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

MENANDER. MENANDER. I1031.
father A. D. 211. Menander was a Consiliarius, or a His personal beauty is mentioned by the anonymember of the Consilium of Caracalla, as appears mous writer on comedy (1. c.), though, according to,
from a passage of Ulpian (Dig. 4. tit. 4. s. 11. ~ 2), Suidas, his vision was somewhat disturbed, urpa-;
coupled with the fact that Ulpian wrote his Libri ars es #Els, Jd4s U TJv,ovD,. He is represented
ad Edictum, which contain the passage just in works of sculpture which still exist, and of one
cited, under the reign of Caracalla. Aemilius of which Schlegel gives the following description:
Macer, who wrote in the time of Alexander Se- " In the excellent portrait-statues of two of the
verus, cites Menander. There are six excerpts in most famous comedians, Menander and Posidippus
the Digest from a work of Menander, entitled (to be found in the Vatican), the physiognomy of
"Militaria, or De Re Militari;" and Macer, who the Greek New Comedy seems to me to be almost
wrote on the same subject, also cites Menander as visibly and personally expressed. They are seated
an authority. [G. L.] in arm-chairs, clad with extreme simplicity, and
MENANDER (MevavSpos), of ATHENS, the with a roll in the hand, with that ease and careless
most distinguished poet of the New Comedy, was self-possession which always marks the conscious
the son of Diopeithes and Hegesistrate, and flou- superiority of the master in that maturity of years:
rished in the time of the successors of Alexander. He which befits the calm and impartial observation
was born in 01. 109. 3, or B. c. 342-1, which was which comedy requires, but sound and active, and
also the birth-year of Epicurus; only the birth of free from all symptoms of decay; we may discern
Menander was probably in the former half of the in them that hale and pithy vigour of body which
year, and therefore in B. c. 342, while that of Epi- bears witness to an equally vigorous constitution of
curus was in the latter half, B. c. 341. (Suid. s. v.; mind and temper; no lofty enthusiasm, but no
Clinton, F. H. sub ann.) Strabo also (xiv. p. 526) folly or extravagance; on the contrary, the earspeaks of Menander and Epicurus as ruvs'eggzovs. nestness of wisdom dwells in those brows, wrinkled
His father, Diopeithes, commanded the Athenian not with care, but with the exercise of thought,
forces on the Hellespont in B.c. 342-341, the while, in the searching eye, and in the mouth,
year of Menander's birth, and was defended by ready for a smile, there is a light irony which canDemosthenes in his oration prepI TCoV ev Xep~oVroi'. not be mistaken.". (Dramatic Lectures, vii.) The
(Anon. de Corn. p. xii.) On this fact the gram- moral character of Menander is defended by Meimarians blunder with their usual felicity, not only neke, with tolerable success, against the aspersions
making Menander a friend of Demosthenes, which of Suidas, Alciphron, and others. (lKienand. Reas a boy he may have been, but representing him liq. pp. xxviii. xxix.) Thus much is certain, that
as inducing Demosthenes to defend his father, in his comedies contain nothing offensive, at least to
B. C. 341, when he himself was just born, and again the taste of his own and the following ages, none
placing him among the dicasts on the trial of Ctesi- of the purest, it must be admitted, as they were
phon, in B. c. 330, when he was in his twelfth frequently acted at private banquets. (Plut. de
year. (Meineke, Menand. Reliq. p. xxiv.) Alexis, Fals. Pud. p. 531, b., Sympos. viii. p. 712, b.;
the comic poet, was the uncle of Menander, on the Comp. Arist. et Men. p. 853, b.) Whether their
father's side (Suid. s. v. "AAseLs); and we may being eagerly read by the youth of both sexes, on
naturally suppose, with one of. the ancient gram- account of the love scenes in them, is any confirmamarians (Anon. de Comrn. p. xii.), that the young tion of their innocence, may at least be doubted,
Menander derived from his uncle his taste for the (Ovid. Trist. ii. 370.)
comic drama, and was instructed by him in its Of the actual events of Menander's life we know
rules of composition. His character must have but little. He enjoyed the friendship of Demebeen greatly influenced and formed by his intimacy trius Phalereus, whose attention was first drawn
with Theophrastus and Epicurus (Alciph. Epist. ii. to him by admiration of his works. (Phaedrus,
4), of whom the former was his teacher (Diog. 1. c.) This intimacy was attended, however, with
Laert. v. 36), and the latter his intimate friend. danger as well as honour, for when Demetrius
That his tastes and sympathies were altogether Phalereus was expelled from Athens by Demetrius
with the philosophy of Epicurus is proved, among Poliorcetes (B. C. 307), Menander became a mark
numerous other indications, by his epigram on for the sycophants, and would have been put to
" Epicurus and Themistocles." (Brunck, Anal. -death but for the intercession of Telesphorus, the
vol. i. p. 203, Anth. Pal, vii 72, vol. i. p. 327, son-in-law of Demetrius. (Diog. Laert. v. 80.)
Jacobs.) The first Greek king of Egypt, Ptolemy, the son
of Lagus, was also one of his admirers; and he
XapE, Neo~cehn u/OS 7i5'OSo CIJ' 0' LE V/SW1 tcw invited the poet to his court at Alexandria; but
HarpL'a 8ouAoov'vas pvoaO', 6 8' iqppoaovas. Menander seems to have declined the: proffered
From Theophrastus, on the other hand, he must honour. (Plin. H. N. vii. 29. s. 31; Alciphr.
have derived much of that skill in the discrimina- Epist. ii. 3, 4.) Suidas mentions some letters to
tion of character which we so much admire in the Ptolemy as among the works of Menander.
XapaIcri7pEs of the philosopher, and which formed The time of his death is differently stated. The
the great charm of the comedies of Menander. same inscription, which gives the date of his birth,
His master's attention to external elegance and adds that he died at the age of fifty-two years, in
comfort he not only imitated, but, as was natural the archonship of Phiippus, in the 32nd year of
in a man of an elegant person, a joyous spirit, and Ptolemy Soter. Clinton shows that these statea serene and easy temper, he carried it to the ex-ments refer to the year B. C. 292-1 (F. H. vol. ii. p
treme of luxury and effeminacy. Phaedrus (v. i. xv. and sub ann. 342, 291); but, to make up the'1], 12) describes him, when paying his court to fifty-two years, we must reckon in both extremes,
Demetrius Phalereus, thus: 342 and 291. The date is confirmed by Eusebius
(Chron.); by the anonymous writer on comedy (p.
" Unguento delibutus, vestitu adfuens, xii.), who adds that Menander died at Athens; by
Veniebat gressu delicato et languido." Apollodorus (ap. Aul. Gell. xvii. 4); and by Aulais
3u 4