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

908 STESICHORUS. STESICHORUS.
dedicated two fornices or arches in the forum Boa- Sicily, a celebrated Greek poet, contemporary with
rium, and one in the Circus Maximus, and placed Sappho, Alcaeus, Pittacus, and Phalaris, later than
upon them gilded statues. In the same year that Alcman, and earlier than Simonides, is said to have
he returned, he was appointed one of the ten cornm- been born in 01. 37, B. C. 632, to have flourished
missioners, who were sent into Greece to settle the about 01. 43, B. c. 608, and to have died in 01.
affairs of the country, in conjunction with T. Quill- 55. 1, B C. 560, or 01. 56, B. c. 556-552, at the
tius Flamininus. (Liv. xxxi. 50, xxxiii. 27, 35; age of eighty or, according to Lucian, eighty-five.
Polyb. xviii. 31.) (Suid. s. vv. iT'-yiXopos, Zlcwvi'rlV, ~Zamripc; El2. C. STERTINIUS, was praetor B. C. 188, and seb. Citron. 01. 43. 1; Aristot. Rhet. ii. 20. ~ 5;
obtained Sardinia as his province. (Liv. xxxviii. 35.) Cyrill. Julian. i. p. 12, d.; Lucian. Macrob. 26;
3. L. STERTINIUS, quaestor B. c. 163. (Liv. Clinton, F. H. vol. i. s.a. 611, vol. ii. s. aa. 556,
xlv. 14.)'553.) Various attempts have been made to re4. STERTINIUS, a Stoic philosopher, whom Ho- move the slight discrepancies in the above numbers;
race calls in fun the eighth of the wise men. but it appears better to be content with the general
(Hlor. Sat. ii. 3. 33, 296, Epist. i. 12. 20.) result, which they clearly establish, that Stesi5. L. STERT1NIUS, the legatus of Germanicus, chorus flourished at the beginning and during the
defeated the Bructeri in A. D. 15, and found among first part of the sixth century B. C.
their booty the eagle of the nineteenth legion, There appears, at first sight, to be a discrepancy
which had been lost in the defeat of Varus. In between these testimonies and the statement of
the course of the same year he was sent by Ger- the Parian Marble (Ep. 51), that Stesichorus the
manicus to receive the surrender of Segimerus, the poet camle into Greece at the same time at which
brother of Segestes; and in the next year he was Aeschylus gained his first tragic victory, in the
despatched against the Angrivarii, a people dwell- archonship of Philocrates, 01. 73. 3, B. c. 475.
ing on the banks of the river Visurgis, whom he But this statement refers, no doubt, to a later poet
defeated, and compelled to acknowledge the supre- of the same name and family. That it cannot
macy of Rome. (Tac. Ann. i. 60, 71, ii. 8, 22.) refer to the Stesichorus now under notice is proved,
6. STERTINIUS MAXIMUS, a rhetorician men- not only by the above testimonies, but also, as
tioned by the elder Seneca. (Controv. 9.) Bentley has shown, by the way iil which Simonides
7. STERTINIUS AVITUS, a person celebrated by mentions Stesichorus, in connection with Homer,
Martial at the beginning of the ninth book of his as an ancient poet (Ath. iv. p.. 172, e f.); whereas,
Epigrams. He is apparently the same person as if the statement of the Marble applied to him, he
the L. Stertinius Avitus, who was consul suffectus must have been contemporary with Silnonides.
under Domitian in A. D. 92. (Fasti.) Still further light is thrown on this matter by
Q. STERTI'NIUS, a physician at Rome in the another clause of the Parian inscription (Ep. 74),
first century after Christ, who, according to Pliny which states that " Stesichorus the second, of lIi(H. N. xxix. 5), made it a favour that he was mera, conquered at Athens in 01. 102. 3," B. c. 369.
content to receive from the emperor five hundred The clear and satisfactory explanation of these
thousand sesterces per annum (or rather more than statements is, that the poetic art was, as usual,
four thousand four hundred pounds), as he might hereditary in the family of Stesichorus, and that
have made six hundred thousand sesterces (or two of his descendants, at different times, went to
rather more than five thousand three hundred Athens to take part in the dithyrambic contests.
pounds), by his private practice. He and his There are different statements respecting the
brother, who received the same annlual income from country of Stesichorus. The prevailing account
the emperor Claudius, left between them at their was that he was born at Himera, and he is somedeath, notwithstanding large sums that they had times called simply "the poet of IIimera;" but
spent in beautifying the city of Naples, the sum of others made him a native of Mataurts, or Metauthirty millions of sesterces, or rather more than rus, in the south of Italy (or, as some say, in Sicily),
two hundredcand sixty-five thousand six hundred which was a Locrian colony. (Steph. Byz. s.v.
pounds. As these sums are considered by Pliny MaTavpos; Suid.) Now, as Himera was only
to be very large, they may serve to give us some founded just before the poet's birth, it is probable
idea of the fortunes made at Rome by the chiet' that his parents migrated thither from Mataimus;
physicians about the begimlning of the empire. and here we have, as Kleine and Muller have ob(Penny Cyclopaedia.) [XV. A. G.] served, the explanation of the strange tradition
STESA'GORAS (ZrnTaany/pas.) 1. An Athe- which made Stesichorus a son of Hesiod; for there
nian, father of Cimon [No. 1.], and grandfather existed among the Ozolian Locrians, at Oeneon and
of the great Miltiades. (Herod. vi. 34, 103.) Naupactus, a race of epic poets, who claimed to be
2. Son of Cimon [No. 1], and grandson of the of the lineage of Hesiod; and from this race wve
above. He succeeded his uncle Miltiades I. in the may suppose the family of Stesichorus to have detyranny of the Thracian Chersonese, and continued scended. The actual connection of the poetry of
the war with the people of Lampsacus, which his Stesichorus with the old epic poetry will be expredecessor had begun. Not long, however, after plained presently. Besides this mythical statement
his accession, he was assassinated by a pretended respecting Hesiod, the following namles are mendeserter from the enemy, and, as he died childless, tioned as that of the father of Stesichorus,-Euwas succeeded by his brother, the great Miltiades. phorbus, Euphemus, Eucleides, and Hyetes. (Suid.
(Herod. vi. 38, 39.) [E. E.] s. v.; Eudoc.; Steph. Byz. 1. c.; Epig. Anon. ap.
STESANDER (rT,~oavSpos), a musician of Brunck, Anal. vol. iii. p. 24, No. 33.)
Samos, was the first who sang Homeric hymns to According to Suidas, the poet had two brothers,
the cithara at the Pythian games. (Ath. xiv. p. a geometlician named Mamertinus, and a legislator
638, a.; comp. Sext. Empir. adv. _llath. vi. named Halianax. Other statements concerning
16.) [P. S.] his family, which rest upon very doubtful authority,
STESI'CHORIJS (ZT7siXopos), of Himera in will be found in Kleine, pp. 15, 16.