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

1174 NICANDER. NICANDER.
nhe accomplished his task, and returned from merous absurd fables, which do not require to be
Ephesus to Phalara, on the Maliac Gulf, within particularly specified here. Haller calls it " longa,
twelve days. After falling into the hands of incondita, et nullius fidei farrago" (Biblioth. Botan.).
Philip, by whom he was treated with unexpected His other poem, called'AAespdpitaKta, consists of
kindness, he reached Hypata just at the moment more than six hundred lines, written in the same
when the Aetolians were deliberating about peace, metre, is dedicated to a person named Protagoras,
and by bringing some money from Antiochus, and and treats cf poisons and their antidotes: of this
the promise of further aid, he succeeded in per- work also Haller remarks, "descriptio vix ulla,
suading them to refuse the terms proposed by the symptomata fuse recensentur, et magna farrago et
Romans. (Liv. xxxvi. 29; Polyb. xx. 10, 11.) incondita plantarum potissimum alexipharmacarum
In B. C. 190 he was appointed praetor (or Yorpa- subjicitur." A full analysis of the medical portions
Tr7yos) of the Aetolians (Clinton, Facsti Hell.), of both these works may be found in Mr. Adams's
and endeavoured in vain to force the consul, M. Commentary on the fifth book of Paulus Aegineta.
Fulvius Nobilior, to raise: the siege of Anlbracia Among the ancients his authority in all matters re(Liv. xxxviii. 1, 4-6; Polyb. xxii. 8, 10), after lating to toxicology seems to have been considered
which he was sent as ambassador to Rome, with high. His works are frequently quoted by Pliny
Phaeneas, to settle the terms of peace. (Polyb. (H. 1V. xx. 13, 96, xxii. 15, 32, xxvi. 66, xxx. 25,
xxii. 13.) We hear no more of him, but that, as xxxii. 22, xxxvi. 25, xxxvii. 11, 28), Galen (de
he was ever afterwards favourably inclined towards Hippooc. et Plat. Deer. ii. 8, vol. v. p. 275, de Locis
the royal family of Macedonia, because of Philip's Affect. ii. 5, vol. viii. p. 133, de Simpl. Medicam.
kindness to him, he fell under the displeasure of Temper. ac Facult. ix. 2. ~ 10, x. 2. ~ 16, vol. xii.
the Romans on that account during their war with pp. 204, 289, de Ther. ad Pis. cc. 9, 13, vol. xiv.
Perseus, B. C. 171-168, and that he was sum- pp. 239, 265, Comment. in Ilippoer. "c De Artic."
mooned to Rome, and died there. (Polyb. xx. 11, iii. 38, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 537), Athenaeus (pp.
xxvii. 13, xxviii. 4, 6.) 66, 312, 366, 649, &c.), and other ancient wri4. One of the ambassadors from Rhodes to ters; and Dioscorides, Agtius, and other medical
Rome, with Agesilochus and Nicagoras, probably authors have made frequent use of his works.
B. C. 169. (Polyb. xxviii. 2, 14.) [W. A. G.] Plutarch, Diphilus and others wrote commentaries on
NICANDER (Nifcavspos), literary. 1. The his "Theriaca" [DIPHILUS], Marianus paraphrased
author of two Greek poems that are still extant, and it in iambic verse [MARIANUS], and Eutecllius
of several others that have been lost. His father's wrote a paraphrase in prose of his two principal
name was Damnaeus (Eudoc. Viol. ap. Villoison's poems, which is still extant. On the subject of his
Aneed. Gr. vol. i. p. 308,and an anonymous Greek life poetical merits the ancient writers were not well
of Nicander), though Suidas (probably by some over- agreed; for though (as we have seen) a writer in
sight) calls him Xenophanes (s. v. Nbtcasapos), and the Greek Anthology compliments Colophon for
he was one of the hereditary priests of Apollo Clarius being the birth-place of Homer and Nicander, and
[CLARIUS], to which dignity Nicander himself Cicero praises (de Orat. i. 16) the poetical manner
succeeded (comp. Nicand. Alexiph. v. 11). He was in which in his "Georgics" he treated a subject of
born at the small town of Claros, near Colophon in which he was wholly ignorant, Plutarch on the
Ionia, as he intimates himself (Ther. in fine), other hand. (de And. PoE't. c. 2, vol. i. p. 36, ed.
whence he is frequently called Colophonius (Cic. Tauchn.) says that the "Theriaca," like the poems
de Orat. i. 16; Suid. &c.), and there is a Greek of Empedocles, Parmenides, and Theognis, have
epigram (Anthol. Gr. ix. 213) complimenting Colo- nothing in them of poetry but the metre. Modern
phon on being the birth-place of Homer and critics have differed equally on this point; but
Nicander. He was said by some ancient authors practically the judgment of posterity has been proto have been born in Aetolia, but this probably nounced with sufficient clearness, and his works
arose from his having passed some time in that are now scarcely ever read aspoems, but merely concountry, and written a work on its natural and suited by those who are interested in points of zoolopolitical history. He has been supposed to have been gical and medical antiquities: -how opposite a fate
a contemporary of Aratus and Callimachus in the to that which has befallen Virgil's Georgics! In retlhird century B. C., but it is more probable that he ference to his style and language Bentley calls him,
lived nearly a century later, in the reign of Ptolemy with great truth, "antiquarium, obsoleta et casca
V. (or Epiphlanes), who died B. C. 181, and that verba studiose venantem, et vel sui saeculi lectoribus
the Attalus to whom he dedicated one of his lost difficilem et obscurum." (Cambridge Museums Cripoems was the last king of Pergamus of that name, ticsm, vol. i. p. 371.)
who began to reign B. C. 138 (Anon. Gr. Life of The following are the titles of Nicander's lost
Nicander, and Anon. Gr. Life of Aratus). If works, as collected by Fabricius (Bibl. Gr. vol. iv.
these two'dates are correct, Nicander may be sup- p. 348, Harles): 1. AirWhcLKd, a prose work, conposed to have been in reputation for about fifty sisting of at least three books; quoted by Atheyears cir. B.C. 185 —135 (see Clinton's Fasti Hell. naeus (pp. 296, 477), Macrobius (Saturn. v. 21),
vol. iii.). He was a physician and grammarian, Harpocration (Lex. s. v. ~dvr'ov), and other
as well as a poet, and his writings seem to have writers.* 2. rewpysadi, a poem in hexameter verse,
been rather numerous and on various subjects. consisting of at least two books, of which some
The longest of his poems that remains is named long fragments remain; mentioned by Cicero (do
Opiapecd, and consists of nearly a thousand hex- Orat. i. 16), Suidas, and others, and frequently
ameter lines. It is dedicated to a person named quoted by Athenaeus, (pp. 52, 133, 371, &c.).
Hermesianax, who must not be confounded with
the poet of that name. It treats (as the name imn-' Fabricius and Schweighaeuser (Athen. p. 329,
plies) of venomous animals aild the wounds in- and " Ind. Auctor.") reckon among Nicander's
flicted by them, and contains somne curious and works a poem called BoI'Lnalcos, but this is wrong.
interesting zoological passages, together with nu- See Dindorf's Athen. 1. c. and "Ind. Scriptor,"'