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

NICIAS, NICOCHARES. I11 9
often is; nearly the same age as his teacher-, and attitudes and expressions of horses and' of men
sometimes even older. Again, Pliny's dates are afford rich materials for the painter: the subject of
very loosely given; we can never tell with cer- the action was, he thought, as important a part of
tainty whether they are meant to mark the early or painting as the story or plot was of poetry.
the middle or the latter part of an artist's career. Nicias was the first painter who used burnt
In the case of Praxiteles, we know that he ochre, the discovery of which was owing to an
executed great works considerably later than the accident (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 6. ~ 20). He had a
date assigned by Pliny. Supposing then that disciple, Omphalion, who was formerly his slave
Nicias, as a young man. assisted Praxiteles when and favourite (Paus. iv. 31. ~ 9). He himself was
in the height of his fame (and it is not likely that buried at Athens, by the road leading to the
Nicias would have been so employed after he had academy (Paus. i. 29. ~ 15). [P. S.]
obtained an independent reputation), and that his NICIPPE (Nlct7r7r7). 1. A daughter of Pelops,
refusal to sell his picture to Ptolemy occurred and the wife of Sthenelus, by whom she became
when he was old, and had gained both reputation the mother of Alcino', Medusa, and Eurystheus.
and wealth enough, there remains no positive (Apollod. ii. 4. ~ 5.) It should be remarked that
anachronism in supposing only one artist of this some call her Leucippe, Archippe, or Astydameia.
name. (Heyne, ad Apollod. 1. c.; Schol. ad Tflucyd.
Nicias was the most celebrated disciple of i. 9.)
Euphranor. He was extremely skilful in painting 2. A daughter of Thespius, the mother of Antifemale figures, careful in his management of light machbus, by-Heracles. (Apollod. ii. 7. ~ 8.) [L. S.]
and shade, and in making his figures stand out of NICIPPUS (Na7crmros). 1. A Coan mentioned
the picture (Plin. 1. c.). The following works of by Aelian (V. H. i. 29), who succeeded in making
his are enumerated by Pliny (I. c.): they seem to himself tyrant.
have been all painted in encaustic. A painting of 2. A friend and disciple of Theophrastus. (Diog.
Nemea, sitting on a lion, holding a palm in her La6rt. v. 53.)
hand, with an old man standing by with a staff, 3. One of the ephors of the Messenians in B. c.
over whose head was a picture of a biga. This 220. With some other leading men amongst
last point is not very intelligible; Lessing has en- them, who held oligarchical views, he was a stredeavoured to clear it up (Laocoiin, p. 280, note): nuous supporter of peace, even to the detriment of
Nicias placed on this picture the inscription, NLeias the public interests. When the envoys from the
y'K'cavoEr: the picture was carried from Asia to congress held at. Corinth, at which war had been
Rome by Silanus, and Augustns had it fastened resolved on against the Aetolians, came to Messenia,
into the wall of the curia which he dedicated in Nicippus and his party, contrary to the feelings and
the comitium (Plin. H. 2V. xxxv. 4. s. 10). Father wishes of the people generally, by means of some
Liber in the temple of Concord. A H'acinthus, degree of compulsion got the reply returned to the
painted as a beautiful youth, to signify the love of envoys, that the Messenians would not enter into
Apollo for him (comp. Paus. iii. 19. ~ 4); Augustus the war until Phigalea, a town on their borders,.was so delighted with the picture that he carried it to had been wrested from the Aetolians. Polybias,
Rome after the taking of Alexandria, and Tiberius in a digression, finds great fault with the policy of
dedicated it in the temple of Augustus. A Diana, this fiction among the Messenians. (Polyb. iv.
probably at Ephesus, as Pliny mentions in imme- 31; Thirlwall,. Iist. of Greece, vol. viii. p. 233,
diate connection with it the sepulchre of Megabyzus, &c.) [C. P. M.]
the priest of Diana, at Ephesus, as painted by NI'CO. [NICON.]
Nicias. Lastly, what appears to have been his NICOBU'LA (NKoeov'hAX), a Greek lady, quoted
master-piece, a representation of the infernal regions by Athenaeus (x. p. 434, c. xii. p. 537, d.),
as described by Homer (NEKvSa, Necromantia Ho- though with some doubt (NgC. 4 ds'aOls TaUTs9
meri); this was the picture which Nicias refused Trd ur'vypa'uara), as the author of a work about
to sell to Ptolemy, although the price offered for it Alexander the Great. In the MSS. of Pliny the
was sixty talents (Plutarch, loc. suep. cit.): Pliny name Nicobulus is found, and Harduin (Index AZuctells the same story of Attalus, which is a manifest torumn, vol. i. p. 63) supposes that he accompanied
anachronism. Plutarch also tells that Nicias was Alexander in his expeditions. (Fabric. Bibl. Gyaec.
so absorbed in the work during its progress, that vol. iii. p. 47.) [C. P. M.]
he used often to have to ask his servants whether NICOBU/LUS, an Athenian who was involved
he had dined. From the above pictures, Pliny dis- in a dispute arising out of some mine-property with
tinguishes the following as grandes picturas: Ca- a man named Pantaenetus, and was sued by him.
lypso, Io, Andromeda, an admirable Alexander The speech of Demosthenes against Pantaeeetues
(Paris), and a sitting Calypso, in the porticoes of was written for him on this occasion. (Dem. rlapaPompey. Some pictures of animals were attributed /ypap) 7rpps IIaTraivero,.) [C.-P. M.]
to him: he was particularly happy in painting NICOBU'LUS, a friend and relative of Gredogs. gorius Nazianzenus. He was the author of a poem,
Pausanias (vii. 22. ~ 4) gives a full description addressed to his son of the same name, in reply to
of his paintings in a tomb outside Tritaea in one written by Gregory, in which the latter had
Achaea. begged him to allow his son to leave his native
There is an interesting passage in Demetrius country for the purpose of studying eloquence.
Phalereus (Eloc. 76), giving the opinion of Nicias The poem of Nicobulus is found amongst those of
respecting the art of painting, in which he insists Gregory, beginning TE'Kvov 4udv, vIAOovsr roOse'wv
on the importance of choosing subjects of some 7ro'EtIs Tri E'plcara. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix.
magnitude, and not throwing away skill and labour p. 311.) [C. P. M.]
on minute objects, such as birds and flowers. The NICO'CHARES (NKcoXdp-ls), an Athenian
proper subjects for a painter, he says, are battles poet of the Old Comedy, the son of Philonides,
both on land and on sea; in which the various also a comic poet. He was contemporary witli
4 a'