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

882 SOSICRATES. SOSIGENES.
The inscription is of the following form, Co)C1KAH, ii. 13), is evidently copied from a quotation made
~ by Diogenes Laertius from the Succession of Phiwhere the meaning of the sign () below the name losophers. The name is sometimes confounded
with Socrates. (Vossius, de lIist. Graec. p. 500,
has never been satisfactorily explained. ed. Westermann; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p.
We owe to the same writer the publication of a 873, vol. vi. p. 138.) [P. S.]
discovery by which the artist's name again appears. SOST'GENES (a-wrLy'?v71). 1. An officer who
This is a plinth to which adhere the two feet and commanded the Phoenician fleet, which had been
one leg of the statue of a man, which it once sup- assembled by Eumenes to make head against his
ported. The execution of these remaining portions rivals in B. c. 318. The fleet had arrived at
is said by R. Rochette to correspond to that of tile Rhosus, where it was detained by contrary wilds,
Amazon. The plinth bears the following inscrip- when that of Antigonus suddenly arrived, adorned
tion, in large characters, C(OCIKA... The frag- with garlands and other triumphal ornaments, from
ment was discovered at Tusculum, in 1842, in the its recent victory at the Hellespont. Sosigenes
course of the excavations undertaken by M. Canina, himself was on shore, and was unable to restrain
at the expense of the queen dowager of Sardinia; the crews, who immediately declared in favour of
and it was to form (and now, we suppose, forms) a Antigonus, and joined the hostile fleet. (Polyaen.
part of the collection of ancient marbles found at iv. 6. ~ 9.)
Tusculum, and preserved in the Villa della Rufi- 2. (Perhaps identical with the preceding.) A
nella. (R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Schorn, p. 403, friend of Demetrius Poliorcetes, who was one of
2d ed.) the few that still remained with him in his retreat
2. Gem engraver. [SOSTHENES.] [P. S.] and wanderings after his last defeat by Seleucus,
SOSI'CRATES (Z:oeeKpdT-qv), a vice-general of B. c. 286. He had preserved 400 pieces of gold,
the Achaeans in their war against the Romans which he now offered to Demetrius as a last
(B. C. 147), was the chief mover of the resolution, resource, and with this supply the king endentaken by an assembly held at Corinth, to endeavour voured to reach the coast, but was intercepted by
to treat with Metellus; for which act, upon the the detachments of Seleucus, and compelled to surarrival of Diaeus at Corinth, he was condemned to render at discretion. (Plut. Demnetr. 49.)
death; and, in the hope of extorting a confession 3. A Rhodian by birth, but who appears to
from him, he was subjected to the severest tortures, have held a magistracy among the Achaeans, whom
under which he expired. This cruel deed so dis- he persuaded to pass a decree abolishing all the
gusted the people, that Diaeus did not venture to honours which had been paid to Eumenes, king of
carry out his intention of putting to death the am- Pergamus. (Polyb. xxviii. 7; and Schweigh. ad
bassadors who had been sent to Metellus. (Polyb. loc.) [E. H. B.]
xl. 5; Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, vol. viii. p. SOSI'GENES (:weLryfvsS), the peripatetic, the
451.) [P. S.] astronomer employed by Julius Caesar to superSOSI'CRATES (:a4W0Kpdc7is), literary. 1. A intend the correction of the calendar (B. c. 46), is
comic poet, whose time is unknown. Pollux quotes called an Egyptian, but may be supposed to have
twice from his play entitled rlapaicaraOilK (Poll. been an Alexandrian Greek. With the exception
ix. 57, iv. 173; in both passages the name is cor- of certain allusions to him by name, which simply
rupted; in the former into'IT7rromKPdrTS, in the confirm the fact that he was considered a skilful
latter into Kpd&re7; but in the latter passage a astronomer, nothing can be found concerning him.
manuscript has worKpctpas's). His cc Xd3eAFpom also The most definite of them is that of Simplicius,
is cited by Athenaeus (xi. p. 474, a.); and there who says he wrote on astronomy. A sentence of
are some other quotations from unknown plays of Pliny (H. N. ii. 8) is interpreted by Weidler as
his. (Ath. i. p. 31, e.; Stob. Flor. xxiii. 2; implying that Sosigenes maintained the motion
Maxim. Conf. p. 198, Gesner.) From the titles of of Mercury round the sun. Riccioli and others
his plays, Meineke thinks it more probable that he represent that he remained at Rome until the time
belonged to the New Comedy than to the Middle. of Augustus, and aided in the final establishment
(Meineke, Fruag. Corn. Graec. vol. i. pp. 498, 499, of the calendar according to the intention of Juvol. iv. pp. 591, 592; Fabric. Bibl. Grae. vol. ii. lius. But it must be clear that if Sosigenes had
p. 495.) remained at Rome, the Augustan correction never
2. Of Rhodes, an historical writer, who is quoted could have been needed: the leap-year would never
by Diogenes Laertius (ii. 84) as an authority for have been made a triennial intercalation under the
the statement, that Aristippus wrote nothing. It eye of the astronomer himself. Nevertheless, Pliny
is therefore inferred, with much probability, that (H. N. xviii. 25) mentions the Augustan correction,
he is the same as the Sosicrates whose work upon most probably, as if it had been a correction of the
the Succession of the Philosophers is quoted by theory of the calendar, arising out of the further
Athenaeus (iv. p. 163, f,:wa0Lcpdr-ls E'v -'rpirp investigations of Sosigenes himself: his words are
ephoXoSeOwav 3ea8eoXXs). He also wrote a work on " ea ipsa ratio postea comperto errore correcta
the history of Crete, KpwrTKcid, which is frequently est, ita ut duodecim annis continuis non interquoted. (Strab. x. p. 474; Ath. vi. p. 261, e, et calaretur.... et Sosigenes ipse tribes commnzentaalib.) He flourished after Hermippus and before tionibus, quanquam diligentior esset ceteris, non cesApollodorus, and therefore between B. c. 200 and savit tamen addubitare, ipse semet corrienado."
B. C. 128. (Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 565.) According to our view of this passage the tres
There appear to have been other writers of the cosmmentationes are of the three occasions on which,
name; such as Sosicrates Phanagorites, whose during the time of Augustus, ani intercalation had'Ho7o0 is quoted by Athenaeus (xiii. p. 590, b.); to be omitted: Pliny seems to make each of them
and a certain Sosicrates quoted by Fulgentius a separate interference of Sosigenes (whom he may
Planciades (s. v. Nefrendes). The passage of a seem to keep alive at Rome for the purpose) for
Sosicrates of Cyzicus, cited by Fulgentius (llyth. the correction of his period. And Weidler, in