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

NICOMACHUS. NICOMACHUS. 119''the last we have two lines preserved by Stobaeus, Aristodemus.
38. 10. (Meineke, vol.v. p.583; Stob. vol.ii. p.59, l
ed. Gaisford.) Athenaeus gives (ii. p. 58, a.) three
lines, and (xi. p. 781, f.) one line (Meineke, vol. v. Nicomachus. Aristeides.
p. 587, &c.), from plays of Nicomachus, whose
titles he does not mention. Aristocles.
There are several other literary persons of this
name. By one of them there is an epigram on an But the names vary in the MSS., and in the
earthquake which desolated Plataea. The point Bamberg MS. they are altogether different, giving
of it lies in the ruins of Plataea, constituting the the following stemma:monument of those that perished. Of the date of Aristiacus.
the earthquake, or the writer of the epigram, we
know nothing. (Anth. Graec. vol. ii. p. 258, ed.
Jacobs.) Nor do we know who the Nicomachus is
who wrote 7repl iopTrZ, Aiyv7rtw', quoted by Athe- Ncomachus. Ariston.
naeus (xi. p. 478, a.), though this work is sometimes I
attributed to Nicomachus Gerasenus. [WX. M. G.] Alsteldes.
NICO'MACHUS (NLKo'IaXos repacros, or To decide with certainty between the readings is
repaaLtvs), called Gerasenus, from his native place, impossible: it may, however, be remarked that
Gerasa in Arabia, was a Pythagorean, and the there is no other passage in which the names of
writer of a life of Pythagoras, now lost. His date Aristodemus and Aristocles occur. (Comp. the
is inferred from his mention of Thrasyllus, who IKunstblalt, for 1832, p, 188.)
lived under Tiberius. He wrote on arithmetic and Nicomachus flourished under Aristratus of
music, and is the earliest, we believe, of those Sicyon, and Philip of Macedonia. He may therewhose names became bye-words to express skill in fore be placed at B. c. 360, and onwards. He was
computation. In the Philopatris is the phrase an elder contemporary of Apelles and Protogenes.
"you number like Nicomachus of Gerasa." This He is frequently mentioned by the ancient
writer exercised no small influence on European writers in terms of the highest praise. Cicero says
studies, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; that in his works, as well as in those of Echion,
but indirectly. Boethius, in his arithmetical work, Protogenes, and Apelles, every thing was already
is no more than the abbreviator of the larger work perfect. (Brutus, 1 8.) Plutarch mentions his
of Nicomachus, now lost. The never-ending dis- paintings, with the poems of Homer, as possessing,
tinction of-specific ratios by names (see Numzbers, in addition to their force and grace, the appearance
old appellations of, in the Supplement to the Penny of having been executed with little toil or effort.
Cyclopaedia), is the remote consequence of Nico- (Timol. 36.) Vitruvius mentions him as among
machus having been a Pythagorean. the artists who were prevented from attaining to
The extant works of Nicomachus are:- the very highest fame, not from any want of skill
1.'ApLO a7rTsK&1S eriaawyi(r ltSCMXa 13, the lesser work or industry, but from accidental circumstances (iii.
on arithmetic. It was printed (Gr.) by Christian Prooem. ~ 2).
WVTechel, Paris, 1538,4to;also, afterthetheologel'nena Pliny tells us that Nicomachus was one of the
Airithmeicue, attributed to Iamblichus, Leipzig, artists who used only four colours (H. N. xxxv. 7.
1817, 8vo. A Latin version by one Appuleius is s. 32; comp. Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Colores), and
lost, as also various commentaries, of which only that, like Parrhasius, he used the Eretrian ochre in
fragments remain. 2.'EyXeipi'tov adplovIKtI /3LMiai his shadows (ibid. 6. s. 21). He was one of the,, a work on music, first printed (Gr.) by Joh. most rapid of painters. As an example, Pliny reMeursius, in his collection, Leyden, 1616, 4to, lates that, having been commissioned byAristratus
and afterward in the collection of Meibomius, to paint the monument which he was erecting to
(Gr. Lat.), Amsterdam, 1652, 4to; and again in the poet Telestes, Nicomachus postponed the comthe works of Meursius by Lami, Florence, 1745, fol. mencement of the work so long as to incur the
The works which are lost are a collection of anger of the tyrant, but, at last, beginning it only
Pythagorean dogmata, referred to by Iamblichus; a few days before the time fixed for its completion,
a larger work on music, promised by Nicomachus he fulfilled his engagement with no less skill than
himself, and apparently referred to by Eutocius in rapidity. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. ~ 22.)
his comment on the sphere and cylinder of Archi- As his works, Pliny mentions, the Rape of Promedes; eohoyov'jCva dpLO1/TLK71CS, mentioned by serpine, which once hung above the shrine of
Photius, but a different work from that above Youth (Juventas) in the temple of Minerva, on
alluded to; e'XV71 dp16t0wTmK1, the larger work the Capitol: a Victory with a four-horsed chariot
above noted, distinctively mentioned by Photius; (quadriganm in sublime sapiens), also in the Capitol,
a work on geometry, to which Nicomachus himself where it had been placed by Plancus: Apollo and
once refers; wrep} Copr&v AiyvrrnT'w, mentioned by Diana: Cybele riding on a lion: a celebrated picAthenaeus, but whether by this Nicomachus or ture of female bacchanals; surprised by satyrs
another, uncertain. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. v. stealing upon them: and a Scylla, at Rome, in the
p. 629; Hoffman; Schweiger.) [A. De M.] temple of Peace (Plin.. c.). He was the first who
NICO'MACHUS (NrKo'=aXos), artists. 1. A painted Ulysses with the pileus (ibid.). Pliny also
painter, of the highest distinction, was (according mentions his unfinished picture of the Tyndaridae,
to the common text of Pliny) a Theban, the son among the examples of unfinished works by great
and disciple of the painter Aristodemus, the elder masters, which were more highly admired than
brother and teacher of the great painter Aristeides, even their perfect paintings. (H. N. xxxv. 11. s.
and the father and teacher of Aristocles. (Plin. 40. ~ 41.) His disciples were his brother AristI. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. ~ 22.) teides, his son Aristocles, and Philoxenes of Eretri,
We have thus the following stemma:- (Plin. 1. c. 36. ~ 22; but compare the commence