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

496 HIRTIUS. HIRTIUS.
name. (Hornm. II. xxiv. 251; Diod. iv. 33; Apol- (ad Att. x. 4. 5, ll). Whether he accompanied
lod. ii. 1. ~ 5; iii. 10. ~ 5.) [L. S.] his patron to the Spanish war in the same year, or
HIPPYS ('Irrvr or "lirvr) of Rhegium, a remained with Oppius, Balbus, and other CaesaGreek historian, who lived in the time of the Per- rians to watch over his interests in the capital, is
sian wars, and wrote a work on Sicily (?ds lKce- unknown. Whether Hirtius were one of the ten
ALcdas rpdeLs) in five books, which was epitomised praetors nominated by Caesar for B. c. 46 (Dion
by Myes. He also wrote Klrtv,'ITraAas, no doubt Cass. xlii. 51), and one of the ex-praetors who rean account of the early mythical history of Italy, ceived consular ornaments (Suet. Caes. 76), is
like the works which the Romans called Origines; equally uncertain. The grounds for supposing him
XpovlKcd in five books; and, if the text of Suidas to have been praetor, —the inscription A. HIRTIUS
is correct ('ApyoXAoyLKv 7y'), a miscellaneous work, PR. on a coin (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 224),-apply
the fruit of leisure hours, in three books: but few equally to a prefecture of the city, and as Caesar,
critics will hesitate to accept the conjectural emen- during his frequent absences from Rome, appointed
dation of Gyraldus,'ApyoAIcv. (Suid. s. v.) many delegates, Hirtius was probably one of the
There can be no doubt that the remainder of the number. Either as praetor or city-prefect, he may
article in Suidas (oT-os 7rp' Os lepase 7rapVlav have been the author of the Lex Hirtia, for excal XwoXiargo, Kcal aAXa) is misplaced from his cluding the Pompeians from the magistracies. (Cic.
article'Iircrvaf. [HIPPONAX.] Hippys is quoted Phil. xiii. 16.) In B. c. 47, after the close of the
by Aelian (N. A. ix. 33), by Stephanus Byzan- Alexandrian war, Hirtius met Caesar at Antioch,
tinus (s. v.'ApKa's), who says that Hippys first and exerted himself in behalf of the elder Q.
called the Arcadians 7rpoaeijvovr; by Plutarch (de Cicero. (Cic. ad Att. xi. 20.) In the following
Defect. Orac. 23, p. 422); by the Scholiast on year he was present at the games at Praeneste,
Apollonius Rhodius (iv. 262), and, with a corrup- and during Caesar's absence in Africa lived princition of the name into'I7rrias and'I7r7rEs, by pally at his Tusculan estate, which was contiguous
Ath'enaeus (i. p. 31, b.); by a Scholiast on Euri- to Cicero's villa. (Ad Att. xii. 2.) Though politipides (Med. 9); and by Zenobius (Prov. iii. 42). cally opposed, they were on friendly terms. Cicero
Perhaps too one passage (Antig. Hist. Mir. 133), gave Hirtius lessons in oratory, and Hirtius, in
in which the name of Hippon of Rhegium occurs, return, imparted to the orator, or to the orator's
may. really refer to Hippys. (Vossius, de Hist. cook, some of the mysteries of the table. (Cic. ad
Graec. pp. 19, 20, ed. Westermann.) [P. S.] Fam. vii. 33, ix. 6, xvi. 18; Suet. de Clar. Rhet.
HIRPI'NUS, QUI NCTIUS, a friend of Ho- 1.) Hirtius corresponded with Caesar during the
race, who, according to the received titles of his African war (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6), and left his Tuspoems, addressed to him an ode (Carm. ii. 11), and culan villa to meet him on his return to Italy (Id.
an epistle (Epp. i. 16). In the former of these lb. 18), and accompanied him to Rome. He did
compositions he admonishes Hirpinus to relax from not attend the dictator to the second Spanish war,
public cares, in the latter, if it relate to Hirpinus B. C. 45, but followed him to Narbonne, whence in
at all, to prefer solid to specious virtue. [W.B.D.] a letter dated April 18, he announced to Cicero the
HI'RRIUS, C., son perhaps of - Hirrius, defeat of the Pompeians (ad Att. xii. 37). From
praetor in B. C. 88, was remembered as the first Narbo, where Caesar joined him, Hirtius sent to
private person who had sea-water stock-ponds for Cicero his reply to the orator's panegyric of Cato,
lampreys. He was so proud of these fish that he which was probably composed at Caesar's request,
would not sell them at any price, but sent some and was a prelude to his own more celebrated
thousands of them to Caesar for his triumphal treatise "Anti-Cato." (Id. ad Att. xii. 40. ~ 1,
banquets in B. c. 46-45. Hirrius expended the 41. ~ 4.) Hirtius disputed his commendations of
rent of his houses, amounting to 12,000,000 ses- Cato, but wrote in flattering terms of Cicero himterces, in bait for his lampreys, and sold one self (comp. ad Att. xiii. 21), who accordingly took
farm which was well stocked with them for 400,000 care to circulate freely the treatise of Hirtius. (Ad
sesterces. (Varr. R. R. ii. 5, iii. 17; Plin. H. N. Att. xii. 44, 45, 47.) At the same time Hirtius
ix. 55.) He is perhaps the same person with C. appears to have renewed his efforts to reconcile
Hirrius Postumius, mentioned among other volup- Q. Cicero with his son, and to have softened
tuaries by Cicero (de Fin. ii. 22. ~ 70). [W. B. D.] Caesar's displeasure with the father. (Ad Att. xiii.
A. HI'RTIUS, A. F., belonged to a plebeian fa- 37. 40.) In B. C. 44 Hirtius received Belgic Gaul
mily, which came probably from Ferentinum in the for his province, but he governed it by deputy (ad
territory of the Hernici. (Orelli, Inscr. n. 589.) He Att. xiv. 9), and attended Caesar at Rome, who
was throughout life the personal and political friend nominated him and Vibius Pansa, his colleague in
of Caesar the dictator (Cic. P/il. xiii. 11), but his the augurate, consuls for B. C. 43. (Id. ad Fam.
name would scarcely have rescued the Hirtia gens xii. 25, Phil. vii. 4.) His long residence in the
from obscurity, had not his death marked a crisis capital had made Hirtius better acquainted with
in the history of the republic. In B. c. 58 he was the general feeling and state of parties than
Caesar's legatus in Gaul (Cic. ad Fam. xvi. 27), Caesar himself, and he joined the other leading
but was more frequently employed as a negotiator Caesarians in counselling the dictator not to dismiss
than as a soldier. In December B. C. 50, he was his guards (Vell. Pat. ii. 57; ~ Plut. Caes. 57;
despatched' with a commission to L. Balbus at comp. Suet. Caes. 86; Dion Cass. xliv. 7; App.
Rome, and as he arrived and departed at night, his B. C. ii. 107; Cic. ad Att. xiv. 22.) Their advice
errand, as a known emissary of Caesar, caused was neglected, and Hirtius, deprived of his conmuch speculation and alarm, especially to Cn. stant patron and friend, was, by his nomination to
Pompey. (Cic. ad Att. vii. 4.) Hirtius returned the consulship, brought into the centre and front
from Gaul on the breaking out of the civil war in of political convulsion, without strictly belongB. c. 49, and was at Rome in April after Pompey's ing to any one of its component parties. As a
expulsion from Italy, at which time he obtained for Caesarian, he was opposed to Cicero and the
the younger Q. Cicero an audience with Caesar senate; as a friend of the murdered dictator, to