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

HIPPIAS. TI-PPIUS. 479: tIIPPIAS ('TIr7ras). 1. [PEISISTRATUS and tions, as the productions of Hippias; nay, his,
PEIsIstRA'rIDAE.] literary vanity seems not to have scrupled to write
2. The Sophist, was a native of Elis, and a son on grammar, music, rhythm, harmony, and a variety
of Diopeithes. He was a disciple of Hegesidamus of other subjects. (Plat. Hipp. maj. p. 285, &c.;(Suid. s. v.), and the contemporary of Protagoras comp. Philostr. 1. c.; Plut. Num. 1, 23; Dion
and Socrates. Owing to his talent and skill, his Chrys. Orat. lxxi. p. 625.) He seems to have been.
fellow-citizens availed themselves of his services in especially fond of choosing antiquarian and mythipolitical matters, and in a diplomatic mission to cal subjects for his show speeches. Athenaeus
Sparta.'(Plat. Hipp. maj. pp. 281. a, 286. a; (xiii. p. 609) mentions a work of Hippias under:
Philostr. Vit. Sop/h. i. 11.) But he was in every the title 8vvaoywoy), which is otherwise unknown.
respect like the other sophists of the time: he An epigram of his is preserved in Pausanias (v. 25,
travelled about in various towns and districts of also in Brunck, Analect. ii. 57). His style and
Greece for the purpose of acquiring wealth and language are not censured for any thing particular
celebrity, by teaching and public speaking. His by the ancients. (Comp. Green van Prinsterer,
character as a sophist, his vanity, and his boastful Prosop. Platon. p. 91, &c.; Geel, Hist. Grit. Soph..
arrogance, are well described in two dialogues of p. 181, &c.; F. Osann, Der. Sophist Hippias als
Plato, the'Ir7rias uPe[iwv and the'Ihrrlfas ehdAorwv Arceiaeolog, in the Rhein. Mus. for 1843, p. 495,
(Hippias major and Hippias minor). The former &c.)
treats of the question about the beautiful, and in a 3. Of Thasus, one of the earliest Greek grammanner which gives ample scope for putting the marians, who occupied himself with the explanation
knowledge and presumption of Hippias in a ludi- of difficult and obscure passages in the Homeric
crous light; the other handles the deficiency of poems. (Aristot. Poet. 25; Soph. Eleac/s. i. 3
our knowledge, and exposes the ridiculous vanity Lysias, Oral. xiii. ~ 54.)
of the sophist. The latter dialogue is considered 4. Of Delos, a Greek grammarian, probably of a
by Schleiermacher and Ast to be spurious. Ast later date than the preceding one, is mentioned as
even goes so far as to reject the Hippias major also; the author of a sort of geographical dictionary
but it is not easy to get over the difficulty which (i8OvC dveouaaiat, Schol. ad.Apollen. R/od. iii.
arises from the fact of Aristotle (MIetapshys. v. 29) 1178, Edloc. p. 248; Eustath. ad Dionys. Periceg.
and Cicero (de Orat. iii. 32) mentioning it, though 270), but is otherwise unknown.
without expressly ascribing it to Plato; but how- 5. Of Erythrae, an historian, whose age is unever this may be, the dialogues must at any rate known. He wrote a work on the' history of his;
have been written by a person and at a time when native city, of which a fragment is quoted by Athethere was no difficulty in forming a correct estimate naeus (vi. p. 258). [L. S.]
of the character of Hippia'i f we compare the HI'PPIAS ('Irrlas), artists. 1. A statusry,
accounts of Plato with those given by other writers, mentioned by Dio Chrysostom as the teacher of:
it cannot be denied that Hippias was a man of Phidias. (Oral. Iv. vol. ii. p. 282, ed. Reiske.)
very extensive knowledge, that he occupied him- 2. A statuary, who, according to Pausanias,
self not only with rhetorical,' philosophical, and made the statue of the Olympic victor Scaeus, the'
political studies, but was also well versed in poetry, son of Duris of Samos, in the Altis at Olympia,
music, mathematics, painting and sculpture, nay, during the time when the Samians were expelled
that to a certain extent he had a practical skill in from their island, that is, before B. c..324. (Paus.
the ordinary arts of life, for he used to boast of wear- vi. 13. ~ 3, or ~ 5, ed. Bekker, who restores the
ing on his body nothing that he had not made him- name of Scaeus, which is lost or corrupted in the
self with his own hands, such as his seal-ring, older editions.)
his cloak, and shoes. (Plat. Hipp. maj. p. 285. c, 3. A painter of second-rate merit, celebrated for
Hipp. min. p. 368. b, Protag. p. 315. c; Philostr. his picture or pictures of Neptune and Victory.;
1. c.; Themist. Orat. xxix. p. 345. d.) But it is (Plin. xxxv. 11. s. 40. ~ 35.)
at the same time evident that his knowledge of all 4. A most skilful mechanician and geometrithese things was of a superficial kind, that he did cian, contemporary with Lucian, who describes a
not enter into the details of any particular art or bath constructed by him. (Hippias, sea Balneium,
science, and that he was satisfied with certain vol. iii. pp. 66-74.) [P. S.]
generalities, which enabled him to speak on every- HI'PPITAS, or HI'PPOTAS ('Ir7r[Tas, Polyb.;
thing without a thorough knowledge of any. This'I7riro'ra, Plut.), one of the friends of Cleomenes
arrogance, combined with ignorance, is the main III., king of Sparta, who accompanied him in his
cause which provoked Plato to his severe criticism flight and exile in Egypt. He took part, together
of Hippias, in which he is the more justified, as with Panteus and the rest of the king's friends, in
the sophist enjoyed a very extensive reputation, the last fruitless attempt to excite an insurrection
and thus had a proportionate influence upon the at Alexandria, and shared with the rest a voluneducation of the youths of the higher classes. His tary death when they found that all hopes were at
great forte seems to have consisted in delivering aalend. (Polyb.v. 37; Plut. Cleom. 37.) [E.H.B,]
extempore show speeches; and once his sophistic HI'PPIUS, a friend' of Cicero's, whom the
vanity led him to declare that he would travel to orator represents as particularly deserving'of his:
Olympia, and there deliver before the'assembled esteem. He therefore recommended the son of
Greeks an oration on any subject that might be Hiippius, C. Valgius. Hippianus, who had been
proposed to him (Plat. Hipp. min. p. 363); and adopted by a member of the Valgian family, and
Philostratus in fact speaks of several such orations had purchased a portion of the demesne of Fredelivered at Olympia, and which created great gellae, to the magistrates of that town. (Cic. ad
sensation. Such speeches must have been published Famn. xiii. 76.) This letter conveys indirectly some
by Hippias, but no specimen has come down to us. curious information. Fregellae, once the chief town
Socrates (ap. Plat, Hipp. min. p. 368) speaks of of a considerable district, became a Roman colony
epic poetry, tragedies, dithyramhs, and various ora- in B.c. 328. (Liv. viii. 22; Strab. v. p.- 238.) In