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

266 PHILETAERUS. PHILETAS.
and, after the death of Seleucus (a c. 280), took titles, namely:'AMwvladovoas, which is the title
advantage of the disorders in Asia to establish of a play by Philippides; AvTXuAeos and Olvohimself in virtual independence. By redeeming 7rolwv, which are also ascribed to Nicostratus; and
from Ptolemy Ceraunus the body of Seleucus, which Mh'eaypos, which is perhaps the same as the
he caused to be interred with due honours, he'A'raxadvTr. The fragments of Philetaerus show
earned the favour of his son, Antiochus I., and by that many of his plays referred to courtezans.
a prudent, but temporizing course of policy, con- (Meineke, Fray. Com. Gsaec. vol. i. pp. 349, 350,
trived to maintain his position unshaken for nearly vol. iii. pp. 292-300.) [P. S.]
twenty years; and at his death to tranemit the PHILE'TAS (LoA~rwas). 1. Of Cos, the son
government of Pergamus, as an independent state, of Telephus, was a distinguished poet and gramto his nephew Eumenes. He lived to the advanced marian (7roLr'rqs aia Kal KiL'LKCOS, Strab. xiv. p.
age of eighty, and died apparently in B. c. 263 657), who flourished during the earlier years of
(Lucian, fMacrob. 12; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. the Alexandrian school, at the period when the
401). His two brothers, Eumenes and Attalus, earnest study of the classical literature of Greece
had both died before him; but their respective sons was combined, in many scholars, with considerable
successively followed him in the sovereign pow6r power of original composition. According to Sui(Strab. xiii. p. 623; Pans. i. 8. ~ 1, 10. ~ 4; Van das, he flourished under Philip and Alexander;
Cappelle, de Reyibus Pergamnenis, pp. 1-7). but this statement is loose and inaccurate. His
Numerous coins are extant bearing the name of youth may have fallen in the times of those kings,
Philetaerus (of which one is given below), but it is but the chief period of his literary activity was
generally considered by numismatic writers, that during the reign of the first Ptolemy, the son of
these, or at least many of them, were struck by the Lagus, who appointed him as the tutor of his son,
later kings of Pergamus, and that the name and Ptolemy II. Philadelphus. Clinton calculates that
portrait of Philetaerus were continued in honour his death may be placed about B. c. 290 (Fast.
of their founder. Other authors, however, regard Hell. vol. iii. app. 12, No. 16); but he may posthe slight differences observable in the portraits sibly have lived some years longer, as he is said to
which they bear, as indicating that they belong to have been contemporary with Aratus, whom Euthe successive princes of the dynasty, whom they sebius places at B. c. 272. It is, however, certain
suppose to have all borne the surname or title of that he was contemporary with Hermesianax, who
Philetaerus. But it may be doubted whether this was his intimate friend, and with Alexander Aetoview can be maintained. (Eckhel, vol. ii. p. 473; lus. He was the instructor, if not formally, at
Visconti, Iconogr. Grecque, vol. ii. p. 200 —210; least by his example and influence, of Theocritus
Van Cappelle, pp. 141-146.) and Zenodotus of Ephesus. Theocritus expressly
mentions him as the model which he strove to
A-~,"~\0n~,01~; imitate. (Id. vii. 39; see the Scholia ad loc.)
Philetas seems to have been naturally of a very
weak constitution, which at last broke down under
0^ \ _ IIexcessive study. He was so remarkably thin as to
become an object for the ridicule of the comic poets,
who represented hin as wearing leaden soles to
his shoes, to prevent his being blown away by a
strong wind; a joke which Aelian takes literally,
sagely questioning, however, if he was too weak to
COIN OF PHILETAERnUS. stand against the wind, how could he be strong
enough to carry his leaden shoes? (Plut. Ass Seni
2. A son of Attalus I., and brother of Eumenes sit yes. Respab. 1 5, p. 791, e.; Ath. xii. p. 552, b.;
II., king of Pergamus. In s.c. 171, he was left Aelian, V. H. ix. 14, x. 6). The cause of his
by Eumenes in-charge of the affairs of Pergamus, death is referred to in the following epigram (ap.
while the king and Attalus repaired to Greece to Ath. ix. p. 401, e.):assist the Romans in the war against Perseus. uEvE IIArl\as AJ'ywv 6 4eeVlseoV's Je
With this exception he plays no part in history. cos KaE ulcswi 4pos-rces eErpion.
(Liv. xlii. 55; Strab. xiii. p. 625; Polyb. xl. 1.)
3. A brother of Dorylaus, the general of Mithri- We learn from Ilermesianax (ap. Ath. xiii. p. 598,
dates, and ancestor of the geographer Strabo. f.) that a bronze statue was erected to the memory
(Strab. x. p. 478, xiii. p. 557.) [E. H. B.] of Philetas by the inhabitants of his native island,
PHILETAERUS (AErc'ualpos), an Athenian his attachment to which during his life-time he
comic poet of the Middle Comedy, is said by Athe- had expressed in his poems. (Schol. ad Theoc. 1. c.)
naeus to have been contemporary with Hyperides The poetry of Philetas was chiefly elegiac (Suid.
and Diopeithes, the latter perhaps the same person EypaeIv E7rrtyp/,ufar'a Kcal e',\yeEaSi Kal a'xxa).
as the father of the poet Menander (Ath. vii. p. Of all the writers in that department he was es342, a., xiii. p. 587). According to Dicaearchus teemed the best after Callimachus; to whom a taste
Philetaerus was the third son of Aristophanes, but less pedantic than that of the Alexandrian critics
others maintained that it was Nicostratus (see the would probably have preferred him; for, to judge
Greek lives of Aristophanes, and Suid. s. vv.'Apeo- by his fragments, he escaped the snare of cumbrous
Toocvlas, IstX'Talpos). He wrote twenty-one plays, learned affectation (Qaintil. x. 1. ~ 58; Procl.
according to Suidas, from whom and from Athenaeus Cltrest. 6. p. 379, Gaisf.). These two poets formed
the following titles are obtained: —'Ao-KA71r/o's, the chief models for the Roman elegy: nay, Pro.'ATaXdVTr7,'AXLAXhh S, K(PaXos, KoptvOsacr-'s, pertius expressly states, in one passage, that he
Kvvy'yls, Aag6rarlqp6pot, T77petVs, I[havaUoXS; to imitated Philetas in preference to Callimachus
which must be added the MWive, quoted in a MS. (Propert. ii. 34. 31, iii. 1. 1, 3. 51, 9. 43, iv. 6. 2;
grammatical work. There are also a few doubtful Ovid, Art. Amnat. iii. 329, Reined. Amnor. 759;