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

POTAMON. POTHINUS. 513
to a different age. The arguments which they em- andria to Rome the idea of an eclectic school.
ploy to demonstrate this last position are founded But he had no followers in his peculiar combinaupon the second title of the Epistola ad Athana- tions. They were supplanted by the school that
sium as given above, but this title Galland, Schoene- endeavoured to ingraft Christianity upon the older
mann, and others, hold to be the blunder of an systems of philosophy. Indeed, the short notice
ignorant transcriber. The Sernmones will be found given by Lairtius does not entitle Potamon to the
in Galland, and the discussions with regard to the distinction invariably conferred upon him, that he
real author in the Prolegomena to the volume, cap. was the first to introduce an eclectic school; though,
x. p. xvii. [W. R.] probably, he was the first who taught at Rome a
POT'AMO, PAPI'RIUS, a scriba of Verres, system so called.
and one of the instruments of his tyranny, is called Lairtius states briefly a few of his tenets, deby Cicero in irony "homo severus, ex vetere illa rived from his writings, from which we can only
equestri disciplina" (Cic. Verr. iii. 60, 66). He learn that he combined the doctrines of Plato with
was originally the scriba and friend of Q. Caecilius the Stoical and Aristotelian, and not without oriNiger, the quaestor of Verres, and he remained ginal views of his own. According to Suidas he
with Verres, when Caecilius left the island. (Cic. wrote a commentary on the Republic of Plato.
Div. in Caecil. 9.) 2. Of Mytilene (Strab. xiii. p. 617), son of LesPO'TAMON (rIoTdsywv). 1. Of Alexandria. bonax the rhetorician, was himself a rhetorician, in
Of this philosopher we have notices in Diogenes the time of Tiberius Caesar, whose favour he enLaertius (Prooem. ~ 21), Porphyrius (de Vita joyed (Suidas, s.v.). Westermann, indeed, makes
Plotini, in Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 109, old him a teacher of Tiberius, but this is stated nowhere
ed.), and Suidas (s. vv. apeas, loTdiscv,). Many else (Geschichte Griech. Bered. p. 1()6). He is
attempts have been made to reconcile, by emenda- mentioned as an authority regarding Alexander the
tion and conjecture, the discrepancies found in Great, by Plutarch (Alex. 61). It is, probably,
these notices, or to ascertain the truth regarding he whom Lucian states to have attained the age of
him. Of these an elaborate account will be found ninety (Mk~acrob. ~ 23). Suidas informs us that,
in Brucker's Historia Crilicae Plhilosoplziae (vol. ii. ill addition to his life of Alexander the Great, he
p. 193, &c.). This subject has also been investi- wrote several other works, namely, "2poi 2al&wv,
gated in a treatise by Gloeckrier, entitled, De Po- Bpourov CyKCcK10ov, rIep1 TeAeh'ov ptTropoS. And, to
tamonis Alex. Philosophia Eclectica, r-ecentiorum the treatises mentioned by Suidas, should probably
Platonicorum Disciplinae admoduzm dissimili, Dis- be added that 7repl Ti's &Lacopas, quoted by Amput. 4to. Lipsiae, 1745. Of this an excellent abs- monius in his treatise reup d'tlwoov tal &aapo'pwv
tract is given by HIarless (in Fabric. ibid. yol. iii. Ae'ec'v, s. v. &pcqav. (Suidas, s. vv. ~OeoeJpos rap. 184, &c.). What is chiefly interesting and im- 6apems, AeaeoSva5, loaIdceo'v.)
portant regarding Potamon, is the fact recorded by 3. A poet, sneered at by Lucillius. (Anth. Graec.
Laertius, that, immediately before his time (7rpo vol. iii. p. 44, Jacobs.) [W. M. G.]
oMAyov), Potamon had introduced an eclectic sect POTHAEUS (HoOnaos), a Greek architect, of
of philosophy (EKhAeICrcsJ TLS a4peoEUs). Modern unknown age and country, who, in conjunction
writers have made too much of this solitary fact, with Antiphilus and Megacles, made the treasury
for we read nowhere else of this school of Potamon. of the Carthaginians at Olympia. (Paus. vi. 19.
The meaning of Porphyrius, in the passage referred ~ 4. s. 7.) [P. S.]
to above, is by no means clear. It is impossible to POTHEINUS (fIoOeivos), artists. 1. An Athetell whether he makes Potaimon the occasional dis- nian sculptor, whose name is preserved on an inlciple of Plotinus, or Plotinus of Potamon. Suidas, scription which was affixed to the portrait-statue
in the article al'peo-s, evidently quotes Lai'rtius, but of a certain Nymphodotus, in the palaestra at
in rIo-d4,wv he states, that he lived 7rpd AJYOudr'otev, Athens. (Bbckh, Cohp. Inscr. No. 270, vol. i.
Kal 5UE7' av-To''. Whatever meaning these words p. 375. The inscription, as explained by Bbckh,
may have-for that is one of the points of dis- reads thus, EibcKoa 7ivse IloOetyos.... Trevag
cussion inl this question-the two articles are irre- alca'ro, which can only mean that Potheillus nwas
concileable. Indeed, Suidas exhibits his usual coll- both the sculptor and the dedicator of the statue.
fusion in this name. He makes (s. v. Aacd'va4) That artists not unfrequently dedicated their own
Potamon the rhetorician [No. 2], a philosopher, works, is showun by Welcker, Kunstblatt, 1827,
and we need not encumber the question with his No. 83; comp. R. Rochette, Lettre a MI. Sc/horn,
unsupported authority on a point of chronology. p. 392).
Yet, to acconmmodate his statement with those of 2. A vase-painter, whose name appears on a
Lartius nLd Porphyrius, Gloeckner and Harless beautiful vessel, in the ancient style, representing
suppose three PotalLlos. For this, or even for the the contest of Thetis and Peleus, which was found
supposition that there were two, there seems no in 1833 at Ponte dell' Abbadia, and is now in the
necessity. Setting aside the authority of Suidas, museum at Berlin. It is doubtful whether the
remenlbering the uncertainty of the time of LaErtius nlame inscribed on the vase is nioOevos or lismivos;
— to determine which his mention of Potamon may but it looks more like the latter. (Levezow, Vetfurnish a new elemlent,-we cannot but attach zeicllniss. No. 1005, p. 246; Gerhard, Berlins Ant.
much weight to the statement of Porphyrius, the Bildwerke, No. 1005, p. 291; R. Rochette, Lettre a
contemporary of Plotinus, and who refers to Pota- iL. Schlorn, pp. 56, 57.) [P. S.]
mon, as a well-known name. We should, there- POTHI'NUS, an eunuch, the guardian of the
fore, conclude that the Potamon mentioned by young king Ptolemy, and the regent of the kingLartius and Porphyrius are the same, and, on a dom, recommended the assassination of Pompey,
minute investigation of the passage where he is when the latter fled for refilge to Egypt after the
mentioned by the latter author, that he was older loss of the battle of Pharsalia in B. c. 48 (Lucaii,
than Plotinus, and entrusted his children to his viii. 484, &c.). He plotted against Caesar whlmii
guardianship. He may have brought from Alex- he came to Alexandria, later the same year. It
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