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

HYPSICLES. ITYPSICLES 541
12h, was joint commissioner with his colleague, It is generally stated that Hypsicles lived A. D.
M. Fulvius Flaccus [FLACCUS, M. FULVIUS, No. 160, oni the authority of Suidas, who states that his
7], for resuming and re-apportioning such de- teacher, Isidore the philosopher, hiAoJdpxqase v'7ro
mesnes of the state as were held contrary to the'ols d3ahAois; hence, says Fabricils, he lived sub
provisions of the Licinian and Sempronian laws. Divis Fratribus, and the Divi Fratres are Antoninus
(Fasti; Val. Max. ix. 5. ~ I; Obseq. 90; Phlegon. and Verus. [ANTONINUS PIUS.] But Fabricius (or
Trail. 10.) Cicero (de Or. i. 36. ~ 166) mentions Harless) adds a note to the effect that it is possible
Hypsaeus as ill-versed in the civil law. this Isidore may be stated to have studied under
5. P. PLAUTIUS HYPSAEUS, as tribune of the his own brothers, and that he may be the Isidore
plebs in B. C. 54, exerted himself to procure for whose life was written by DAMASCIUS. August,
Cn. Pompey, whose quaestor he had been, the com- the editor of Euclid, assumes, without an allusion:
mission for restoring Ptolemy Auletes to the to any other opinion; that Isidore was Isidore of
throne of Egypt. (Cic. ad Fain. i. 1. ~ 3.) In Miletus, Justinian's architect, and the preceptor of
B. c. 54, Hypsaeus was a candidate for the con- EUTOCIUS. Whether this last supposition be true or
sulship, and since Milo was his opponent, he had not, it is certain that the former one must be correct,:
the support of P. Clodius and his gladiators. for Suidas, at the word Syrianus, mentions Isidore[CLAUDIUS, No. 40.] With his fellow-candidate, 1" the philosopher" again, and cites Damascius by
Q. Metellus Scipio, Hypsaeus employed in his name for his information. Now Photius, who has
canvass the most open corruption and violence. given a long commentary on the life of Isidore by
In the tumults that followed the murder of Clo- Damascius, repeats again and again that Isidore
dius, Hypsaeus and Scipio besieged the interrex, was the successor of Marinus, the successor of
M. Aemilius Lepidus, in his own house for five Proclus, and that Damascius was his fellow pupil.
da3 s, because he would not consent to hold the This brings Isidore fairly into the reign of Justi-:
comitia illegally. Scipio and Hypsaeus were na- nian; and if we look at the strong feeling of ad —
turally favourites with the Clodian mob, who miration which Eutocius and Hypsicles both excarried off the fasces from the temple of Libitiria press for their teachers (Hypsicles calls his the
(Dionys. iv. 15; Suet. Ner. 39), and offered great), we cannot suppose that these two Isidores
them to these candidates, before they tendered were two different persons. Again, the Isidore of
them to Cn. Pompey. Hypsaeus was singled out Damascius was a Christian, and Suidas calls him
by Milo's faction for their especial attack. At the rqsuexAs e' lepoas. If an editor of Archimedes in
examination of the witnesses at Milo's trial, they the second century had been a Christian, the fact
demanded that the slaves of Hypsaeus be submitted must have been noted in many forms, and probably
to torture, and shortly afterwards, through Pom- he would have been one of the saint Isidores from
pey's law de Ambitu, they procured the banish- whom Suidas always distinguishes him by the title
ment of Hypsaeus himself for bribery in his con- of the philosopher.
sular canvass. Although he had been an active There are other strong presumptions against
partizan of Pompey's, his patron deserted him. Hypsicles having lived in the second century.
-Ie had thrown himself at Pompey's feet, as he Neither Pappus, Proclus, nor Eutocius, mentions
was going from the bath to the supper-table; but his name. Now Proclus names the commentators
Pompey rejected his entreaties, and waived him off on Euclid: it is unlikely he would have forgotten
with "Away; you will spoil my supper! " (Cic. ad the editor who added two whole books to the
Alt. iii. 8, pro Flace. 9; Ascon. in Cic. Milon. p. 31, Elements. Moreover, he specifies it as the ulti?
36; Schol. Bob. pro Mil. p. 281, id. in Or. de Aer. al. mate object of the Elements to investigate the proitf. 341, Orelli; Cic. fracm. p. 456, vol. iv. Orelli; perties of regular solids: it is very unlikely that
Appian, B. C. ii. 24; Plut. Poimp. 55; Val. Max. he should have suppressed the fact of two books on
ix. 5. ~ 3; Liv. Epit. 107.) LW. B. D.] those very solids having been written as an apHYPSE'NOR ('TYr'vwp), the name of two my- pendix to Euclid. Again, Marinus, in his preface
thical personages, one a son of the Trojan priest to the Data, states the Elements to consist of thirDolopion, who was killed by Eurypylus (Hom. II. teen books, which is a presumption against the
v. 76, &c.), and the other, a son of Hippasus, was additional books of Hypsicles having been added
killed by the Trojan Deiphobus. (xiii.41 1.) [L.S.] before his time. Putting all these things together,
HYPSEUS ('~Tqev's), a son of Peneius, and the we feel that we may confidently assert Hypsicles
Naiad Creusa, or Phillyra, the daughter of Asopus, to have written not earlier than A. D. 550.
was king of the Lapithae, and married to Chlida- Diophantus mentions Hypsicles in the work on
nope, by whom he became the father of Cyrene, polygonal numbers (prop. viii.), and seems to attriAlcaea, Themisto, and Astyageia. (Pind. Pyth. bute to him the notion and definition of polygonal
ix. 13, &c.; Apollod. i. 9, ~ 2; Diod. iv. 69; numbers. We must accordingly place Diophantus
Paus. ix. 34. ~ 5.) Another personage of this at least something later than Hypsicles, perhaps at
name. occurs in Ovid (Met. v. 99). [L. S.] the beginning of the seventh century. Achilles
HYPSICLES ('TIKacXs), was of Alexandria, Tatius also mentions Hypsicles (Isag. in Phaenom.
or, as the Arabic writers say, of Ascalon. Both Arati) as one of those who wrote on the harmony
may be right, for to say that a Greek mathema- of the planetary motions, rep'l Tis eYap/Aovov Kiv4tician or astronomer was of Alexandria, fixes his toewr: and thus the date of Achilles Tatius is conplace of birth or general residence about as much siderably altered.*
as we do when we name an Englishman of the
same stamp as of Oxford or Cambridge. The time * The date of Achilles Tatius is supposed to bo
at which he lived will require some discussion, settled by a passage of Julius Firmicus (iv. 10),
inasmuch as we intend to differ from the account in which he announces his intention to defer certain
generally received, and our theory on the matter astrological topics till he treats of -the barbarian
involves the period at which Diophantus wrote, sphere, qade divinus ille Abraam et pradentissimus
which is of somewhat more importance. Achilles verissimis conati sunt rationzibus invenire et