACCHEIUS (BaKXL?os), one of the earliest
commentators on the writings of Hippocrates, was
a native of Tanagra in Boeotia. (Erot. Gloss. Hippoer. p. 8.) He was a follower of Herophilus (Gal.
Comment. in Hippocr. "Aphor." vii. 70. vol. xviii.
pt. i. p. 187), and a contemporary of Philinus,
and must therefore have lived in the third century
n. c. Of his writings (which were both valuable
and interesting) nothing remains but a few fragments preserved by Erotianus and Galen, by whom
he is frequently mentioned. (Erot. Gloss. Hippocr.
pp. 8, 32, 38, &c.; Gal. Comment. in Hippocr.
"Epid. VI." i. prooem. vol. xvii. pt. i. p. 794;
Comment. in Hippocr. " de Med. Offic." i. prooem.
vol. xviii. p. ii. p. 631.) [W. A. G.]
BACCHFIADAE (BamXclat), a Heracleid clan,
derived their name from Bacchis, who was king of
Corinth from 926 to 891 B. c., and retained the
supreme rule in that state, first under a monarchical
form of government, and next as a close oligarchy,
till their deposition by Cypselus, about B. c. 657.
Diodorus (Fragm. 6), in his list of the Heracleid
kings, seems to imply that Bacchis was a lineal
descendent from Aletes, who in B. c. 1074 deposed
the Sisyphidae and made himself master of Corinth

BACCHYLIDES.
(Wess. ad Diod. 1. c.; Pind. Olymp. xiii. 17; Schol.
ad Pind. Nem. vii. 155; Paus. ii. 4; Mill. Dor.
i. 5. ~ 9); while from Pausanias (1. c.) it would
rather appear, that Bacchis was the founder of a
new, though still a Heracleid, dynasty. In his line
the throne continued till, in B. c. 748, Telestes was
murdered by Arieus and Perantas, who were themselves Bacchiads, and were perhaps merely the instruments of a general conspiracy of the clan to
gain for their body a larger share of power than
they enjoyed under the regal constitution. (Diod.
and Paus. 1I. cc.) From Diodorus, it would seem
that a year, during which Automenes was king,
elapsed before the actual establishment of oligarchy.
According to the same author, this form of government, with annual prytanes elected from and by
the Bacchiadae, lasted for ninety years (747-657);
nor does it appear on what grounds a period of 200
years is assigned to it by Strabo. (Strab. viii. p.
378; Miill. Dor. Append. ix. note x.) It was indeed of too narrow and exclusive a kind to be of
any very long duration; the members of the ruling
clan intermarried only with one another (Herod. v.
92); and their downfall was moreover hastened by
their excessive luxury (Ael. V. H. i. 19), as well
as by their insolence and oppression, of which the
atrocious outrage that drove Archias from Corinth,
and led to the founding of Syracuse and Corcyra,
is probably no very unfair specimen. (Diod. Erc.
de Virt. et. Vit. 228; Plut. Amat p. 772, e.; Schol.
ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1212.) On their deposition
by Cypselus, with the help of the lower orders
(Herod. v. 92; Aristot. Polit. v. 10, 12, ed.
Bekk.), they were for the most part driven into
banishment, and are said to have taken refuge in
different parts of Greece, and even Italy. (Plut.
Lisand. c. 1; Liv. i. 34; comp. Niebuhr, Hist. of
Rome, vol. i. p. 366, &c.) Some of them, however, appear to have still remained at Corinth,
if we may consider as a Bacchiad the Heracleid
Phallus, who led the colony to Epidamnus in
B. c. 627. (Thuc. i. 24.) As men of the greatest
distinction among the Bacchiadae, may be mentioned Philolaus, the legislator of Thebes, about
B. c. 728 (Aristot. Polit. ii. 12, ed. Bekk.), and
Eumelus, the cyclic poet (Paus. ii. 1, 3, iv. 33;
Athen. i. p. 22, c.; Schol. ad Pind. Olymp. xiii. 30;
Mill. Hist. of Greek Lit. c. x. ~ 2.) Strabo tells
us also (vii. p. 326), that the Lyncestian kings
claimed descent from the Bacchiadae. [E. E.]
BA'CCHIDES (BaKX/iScs), an eunuch of Mithridates. After the defeat of the latter by
Lucullus, Mithridates in despair sent Bacchides to
put his wives and sisters to death, B. c. 71. (Plut.
Lucull. 18, &c.) Appian (Mith. 82) calls the
eunuch Bacchus. The Bacchides, who was the
governor of Sinope, at the time when this town
was besieged by Lucullus, is probably the same as
the above. (Strab. xii. p. 546.)
BACCHUS. [DioNYsus.]
BACCHY'LIDES (BaXvAi&Ss). 1. One of
the great lyric poets of Greece, was a native of
lulis in the island of Ceos, and the nephew as well
as fellow-townsman of Simonides. (Strab. x. p.
426; Steph. Byz. s. v. 'louAis.) His father is variously called Medon (Suidas, s. v. BascXvuAtq),
Meilon (Epigr. in novem Lyr. ap. Bockh, Schol.
Pind. p. 8), or Meidylus (Etym. M. p. 582. 20):
his paternal grandfather was the athlete Bacchylides. We know nothing of his life, except
that he lived at the court of Hiero in Syracuse,