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

ZEUXIS. ZEUXIS. 1325
ambassadors sent to the Scipios to treat for peace, on built till after the destruction of Siris, in -B. C. 433.
which mission he proceeded to Rome. (Polyb. xxi. It is rather singular that none of the commentators
13, 14, xxii. 7; Liv. xxxvii. 41, 45.) [C. P. M.] (so far as we know) have thought of that city
ZEUXIS, a philosopher of the sceptical school, which was the most celebrated of any of its name
the disciple of Aenesidemus. Diogenes Laertius for the great men whom it sent forth, namely,
(ix. 106) mentions a work by him —I spl 1 TTco Heracleia on the Pontus Euxeinus. The question
Adosyav. [C. P. M.] deserves investigation whether, when Heracleia is
ZEUXIS (Zenits), the name of two physicians mentioned without any distinctive addition by an
who are sometimes confounded together: - Athenian -writer of the time of Xenophon and
1,. A contemporary of Strabo, probably about Plato, we are not justified in assuming that the
the middle or end of the first century B. c. He reference is to Heracleia on the Euxine. The
was at the head of a celebrated Herophilean school probability of this city having been the birth-place
of medicine established at Men-Carus in Phrygia, of Zeuxis is confirmed by the well-known fact, that
between Laodicea and Carura, and was succeeded the artist belonged to the Asiatic school of paintill this post by Alexander Philalethes. (Strabo, ing; a fact which is also indicated in the tradition
xii. 8. p. 77, ed. Tauchn.) which made him a native of Ephesus (Tzetz. Chli!.
2. A native of Tarentum (Galen, Comment. in viii. 196), the head-quarters of the Asiatic school.
Hippocr. " Epid. VI." i. praef. vol. xvii. pt. i. In the same way Apelles and other eminent artists
pp. 793,794), one of the earliest commentators on of the Asiatic school are called natives of Ephesus,
the writings of Hippocrates (id. ibid.; Comment. in though known to have been born at other places.*
Hippocr. "De Humnor." i. 24, vol. xvi. p. 196), The date of Zeuxis has likewise been a matter
and also one of the oldest of the Empirici. (id. of dispute, which has arisen from the confused
Comment. in Hippocr. " Praedict. 1." ii. 58, account of it given by Pliny, who is our chief
vol. xvi. p. 636.) He lived after Herophilus, Cal- authority for the artist's life. (H. N. xxxv. 9.
limachus (id. Comment. in Hippoer. " Epid. VI." s. 36. ~ 2.) He says that "The doors of the art,
i. 5, vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 826, 827.), Bacchius (id. ibid. thrown open by Apollodorus of Athens, were eni. 1, vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 793, 794; iv. 9, vol. xvii. pt. tered by Zeuxis of Heracleia in the fourth year of
ii. p. 145) and Glaucias (id. Comment. in Hippocr. the 95th Olympiad (B. C. 400-399)... who is
" De Humor." ii. 30, vol. xvi. p. 327; Comment. by some placed erroneously in the 79th Olympiad
in HippoCr. " Epid. VI." i. praef.; ii. 65,'vol. xvii. (or 89th, for the best MSS. vary; B. c. 464-460
pt. i. p. 793, 794, 992); and apparently before Zenon or 424-420), when Demophilus of Himera and
(Erotiani, Gloss. Hippocr. p. 216, ed. Franz.); and Neseas of Thasos must of necessity have flourished,
his date may therefore be placed about the middle since it is doubted of which of them he was the
of the third century B. c. He expounded the whole disciple." Now, passing over what is said of
of the Hippocratic Collection (Galen, Comment. in Demophilus and Neseas - which cannot help us,
Ilippocr. "De Humor." i. praef. 24, vol. xvi. pp. 1, as it is doubtful who the former artist was, and we
196; Comment. in Hippocr. " Praedict. L" ii. 58, have no other mention of the latter,-it appears to
vol. xvi. p. 636; Comment. in Hippoer. "De Offic. us that this passage, when cleared of a mistake
Med." i. praef. vol. xviii. pt. ii. p. 631), but his into which Pliny was led in a way which can be
commentaries were not much esteemed in Galen's explained, contains the true period of Zeuxis,
time, and had become scarce. (Id. Comnment. in namely, from about 01. 89 to 01. 96, B. c. 424Hippocr. "Epid. III." ii. 4, vol. xvii. pt. i. p. 605.) 400; the mistake referred to, as made by Pliny,
A brass coin struck at Smyrna is supposed by being the assumption of the period at which Zeuxis
Mead to refer to this physician, but this is un- had attained to the height of his reputation, as
certain. (See Mead, Dissert. de Nu7mmzis quiblusdam that at which he began to flourish. And here we
a Smyrnaeis in Medicor. Honoremn percussis; Littr6, have the reply to the argument of Sillig in favour
Oeuvres d'Hirppocr. vol. i. pp. 89, 104; Sprengel, of reading LXXIX. rather than Lxxxix.; for the
Gesch. der Arzneikunde, vol. i. ed. 1846; Darem- latter, he contends, is the true date for the beminberg, Cours sur P'Hist. et la Litter. des Sciences uing of the artist's career, and is not inconsistent
Med., Annee 2, Le;on 4.) [W. A. G.] with his having flourished at 01. 95. 4; whereas
ZEUXIS (ZeStls), artists. 1. The celebrated the former, involving as it does an interval of
painter, who excelled all his contemporaries except sixty-seven years, is inconsistent with the last
Parrhasius, and whose name is one of the most date. The premises are sound; but the true conrenowned in the history of ancient art, was a clusion in each branch of the argument appears to
native of Heracleia; but which of the cities of that us to be the direct opposite of that drawn by Sillig.
name had the honour of his birth we are not ill- The date of 01. 89 is certainly quite consistent
formed. Most modern writers follow the opinion with the fact that Zeuxis was still flourishing in
of Hardouin, who fixed upon Heracleia in Lucanlia, 01. 95. 4; but it is altogether inconsistent with
for no better reason than that Zeuxis executed a his having begln to flourish at the latter date,
celebrated picture for the neighbouring city of which is the view expressly stated by Pliny, who
Croton; and on a precisely similar ground others therefore very consistently rejects the former date;
decide in favour of Heracleia Lyncestis, in Macedonia, because Zeuxis enjoyed the patronage of * A modern writer on art, who, onil the strength
ArchelaUis. It is evident how these two opinions of the statement referred to, and of a chronological
show the worthlessness of each other; both rest mistake of Lucian's, makes a second painter Apelles,
on facts which are better accounted for by the of Ephesus, should consistently have invented a
celebrity of the artist, which was doubtless co- second Zeuxis, of Ephesus; and so in several other
extensive with the Grecian name; and, as for the instances, in which two places are mentioned in
former, it is most probable, as will be seen pre- connection with an artist's name —the one being
sently, that Zeuxis was born some time before the that of his birth, the other that of the school to
foulldation of the Italian Heracleia, which was not which he belonged.