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

P-III,OSTRATUS. PHILOSTRATUS. 323
Wrhether the accuser of Chabrias was also the ~~ 2, 3, 27. ~. 3.) If we may believe Suidas (s. v.
nmaternal grandfather and adoptive father of Phae- Ipsrowv), Fronton was his rival at Athens, and
nippus is a doubtful point. (Dem. c. Pliaen. pp. probably Apsines, who also was opposed to Froln1045, 1047.) ton, and of whom Philostratus speaks (V.S. ii.
3. The father of Polemon the philosopher. (Diog. 33. ~ 4) as his intimate friend, was his colleague. It
Liert. iv. 16.) is true that Suidas speaks of this Philostratus as
4. A Rhodian, who commanded a quinquereme ro 7rpoW'T, but the time, that of Severus, fixes it
with great bravery and distinction in the battle to be Philostratus the biographer. As he was
of Chios, in which Attalus I. and the Rhodians called Lemnius from his birth-place, so on his arrival
defeated Philip V. of Macedon in B. C. 201. at Rome from Athens, or while teaching there, he
(Polyb. xvi. 5.) was called Atheniensis, to distinguish him from his
5. An Epeirot, who in B. C. 170 engaged in a younger namesake. The account given by Suidas
plot for seizing A. Hostilius, the Roman consul, of his having been alive in the time of the emperor
on his way through Epeirus into. Thessaly, and Philip (A. D. 244-249), tallies precisely with
delivering him up to Perseus. The design would what we find written in his own works. Clinton
probably have succeeded, had not Hostilius changed conjectures the time of his birth to be A. D. 182
his route, and, having sailed to Anticyra, made (Fast. Roms. p. 257), but this seems too late a
his way thence into Thessaly. In the following period, and we may fix on A.D. 172 as not improyear we find Philostratus co-operating successfully bable. We have no notice of the time of his rein Epeirus with Clevas, the Macedonian general, moval from Athens to Rome, but we find him a
against Appius Claudius. (Polyb. xxvii. 14; Liv. member of the circle (KicXAov) of literary men,
xliii. 23.) rhetoricians especially, whom the philosophic Julia
6. A Rhodian athlete, who in B. C. 68 bribed Domna, the wife of Severus, had drawn around
his competitor at the Olympic games to allow him her. ( V. Ap. i. 3.) It was at her desire that he
to win, and was punished for it by a fine. (Paus. wrote the life of Apollonius. From the mannler in
v. 21.) [E. E.] which he speaks of her, TOUsS p)70oplKObS ra''ras
PHILO'STRATUS (IAioa TpaTros), literary. Adoyous Brfves, ical 7'rora'Esro, and the fact that lihe
Suidas (s. v.) mentions three of this name. 1. Ac- does not dedicate the work to his patroness, it
cording to him the first was the son of Verus, and may safely be inferred that she was dead when he
lived in the time of Nero. He practised rhetoric finished the life; she died A. D. 217. That the
at Athens, and in addition to several rhetorical work was written in Rome is rendered probable,
works, wrote forty-three tragedies and thirteen from his contrasting the sudden descent of night
comedies, besides treatises entitled rvuvarsTtcJ', in the south of Spain, with its gradual approach
NE'pwva, OEeaTr'v (which Meursius thinks should in Gaul, and ill the place where he is writing,
be written NepwVca searafv), rEp Trpaoywoas, AMOo- EvTravOa. ( IV Ap. v. 3.) That the same person
YV'WtKOmcv, npwre'a. We shall reserve further no- wrote the life of Apollonius and the lives of the
tice of him till we come to speak of the third sophists, a fact which we have hitherto asstumed,
Philostratus. appears from the following facts. He distinctly
2. The most celebrated of the Philostrati is the affirms (V. Ap. v. 2) that he had been in Gaul.
biographer of Apollonius. The distribution of the The writer of the lives of the sophists had also
various works that bear the name has occupied the been in Gaul; for he mentions the mirth which the
attention and divided the opinions of the ablest language of the sophist Heliodorus to the emperor
critics, as may be seen by consulting Vossius (de Caracalla, while in Gaul (A. D. 213), had occasioned
-liist. Graec. p. 279, ed. Westermann), Meursius him. (. TS. ii. 32.) This is confirmed when ( V.S.
(Dissect. de Philostrat. apud Philostrat. ed. Olearius, ii. 5) he refers his reader to his work on Apolp. xv. &c.), Jonsius (de Script. tlist. Phil. iii. 14. lonius, as well known. (V. S. ii. 5.) He states
3), Tillemont (Ilistoire des Emnpereurs, vol. iii. pp. that he wrote these lives while Aspasius was still
86, &c.), Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. vol. v. pp. 540, teaching in Rome, being far advanced in years.
&c.), and the prefaces of Olearius and Kayser to ( V. S. ii. 33. ~ 4.) Besides, he dedicates themll to
their editions of the works of the Philostrati. At a consul named Antonius Gordianus, a descendant
thle very outset there is a difference regarding the of Herodes Atticus, with whom he had conname. The /3os:ocpo-vc;v bears the praenomen of versed at Antioch concerning the sophists. This
Flayius, which we find nowhere else except in Gordianus, Fabricius supposes to have been GorTzetzes. In the title to his letters he is called an dianus III. who was consul A. D. 239 and 241.
Athenian. Eunapius ( it. Soph. prooeIn.) calls him (Bibl. Graec. vol. v. p. 552.) But to this Clinton
a Lemnian, so does Synesius (Vit. Dion.). Photius justly objects, that not only would the dedication
(Bibl. Cod. 44) calls him a Tyrian. Tzetzes in that case have borne the title avtoKpad'Twp instead
(CUil. vi. lIuist. 45), has these words: — of ~ra'ros, but Gordian, who in A. D. 239 was only'tAo'-rparo0 of 4'Adgiss, 6o Ti'ptos, ov, al, p' in his 14th year, was too young to have had any'AAAOS S' E osT O s o'ATT, OS7W'P such coniversations as that referred to. (Fast. Ronl.'ATTLs6' icrrivd IAiS, p. 255.) It may have been one of the other Gorwhere by reading'AAXAcs, we might lessen the diani, who were conspicuous for their consulships.
difficulty. The best means of settling the point is (Jul. Capitol. Gordian. c. 4.) As they were slain
by consulting the author himself; and here we A. D. 238, the lives must have been written prior
find no difficulty. He spent his youth, and was to this event. And as Aspasius did not settle in
probably born in Lemnos ( Vii. Ap. vi. 27), hence Rome till A. D. 235 (Clinton, F. R. p. 245) the
the surname of Lemnius. He studied rhetoric lives of the sophists were probably written about
under Proclus, whose school was at Athens (V. S. A. D. 237.
ii. 21), and had opportunities of hearing, if he Before proceeding to particularize those of his
was not actually the pupil of some of the foremost works which have come down to us, it may be
rhetoricians and sophists of his time ( V. S. ii. 23. more convenient to speak of their general object
v 2