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

82 EUDOXUS. VUDOXUS.
Justinian, classes Eudoxius among the older mean time taught philosophy in Cyzicum and the
teachers, and cites his exposition of a constitution Propontis: he chose Athens, Lagrtius says, for the
of Severus and Antoninus of A. D. 199, which purpose of vexing Plato, at one of whose symposia
appears in Cod. 2. tit. 12. s. 4. Again, in Basil.. he introduced the fashion of the guests reclining in
i. pp. 810, 811, is cited his exposition of a consti- a semicircle; and Nicomachus (he adds), the' son
tution of Diocletian and Maximinian, of A. D. 193, of Aristotle, reports him to have said that pleasure
which appears in Cod. 2. tit. 4. s. 18, with the was a good. So much for Laertius, who also refers
interpolated words excepto adulterio. In both these to some decree which was made in honour of Eupassages, the opinion of Heros Patricius is pre- doxus, names his son and daughters, states him to
ferred to that of Eudoxius. In like manner, it have written good works on astronomy and geoappears from the scholiast in the fifth volume of metry, and mentions the curious way in which the
Meerman's Thesaurus (Jftorum Graecorunm Com- bull Apis told his fortune when he was in Egypt.
mnentarii, p. 56; Basil., ed. Heimbach, i. p. 403) Eudoxus died at the age of fifty-three. Phanocritus
that Domninus, Demosthenes, and Eudoxius, dif- wrote a work upon Eudoxus (Athen. vii. p. 276, f.),
fered from Patricius in their construction of a con- which is lost.
stitution of the emperor Alexander, of A. D. 224, Thefragmentarynotices of Eudoxus are numerous.
and that that constitution was altered by the com- Strabo mentions him frequently, and states (ii. p.
pilers of Justinian's code in conformity with the 119, xvii. p. 806) that the observatory of Eudoxus
opinion of Patricius. Eudoxius is cited by Patri- at Cnidus was existing in his time, from which he
cius (Basil. iii. p. 61) on a constitution of A. D. was accustomed to observe the star Canopus.
293 (Cod. 4. tit. 19. s. 9), and is cited by Theo- Strabo'also says that he remained thirteen years
dorus (Basil. vi. p. 227) on a constitution of A. D. in Egypt, and attributes to him the introduction of
290. (Cod. 8. tit. 55. s. 3.) In the latter passage the odd quarter of a day into the value of the year.
Theodorus, who was a contemporary of Justinian, Pliny (H. N. ii. 47) seems to refer to the same
calls Eudoxius' his teacher. Whether this expres- thing. Seneca (Qu. Nat. vii. 3) states him to have
sion is to be taken literally may be doubted, as first brought the motions of the planets (a theory
Theodorus also calls Domninus, Patricius, and on this subject) from Egypt into Greece. Aristotle
Stephanus (Basil. ii. p. 580) his teachers. (Zacha- (Metaph. xii. 8) states him to -have made separate
riae, Anecdota, p. xlviii.; Zimmern, R. R. G. i. spheres for the stars, sun, moon, and planets.
g 106, 109.) Archimedes (in Arenar.) says he made the diaThe untrustworthy Nic. Comnenus Papadopoli meter of the sun nine times as great as that of the
(Praenot. Mystag. pp. 345, 402) mentions a Eu- moon. Vitruvius (ix. 9) attributes to him the indoxius, Nomicus, Judex veli, and cites his Synop- vention of a solar dial, called ipdxv-: and so on.
sis Legum, and his scholia on the Novells of But all we positively know of Eudoxus is from
Alexius Comnenus. CJ. T. G.] the poem of ARATUS and the commentary of HipEUDO'XIUS, a physician, called by Prosper parchus upon it. From this commentary we learn
Aquitanus a man "pravi sed exercitati ingenii," that Aratus was not himself an observer, but was
who in the time of the emperor Theodosius the the versifier of the cauvwueva of Eudoxus, of which
Younger, A. D. 432, deserted to the Huns. (Chro- Hipparchus has preserved fragments for comparison
nicon. Pithoean. in Labbe, Nova Biblioth. MSS. with the version by Aratus. The result is, that
Libror. vol. i. p. 59.) [W. A. G.] though there were by no means so many nor so
EUDOXUS (EJ8otos) of Cnidus, the son of great errors in Eudoxus as in Aratus, yet the opiAeschines, lived about B. c. 366. He was, accord- nion which must be formed of the work of the
ing to Diogenes Lagrtius, astronomer, geometer, former is, that it was written in the rudest state of
physician,.'and legislator. It is only in the first the science by an observer who was not very comcapacity that his fame has descended to our day, petent even to the task of looking at the risings
and he has more of it than can be justified by any and settings of the stars. Delambre (Hist. Astr.
account bf his astronomical science now in exist- Anc. vol. i. p. 107) has given a full account of the
ence. As the probable introducer of the sphere comparison made by Hipparchus of Aratus with
into Greece, and perhaps the corrector, upon Egyp- Eudoxus, and of both with his own observations.
tian information, of the length of the year, he He cannot bring himself to think that Eudoxus
enjoyed a wide and popular reputation, so that knew anything of geometry, though it is on record
Lairtius, who does not even mention Hipparchus, that he wrote geometrical works, in spite of the
has given the life of Eudoxus in his usual manner, praises of Proclus, Cicero, Ptolemy, Sextus Empithat is, with the omission of all an' astronomer ricus (who places him with Hipparchus), &c., &c.
would wish to know. According to this writer, Eudoxaus, as cited by Hipparchus, neither talks
Eudoxus went to Athens at the age of twenty-three like a geometer, nor like a person who had seen
(he had been the pupil of Archytas in geometry), the heavens he describes: a bad globe, constructed
and heard Plato -for some months, struggling at the some centuries before his time in Egypt, might, for
same time with poverty. Being dismissed'by anything that appears, have been his sole authority.
Plato, but for what reason is not stated, his friends But supposing, which is likely enough, that he
raised some money, and he sailed for Egypt, with was the first who brought any globe at all into
letters of recommendation to Nectanabis, who in Greece, it is not much to be wondered at that his
his turn recommended him to the priests. With reputation should have been magnified. As to
-them he remained sixteen months, with his chin what Proclus says of his geometry, see E UCLEIDES.
and eyebrows shaved, and there, according to Rejecting the'OKae7T-pts mentioned by Lairtius,
Laertius, he wrote the Octagteris.' Several ancient which was not a writing, but a period of time, and
writers attribute to him the invention or introduc- also the fifth book of Euclid,'which one manuscript
tion of an improvement upon the Octaeterides of Euclid attributes to Eudoxus (Fabric. Bibi.
of his predecessors. After a time, he came back Graec. vol. iv. p. 12), we have the following works,
to Athens with a band of pupils, having -in the all lost, which he is said to have-written: