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

PHIILON. PHILON. 307
medes, who was slain B. C. 212. The inference To Philon of Byzantium is attributed another
drawn from the hydraulic invention of Ctesibius work, IICpl r z rV Err' S'eaptCdrwv, On the Seven
is untenable, as he might well be employed to Wonders of the World. But Fabricius (Bibl. Graec.
ornament a temple already existing, and there is vol. iv. p. 233) thinks that it is impossible that an
no ground for believing that the Marcellus, to eminent mechanician like Philon ByzauJtinus could
whom Athenaeus dedicated his work, is the person have written this work, and conjectures that it was
assumed. On the contrary, Philon, and therefore written by Philon Heracleiotes. No one can doubt
the rest, must have lived after the time of Archi- that he is right in his first conjecture, but it seems
medes, as we learn from Tzetzes (CIil. ii. v. 152) more probable that it is the production of a later
that Philon, in one of his works, mentions Archi- rhetorical writer, who gave it the name of Philon
mnedes. There is no reason, therefore, why we of Byzantium, as that of a man, who, from his life
should reject the express statement of Athenaells and writings, might be supposed to have chosen it
(iv. p. 174, c.), where he mentions Ctesibius as as a subject for composition. It exists in only one
flourishing in the time of the second Euergetes, MS. which, originally in the Vatican, was in 1816,
Ptolemy Physcon, who began to reign B. c. 146. in Paris, No. 389. It was first edited by Allatius,
Fabricius, with odd inconsistency, places the era of Rome, 1640, with a loose Latin translation, and
Philon at A. U. c. 601 =B. c. 153, which is suffi- desultory, though learned notes. It was re-edited
ciently correct. Consequently Heron must be placed from the same MS. by Dionysius Salvagnius Boeslater. (See Schweighiiuser, ad Athenaeum, vol. vii. sius, ambassador from the French court to the
p. 637, &c.; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 535.) All pope, and included in his Miscella, printed at
that we know of his history is derived from his Leyden, 1661. This edition has a more correct
own notices in the work to be mentioned imnle- translation than that of Allatius, but abounds in
diately; that he had been at Alexandria and typographical errors, there being no fewer than 150
Rhodes, and had profited by his intercourse with in 1 4 pages. Gronovius reprinted the edition of
the engineers of both places (pp. 51, 80, 84). Allatius, in his Thesaurus Antiquitatumn Graecarum,
Among his works is one wherein he took a wide vol. vii. pp. 2645-2686. It was finally reprinted at
range, treating of the formation of harbours, of Leipzig, 1816, edited by J. C. Orelli. This edition,
levers, and the other mechanical powers; as well which is undoubtedly the best, contains the Greek,
as all other contrivances connected with the be- with the translations of both Allatius and Boessius,
sieging and the defending of cities. Hence, Vitru- (with the exception of a fragment of a mutilated
vius (vii. Praefat.) mentions him among the writers chapter, reprinted from the translation of L. Holon military engineering. Of this, two books, the stein, which originally appeared in Gronovius, ibid.
fourth and fifth, have come down to us, and are vol. vii. p. 389), the notes of Allatius and others,
printed in the Veterum MIathematicorum Opera, along with some passages from other writers who
of Thevenot, Paris, 1693, wherein Pouchard had treated of the same or similar subjects, the
revised the fragment of Philon, which occurs pp. fragments of the sophist Callinicus, and Adrian the
49-104. The fourth book is headed, (K Tr2y Tyrian, and an Index Graecitatis. The wonders
4Xwcoros 3sAeXovronIscr, and the general subject is treated of are the Hanging Gardens, the Pyramids,
the manufacture of missiles. He mentions in it the statue of Jupiter Olympius, the Walls of Baan invention of his own, which he denominates bylon, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Temple of
4v~ehkA7s (p. 56). In the fifth book we are shocked Artemis at Ephesus, and, we may presume, from
to find that while recommending a besieging army the prooemium, the Mausoleum; but the last is
to devastate the open country on the approach of entirely wanting, and we have only a fragment of
an enemy, he advises them to poison the springs the Ephesian temple. The style, though not
and the grain which they cannot dispose of wholly devoid of elegance, is florid and rhetorical.
(p. 103); and what renders this the worse, he Orelli regrets the lost portions, as he thinks that
mentions his having treated of poisons in his book the author had actually beheld the three last wonon the preparations that should be made for a war. ders. There does not appear to be much ground
What principally attracted attention to this work for this, and the whole seems to have been adopted
in modern times is his notice of the invention of from the reports of others.
Ctesibius (p. 77. &c.). The instrument described 3. CARPATHIUS (from Carpathus, an island
by him, named dcpoToros, acted on the property of north-east of Crete), or rather CARPASIUS (from
air when condensed, and is, evidently, in principle Carpasia, a town in the north of Cyprus). His
the same with the modern air-gun. The subject birth-place is unknown; but he derived this cogis investigated by Albert Louis Meister in a short nomen from his having been ordained bishop of
treatise entitled De Catapulta polybola Commentatio, Carpasia, by Epiphanius, the well-known bishop of
qua locus Philonis liechanici, in libro iv. dte telorumn Constantia. According to the statement of Joannes
constructions extans, illustratur, Gottingae, 1768. and Polybius, bishop of Rhinoscuri, in their life
It has also attracted the notice of Dutens, in his of Epiphanius, Philon, at that time a deacon, was
Origine de Decouvertes attribules auxr llodernes, sent, along with some others, by the sister of the
vol. i. p. 265, ed. Paris. 1776. Further details of emperors Arcadius and Honorius, to bring Epiphathis fragment will be found in Fabricius, vol. iv. nius to Rome, that, through his prayers and the
p. 231, &c. According to Montucla, Philon was laying on of hands, she might be saved from a danwell skilled in Geometry, and his solution of the gerous disease under which she was labouring.
problem of the two mean proportionals (Pappus, Pleased with Philon, Epiphanius not only ordained
Coll. Math. lib. viii.), although the same in prin- him bishop of Carpasia, but gave him charge of
ciple with that of Apollonius, has its peculiar his own diocese during his absence. This was
merits in practice. We learn from Pappus (I.c.) about the beginning of the fifth century (Cave,
that he wrote a treatise on mechanics, the object of Hist. Litt. p. 240, ed. Genev.). Philo Carpasius is
which was nearly the same as Heron's. (Montucla, principally known from his Commentary on the
vol. i. p. 268.) Canticles, which he treats allegorically. A Latin
x2