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

418 HEIRMOCRATES. HERMOCREON.
Athenians themselves to defer their departure for allies, laid waste the territories of Motya and Patwo days, a delay which proved fatal to the whole normus, and defeated the Panormitans in a battle.
army. (Thuc. vii. 21, 73; Diod. xiii. 18; Plut. By these means he acquired great fame and popuNric. 26.) Thucydides makes no mention of the larity, which were still increased when in the folpart taken by Hermocrates in regard to the Athe- lowing year (B. c. 407) he repaired to Himera, and
nian prisoners, but both Diodorus and Plutarch finding that the bones of the Syracusans who had
represent him as exerting all his influence with his been slain in battle against the Carthaginians two'countrymen, though unsuccessfully, to save the years before still lay there unburied, caused them
lives of Nicias and Demosthenes. According to a to be gathered up, and removed with all due funestatement of Timaeus, preserved by the latter au- ral honours to Syracuse. But, though the revulsion,thor, when he found all his efforts fruitless, he of feeling thus excited led to the banishment of
gave a private intimation to the two generals that Diocles, and other leaders of the opposite party
they might anticipate the ignominy of a public ex- yet the sentence of exile against Hermocrates stil
ecution by a voluntary' death. (Diod. xiii. 19; remained unreversed. Not long afterwards he apPlut. Nic. 28.) proached Syracuse with a considerable force, and
After the destruction of the Athenian armament was admitted by some of his friends into the city';
in Sicily, Hermocrates employed all his influence but was followed in the first instance only by a
with his countrymen to induce them to support select band, which the'Syracusans no sooner diswith vigour their allies the Lacedaemonians in the covered than they took up arms, and attacked and
war in Greece itself. But he only succeeded in slew him, together with the greater part of his folprevailing upon them to send a squadron of twenty lowers, before his troops could come to their assisttriremes (to which the Selinuntians added two ance. (Diod. xiii. 63, 75.) The character of
more)'; and with this small force he himself, with Hermocrates is one of the brightest and purest in
two colleagues in the command, joined the Lace- the history of Syracuse; and the ancient republics
daemonian fleet under Astyochus, before the close present few more striking instances of moderation
of the summer of 412. (Thuc. viii. 26; Diodorus, and wisdom, combined with the most steady pa-however, raises the number of the ships to thirty-. triotism; while his abilities, both as a statesman
five, xiii. 34.) But, trifling as this succour ap- and a warrior, were such as to earn for him the
pears, the Syracusan squadron bore an important praise of being ranked in after ages as on a level in
part in many of the subsequent operations, and.these respects with Timoleon and Pyrrhus. (Polyb.
particularly in the action off Cynossema, in which Frag. Vat. xii. 22.) We do not learn that Herit formed the right wing of the Lacedaemonian mocrates left a son; his daughter was married,
fleet; and though unable to prevent the defeat of after his death, to the tyrant Dionysius. (Diod.
its allies, escaped with the loss of only one ship. xiii. 96; Plut. Dion. 3.)
(Thuc. viii. 104-106; Diod. xiii. 39.) It is pro- 2. Father of Dionysius the elder, tyrant of Sybably of this action that Polybius was thinking, racuse.
when he states (Frag. Vat. xii. 23) that Hermo- 3. A Rhodian, who, according to Plutarch, was
crates was present at the battle of Aegos Potamoi, sent by Artaxerxes Mnemon to Greece, during the
which is clearly erroneous. During these services expedition of Agesilaus in Asia, to gain over the
-Hermocrates, we are told, conciliated in the highest other states of Greece by large bribes, and thus
degree the favour both of the allies and of his own compel the Spartans to recal Agesilaus. (Plut.
troops; and acquired such popularity with the Artax. 20.) There can be little doubt that the
latter, that when (in 409 B. c.) news arrived that same person is meant who is called by Xenophon
he as well as his colleagues had been sentenced to (Hell. iii. 5. ~ 1) Timocrates, and who was sent, it'banishment by a decree of the Syracusan people, appears, not by the king himself, but by the satrap
and new commanders appointed to replace them, Tithraustes. [E. H. B.]
the officers and crews of the squadron not only HERMO'CRATES ('EpwoKcpdKrs). 1. A disinsisted on their retaining the command until the ciple of Socrates, mentioned by Xenophon (Merm.
actual arrival of their successors, but many of them i. 2. ~ 48) as one of those whose character and
offered their services to Hermocrates to effect his conduct refuted the charge brought against Socrates
restoration to his country. He however urged the of corrupting those who associated with him.
duty of obedience to the laws; and, after handing' 2. A rhetorician, a native of Phocaea. He was
over the squadron to the new generals, repaired to the grandson of the sophist Attalus, and studied
Lacedaemon to counteract the intrigues of Tissa- under Claudius Rufinus of Smyrna. He died at
phernes, to whom he had given personal offence. the age of twenty-five, or twenty-eight, according
From thence he returned to Asia, to the court of to other accounts. Philostratus (J it. Sophist. ii.
Pharnabazus, who furnished him with money to 25) pronounces him one of the most distinguished
build ships and raise mercenary troops, for the pur- rhetoricians of his age. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol.
pose of effecting his return to Syracuse. (Xen. vi. p. 131.)
Hell. i. 1. ~ 27-31; Thuc. viii. 85; Diod. xiii. 63.) 3. A grammarian, anative of Iasus. Nothing more
With a force of five triremes and 1000 soldiers, is known of him than that he was the instructor
he sailed to Messana, and from thence in conjunc- of Callimachus. [CALLIMACHUS.] [C. P. M.]
tion'with the refugees from Himera, and, with the HERMO'CRATES ('EpuoKpd'h7s), a physician
co-operation of his own party in-Syracuse, attempted mentioned by Martial in one of his epigrams (vi.
to bring about a revolution in that city. But fail- 53), the point of which seems to be borrowed
ing in that scheme, he hastened to Selinus, at this from one by Lucilius in the Greek Anthology (xi
time still in ruins, after its destruction by the Car- 257, vol. ii. p. 59, ed. Tauchn.) If the name is
thaginians, rebuilt a part of the city, and collected not a fictitious one, Hermocrates may have lived in
thither its refugees from all parts of Sicily. He the first century after Christ. [W. A. G.]
thus converted it into a stronghold, from whence HERMO'CREON ('EpuoKpeCo v),'an architect
he carried on hostilities against the Carthaginian and sculptor, was the builder of a gigantic and