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

AGATHARCHIDES.
who recommended his state to espouse the side of
the Romans at the beginning <f the war between
Iome and Perseus, B. c. 171. (Polyb. xxvii. 6.
~ 3, xxviii. 2. ~ 3.)
AGATHA'RCHIDES ('AyeaapXiLss), or
AGATHARCHUS ('AydOapXos), a Greek grammarian, born at Cnidos. He was brought up by
a man of the name of Cinnaeus; was, as Strabo
(xvi. p. 779) informs us, attached to the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and wrote several
historical and geographical works. In his youth
he held the situation of secretary and reader to
Heraclides Lembus, who (according to Suidas)
lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor. This
king died B. c. 146. He himself informs us (in
his work on the Erythraean Sea), that he was subsequently guardian to one of the kings of Egypt
during his minority. This was no doubt one of
the two sons of Ptolemy Physcon. Dodwell endeavours to shew that it was the younger son,
Alexander, and objects to Soter, that he reigned
conjointly with his mother. This, however, was
the case with Alexander likewise. Wesseling
and Clinton think the elder brother to be the one
meant, as Soter II. was more likely to have been a
minor on his accession in B. c. 117, than Alexander in B. c. 107, ten years after their father's
death. Moreover Dodwell's date would leave too
short an interval between the publication of Agatharchides's work on the Erythraean Sea (about
B. c. 113), and the work of Artemidorus.
An enumeration of the works of Agatharchides
is given by Photius (Cod. 213). He wrote a
work on Asia, in 10 books, and one on Europe,
in 49 books; a geographical work on the Erythraean Sea, in 5 books, of the first and fifth
books of which Photius gives an abstract; an
epitome of the last mentioned work; a treatise on
the Troglodytae, in 5 books; an epitome of the
"Adla of Antimachus; an epitome of the works of
those who had written repi r's a vvarywyo& s OavjLarctv dvi4aLv; an historical work, from the
12th and 30th books of which Athenaeus quotes
(xii. p. 527, b. vi. p. 251, f.); and a treatise on
the intercourse of friends. The first three of
these only had been read by Photius. Agatharchides composed his work on the Erythraean Sea,
as he tells us himself, in his old age (p. 14, ed.
Huds.), in the reign probably of Ptolemy Soter II.
It appears to have contained a great deal of valuable matter. In the first book was a discussion
respecting the origin of the name. In the fifth
he described the mode of life amongst the Sabaeans
in Arabia, and the Ichthyophagi, or fish-eaters,
the way in which elephants were caught by the
elephant-eaters, and the mode of working the gold
mines in the mountains of Egypt, near the Red
Sea. His account of the Ichthyophagi and of the
mode of working the gold mines, has been copied
by Diodorus. (iii. 12-18.) Amongst other extraordinary animals he mentions the camelopard,
which was found in the country of the Troglodytae, and the rhinoceros.
Agatharchides wrote in the Attic dialect. His
style, according to Photius, was dignified and perspicuous, and abounded in sententious passages,
which inspired a favourable opinion of his judgment. In the composition of his speeches he was
an imitator of Thucydides, whom he equalled in
dignity and excelled in clearness. His rhetorical
talents also are highly praised by Photius. He

AGATHARCHUS. 61
was acquiair d with the language of the Aethiopians (de Rubr. M. p. 46), and appears to have
been the first who discovered the true cause of the
yearly inundations of the Nile. (Diod. i. 41.)
An Agatharchides, of Samos, is mentioned by
Plutarch, as the author of a work on Persia, and
one Wipl hiAwv. Fabricius, however, conjectures
that the true reading is Agathyrsides, not Agatharchides. (Dodwell in Hudson's Geogr. Script. Gr.
Minores; Clinton, Fasti lell. iii p. 535.) [C.P.M.]
There is a curious observation by Agatharchides
preserved by Plutarch (Sysmpos. viii. 9. ~ 3), of
the species of worm called Filaria Mledinensis, or
Guinea Worm, which is the earliest account of
it that is to be met with. See Justus Weihe,
De Filar. Mledin. Comment., Berol. 1832, 8vo.,
and especially the very learned work by G. H.
Welschius, De Vena Medinensi, 4'c., August.
Vindel. 1674, 4to. [W. A. G.]
AGATHARCHUS ('AydeOapxos), a Syracusan,
who was placed by the Syracusans over a fleet of
twelve ships in a. c. 413, to visit their allies and
harass the Athenians. He was afterwards, in the
same year, one of the Syracusan commanders in
the decisive battle fought in the harbour of Syracuse. (Thuc. vii. 25, 70; Diod. xiii. 13.)
AGATHARCHUS ('A-yciOapxos), an Athenian
artist, said by Vitruvius (Praef: ad lib. vii.) to
have invented scene-painting, and to have painted
a scene (scenam fecit) for a tragedy which Aeschylus
exhibited. As this appears to contradict Aristotle's
assertion (Poat. 4. ~ 16), that scene-painting was
introduced by Sophocles, some scholars understand
Vitruvius to mean merely, that Agatharchus constructed a stage. (Compare Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 279:
et modicis instravit pulpiia lignis.) But the context
shews clearly that perspective painting must be
meant, for Vitruvius goes on to say, that Democritus
and Anaxagoras, carrying out the principles laid
down in the treatise of Agatharchus, wrote on tha
same subject, shewing how, in drawing, the lines
ought to be made to correspond, according to a natural proportion, to the figure which would be traced
out on an imaginary intervening plane by a pencil
of rays proceeding from the eye, as a fixed point
of sight, to the several points of the object viewed.
It was probably not till towards the end of
Aeschylus's career that scene-painting was introduced, and not till the time of Sophocles that it
was generally made use of; which may account
for what Aristotle says.
There was another Greek painter of the name
of Agatharchus, who was a native of the island of
Samos, and the son of Eudemus. He was a contemporary of Alcibiades and Zeuxis. We have no
definite accounts respecting his performances, but
he does not appear to have been an artist of much
merit: he prided himself chiefly on the ease and
rapidity with which he finished his works. (Pluti
Pericl. 13.) Plutarch (Alcib. 16) and Andocides at
greater length (in Alcib. p. 31. 15) tell an anecdote
of Alcibiades having inveigled Agatharchus to his
house and kept him there for more than three
months in strict durance, compelling him to adorn
it with his pencil. The speech of Andocides above
referred to seems to have been delivered after the
destruction of Melos (n. c. 416) and before the
expedition to Sicily (a. c. 415); so that from the
above data the age of Agatharchus may be accurately fixed. Some scholars (as Bentley, Bdttiger,
and Mcyer) have supposed him to be the same as