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

PH1RANZA. PHRATAPHERNES. 357
ters, he contrived to make the latter so drunk that Asia. The first edition is a bad Latin translahe was able to rob them of somle important papers, tion of all extract of the work, divided into three
which, however, he conscientiously put back into books, by Jacob Pontanus (ad calcem Theophyl.
their pockets after he had read their contents. Symocattae), Ingolstadt, 1604, 4to, and this
Shortly afterwards he was taken prisoner by the bad edition Gibbon was compelled to peruse when
Catalans, but ransomed himself with 5000 pieces of lie wrote the last volume of his " Decline and
gold. In 1431 he was again ambassador at the Fall." He complains bitterly of it. " While,"
court of the sultan. Ill the following year prince says he (vol. xii. p. 88. ed. 1815, 8vo), "so many
Constantine despatched him to take possession of MSS. of the Greek original are extant in the libraAthens and Thebes, but he was anticipated by the ries of Rome, Milan, the Escurial, &c." (lie might
Turks, who seized those cities for themselves. In have added of Munich, which is the best), "it is a
1438 he married; his daughter Damar, whose matter of shame and reproach that we should be
name will appear hereafter, was born in 1441.; reduced to the Latin version or abstract of J.
and in 1444 his wife was delivered of a son, whose Pontanus, so deficient in accuracy and elegance."
ignoble and lamentable fate made afterwards such While Gibbon thus complained, professor Alter of
a deep impression upon the mind of the unhappy Vienna was preparing his edition of the Greek
father. In the following years we find him en- text, which he published at Vienna, 1796, fol.
trusted with important negotiations at the sultan's This is the standard edition. Immanuel Bekker
court, and he also held the governorship of Selym- published another ill 1838, 8vo, which is a revised
bria, and afterwards Sparta. In 1446 he eent as rep:rit of Aiter's text, with a good Latin version
ambassador to the court of Trebizond, and after the by Edward Brockhof, and revised by the editor;
accession of Constantine to the imperial throne, in this edition belongs to the Bonn Collection of the
1448, he was appointed Protovestiarius. At the Byzantines. Hammer has written an excellent
capture of Conlstantinople, in 1453, Phranza commentary to Phranza, which is dispersed ill his
escaped death, but became a slave, with his wife numerous notes to the first and second volumes of
and children, to the first equerry of the sultan. his Geschichte des Osmnanischen Reiches. Phranza
However, he found means of escaping with his wife, wrote also Expositio Symboli, a religious treatise
and fled to Sparta, leaving his daughter mind son in printed in Alter's edition of the "Chronicon."
the hands of the Turks. Damar died a few years (Alter's Prooeoomiem to the Chronicon; Fabric.
afterwards, a slave in the sultan's harem, and his Biblioth. Grace. vol. viii. p. 74, vol. xii. p. 132,
son was kept in the same place for still more Hankiis, Script. Byzant.) [WV. P.]
abominable purposes. He preferred death to shame, PHRAORrES (,padpT7r) was, according to
and the eniiraged sultan pierced his heart with a Herodotlls, thfe second king of Media, and the somn
dagger. Front Sparta Phranza fled to Corfu, of Deioces, whom he succeeded. He reigned
and thence ewent as ambassador of the despot twenty-two years (B.C. 656-634). He first conThomas, prince of Achaia, to Francesco Foscari, quered the Persians, and then subdued the greater
doge of Venice, by whom he was treated with part of Asia, but was at length defeated and killed
great distinction. After his return to Corfu he while laying siege to Ninus (Nineveh), the capital
entered the convent of St. Elias, and his wife also of the Assyrian eimpire. He was succeeded by
took the veil, both broken-hearted and resolved to his son Cyaxares. (Herod. i. 73, 102.) This
devote the rest of their days to a holy life. In tile Phraortes is said to be the same as the Trouteno of
monastery of Tarchaniotes, whither he subse- the Zendavesta, and to be called F'eriduo in the
quently retired, Phranza wrote his Ch-ro0zicon, for Shah-Nameh. (Ilanmmer in Wiez. Ja/urb. vol. ix.
which his nanle is justly celebrated in the annals p. 13, &c.)
of Byzantine literature; and since that wo:k PHRASAORTES ($pao'adpTrs ), son of Rheofinishes with the year 1477, we must conclude mithres, a Persian, who was appointed by Alexthat he died in that year or shortly afterwards. ander the Great satrap of the province of Persia
This CU'ronicoo extends from 1259 till 1477, Proper, B.c. 331. He died during the expedition
and is the most valuable authority for the of the king to India. (Arr. Anzab. iii. 18, vi.
history of the author's time, especially for the 29.) [E. If. B.]
capture of Constantinople. Phranza has many PHRA'SIUS (,p&Ydois), a Cnyprian soothsayer,
of the defects,f his time; his style is born- who advised Busiris to sacrifice tcle strangers that
bastic, and he indulges in digressions respecting came to his domlilnions for the purlpose of averting
matters not connected with the main subject of a scarcity; but Phrasius himself fll a victim to
his work; but the importance of the events which his own advice. (Apollod. ii. 5. ~ l; Arcadius,
he describes makes us forget the former, and one xl. 3'2.) [L. S.]
cannot blame him for his digressions, because, PIIRATAxGU'NE (Fparrayouvi7), a wife of
though treating on strange matter, they are still Dareius I., killg of Persia, whose two children by
interesting. In all contemporary events, he is a this monarch fell at the battle of Ttiermopylae.
trustworthy, well-informed, and impartial author- (erod. vii, 224.) [ABRocoME.]
ity; and as the greater portion of his work treats PHRATAPIIERNES`('pa'acEpvsqS). 1. A
on the history of his own time, the importance of Persian who held the govrmiment of Parthia and
his workl becomes evident. The C'hronEicon is Ivyrcania, under Dareius Codomannus, and joined
divided into four books. The first gives a short that monarch with the contingents fromn tie proaccount of the first six emperors of the name of vinces subject to his rule, shortly before the battle
eoogus the second cotais the rein of of Arbela, B.c. 331. He afterwards accompanied
John Palaeologus, the son of Manuel; the third the kinu on his flight into Hyrcania, but, after the
the capture of Constantinople, and the death of the death of Dareius, surrendered voluntarily to Alexlast Constantine; and the fourth gives an account ander, by whom he was kindly received, aild
of the divisions of the imperial family, and the appears to have been shortly after reinstated ill his
final dowunfll of Gleek power in Europe and satrapy. At least he is termed by Arrian satrap
A A 3