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

924 STRATON. STRATON.
porary Nicocles, king of Salamis (Athen. xii. p. writers, he appears to have held a pantheistic
531). After the conquest of Phoenicia, he was system, the specific character of which cannot
deposed by Alexander on account of the support however, be determined. He seems to have dehe had given to Dareius, and his throne conferred nied the existence of any god out of the material
upon Abdalonimus, a man in humble circumstances. universe, and to have held that every particle of
(Curt. iv. 1. ~ 16; Diod. xvii. 47, erroneously re- matter has a plastic and seminal power, but with.
presents him as king of Tyre.) out sensation or intelligence; and that life, sensa4. A Greek rhetorician, a friend of M. Brutus, tion, and intellect, are but forms, accidents, and
who was present with him at the fatal battle of affections of matter. Some modern writers have
Philippi (B. C. 42), and having fled with him from regarded Straton as a forerunner of Spinoza, while
the field, was induced to render him a last service others see in his system an anticipation of the
by dispatching him with his own sword. He was hypothesis of monads. He has been charged with
subsequently reconciled with Octavian, who treated atheism by Cudworth, Leibnitz, Bayle, and other
him with distinction, and to whom he rendered distinguished writers, and warmly defended by
good service at the battle of Actium. (Plut. Brut. Schlosser, in his Spicilegium historico-philosophicur
52, 53.) [E. H. B.] de Stratone Lampsaceno, coqnomine Physico, et atheSTRATON (T'pd'Twv), literary. i. An Athe- ismo vulgo ei tributo, Vitemberg. 1728, 4to. A
nian comic poet of the Middle Comedy, according good account of the controversy, with references to
to Suidas (s. v.), who mentions his play entitled the writers who have noticed Straton, is given by
4o'l', which is, no doubt, the same as the 4oLzvL- Harless, in his edition of Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec.:Ksci1s, from which a considerable fragment is quoted vol. iii. pp. 506-508; C. Nauwerck, de Strat.
by Athenaeus (ix. p. 382, e.). From the frequency Lamps. Phil. Disquis. Berol. 1836, 8vo.)
with which the name of the comic poet Strattis 3. Another Peripatetic philosopher of Alexanoccurs corrupted into Straton, some distinguished dria. (Diog. Lairt. v. 61.)
scholars have supposed that the fragment in Athe- 4. An historian, who wrote the exploits of Phinaeus should be ascribed to Strattis, and that the lip and Perseus in their wars with the Romans,
comic poet Straton owes his existence solely to the and may therefore be supposed to have lived about
errors of transcribers, followed by Suidas. It has, B. c. 160. (Diog. Lairt. v. 61.)
however, been shown by Meineke, from the in- 5. Of Sardis, an epigrammatic poet, and the
ternal evidence of the fragment itself, that it could compiler of an Anthology, which was entitled.
hardly have been written by Strattis, or by any from the subject common to all the poems of which
other poet of the Old Comedy; and therefore there it consisted, Moicra iraLcK75. It is so called in
is no reason to reject the testimony of Suidas, al- the preface of Constantinus Cephalas to this secthough it may be doubted whether he is strictly tion of his Anthology. It was composed partly of
correct in ascribing Straton to the Middle Comedy. epigrams compiled from the earlier anthologies of
If the Philetas mentioned in the fragment be, as' Meleager and Philip, and from other sources, and
seems very probable, the celebrated poet of Cos, partly of poems written by Straton himself. Of
who flourished about 01. 120, Straton ought rather the poets comprised in the Garland of Meleager,
to be referred to the New than to the Middle Co- Straton received thirteen into his collection, namemedy. The first three verses of the fragment and ly, Meleager, Dioscorides, Polystratus, Antipater,
the beginning of the fourth were appropriated by Aratus, Mnasalcas, Evenus, Alcaeus of Messene,
Philemon. (Ath. xiv. p. 659, b.) Phanias, Asclepiades, Rhianus, Callimachus, and
Another comic poet of this name is mentioned Poseidippus: of those in the Anthology of Philip,
by Plutarch (Symp. v. 1), as a contemporary. he only took two, namely, Tullius Laureas and
(Fabric. Bibl. Graem. vol. ii. pp. 496, 497; Mei- Automedon; and to these he added ten others
neke, Frag. Corn. Grace. vol. i. pp. 426-428, namely, Flaccus, Alpheius of Mytilene, Julius Leovol. iv. pp. 545-548, Editio Minor, pp. 1156- nidas, Scythinus, Numenius, Dionysius, Fronto
1158.) Thymocles, Glaucus, and Diocles. The whole
2. The son of Arcesilaus, of Lampsacus, was a number of poems in the collection is 258, of which
distinguished peripatetic philosopher, and the tutor 98 are by Straton himself. The work formed the
of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He succeeded Theo- last section of the Anthology of Constantine [PLAphrastus as head of the school in 01. 123, B. c. 288, NUDES], and is printed in Jacobs's edition of the
and, after presiding over it eighteen years, was Palatine Anthology, c. xii.
succeeded by Lycon. (Diog. Lai/rt. v. 58.) He The time of Straton has been disputed, but it is
devoted himself especially to the study of natural evident that he lived in the second century of our
science, whence he obtained, or, as it appears from era; since, on the one hand, he compiled from the
Cicero, himself assumed the appellation of Pisysitus Anthology of Philip, who flourished at the end of
(4pvaecsd). Cicero, while speaking highly of his the first century, and, on the other hand, he is
talents, blames him for neglecting the most ne- mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (v. 61), who wrote
cessary part of philosophy, that which has respect most probably at the beginning of the third century.
to virtue and morals, and giving himself up to the A further indication of his date is derived by Schneiinvestigation of nature. (Acad. Quaest. i. 9, de der from his mention of the physician Capito, who
Fin. v. 5.) In the long list of his works, given by flourished under Hadrian.
Diogenes, several of the titles are upon subjects of Some of the epigrams of Straton are elegant and
moral philosophy, but the great majority belong to clever; but nothing can redeem the disgrace atthe department of physical science. taching to the moral character of his compilation.
The opinions of Straton have given rise to much (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. pp. 359, foll.; Jacobs, Antil.
interesting controversy; but unfortunately the re- Graec. vol. iii. pp. 68, foll., vol. vi. Proleg. pp.
sult has been very unsatisfactory on account of the xlvi. —xlix., vol. xiii. pp. 955, 956.) [P. S.]
want of positive information. From the few no- STRATON (T-paTwvW), the name of several
tices of his tenets, which we find in the ancient physicians: - 1. A physician mentioned by Aris