Εμφανίζονται 76 τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Βιογραφίες για το τοπωνύμιο: "ΣΙΚΥΩΝ Αρχαία πόλη ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΑ".
One of the most prolific of dramatists was Neophron of Sicyon, to
whom are accredited one hundred and twenty pieces, of which only a few fragments
of his Medea remain. This, it is said, Euripides used in his tragedy which bears
the same title, though, according to some authorities, Neophron lived in the time
of Alexander the Great. As Suidas tells us, he introduced in his plays the torture
of slaves, such scenes, according to the canons of dramatic art, not being produced
on the stage, but merely referred to by messengers.
The poets whose productions coincide with the period of the ochlocracy,
or mob rule, up to the end of the Peloponnesian war, were in general marked by
an effort to popularize the political, religious and moral ideas of the time.
As imitators of Euripides, they were all "poets with a purpose," who
introduced the present into the world of myth and paid homage to the feeling of
the day even in the words they used and the form of their poetry and music. Their
pieces were calculated to produce a momentary effect, and made no pretensions
to lasting interest; hence nothing has survived out of the large number of tragedies
which belong to this period. We owe even our knowledge of the names of the poets
to the jests pointed at them by Aristophanes, and a few isolated quotations in
Athenaeus, Stobaeus and the later grammarians. Of this political aftermath, Dionysus
is made to say in the Frogs of Aristophanes: "A chattering set they are,
a school of twittering chirpers. If they can once get a play represented, the
effort is the end of them; they have not enough virility for another. Among the
woers of tragedy there is not now one man, not one with a true bold voice."
Alfred Bates, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the TheatreHistory URL below.
A Greek poetess of Sicyon, about B.C. 450, who composed hymns and dithyrambs, but was especially famous for her scolia, or drinking-songs. We possess only insignificant fragments of her poems.
Πιθανόν 6ος αιώνας π.Χ.. Στη Σούδα χαρακτηρίζεται ως ο πρώτος τραγικός ποιητής.
Epigenes. Of Sicyon, who has been confounded by some with his namesake the comic poet, is mentioned by Suidas (s. v. Thespis) as the most ancient writer of tragedy. By the word "tragedy" here we can understand only the old dithyramhic and satyrical tragoidia, into which it is possible that Epigenes may have been the first to introduce other subjects than the original one of the fortunes of origin, if at least we may trust the account which we find in Apostolius, Photius, and Suidas, of the origin of the proverb ouden pros ton Dtonuson. This would clearly he one of the earliest steps in the gradual transformation of the old dithyrambic performance into the dramatic tragedy of later times, and may tend to jutify the statement which ascribes the invention of tragedy to the Sicyonians. We do not know the period at which Epigenes flourished, and the point was a doubtful one in the time of Suidas, who says (s. v. Thespis) that, according to some, he was the 16th before Thespis, while, according to others, he almost immediately preceded him. (See Muller, Dor. iv. 7. 8; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Corn. Graec; Arist. Poet. 3; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii., vol. iv. ; Dict. of Ant.) tragedy, and to have preceded even Thespis.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Εγραψε κυρίως ύμνους. Από αυτούς σώζεται ο Υμνος στην Υγεία σε επιγραφή.
Ariphron of Sicyon, a Greek poet, the author of a beautiful paean to health (Hugieia), which has been preserved by Athenaeus (xv.). The beginning of the poem is quoted by Lucian (de Lapsu inter Salt. 6) and Maximus Tyrius (xiii. 1)
Γλύπτης από τη Σικυώνα. Δικό του έργο ήταν το άγαλμα της Αφροδίτης στο Ιερό της στη Σικυώνα (Παυσ. 2,10,5).
Canachus (Kanachos), a Sicyonian artist, about whose age the greatest uncertainty long prevailed, as one work of his is mentioned which must have been executed before Ol. 75, and another 80 years later, which seems to be, and indeed is, impossible. The fact is, that there were two artists of the name of Canachus, both of Sicyon, and probably grandfather and grandson. The work which must have been finished B. C. 480, was a colossal statue of Apollo Philesius at Miletus, this statue having been carried to Ecbatana by Xerxes after his defeat in Greece, B. C. 479. Mueller thinks, that this statue cannot have been executed before B. C. 494, at which time Miletus was destroyed and burnt by Dareius; but Thiersch shews that the colossus might very well have escaped the general ruin, and therefore needs not have been placed there after the destruction of the city. Finding that all indications point to the interval between Ol 60 and 68 (B. C. 540-508), he has given these 32 years as the time during which Canachus flourished. Thus the age of our artist coincides with that of Callon, whose contemporary he is called by Pausanias (vii. 18.6). He was likewise contemporary with Ageladas, who flourished about Ol. 66; for, together with this artist and with his own brother, Aristocles, he executed three Muses, who symbolically represented the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic styles of Greek music. Besides these works, we find the following mentioned: Riding (keletizontes) boys (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19); a statue of Aphrodite, wrought in gold and ivory (Paus. ii. 10.4); one of Apollo Ismenius at Thebes, made of cedar, and so very like the Apollo Philesins of Miletus, which was of metal, that one could instantly recognize the artist (Paus. l.c., ix. 10.2). For Cicero's judgment of Canachus's performances, see Calamis.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aristokles. A Greek artist, and, like his brother Canachus, a sculptor in bronze at Sicyon. He flourished about B.C. 480, and founded a school at Sicyon that lasted for a long time.
Aristocles of Sicyon was the brother of Canachus, and not much inferior to him in reputation. This Aristocles had a pupil, Synnon, who was the father and teacher of Ptolichus of Aegina (vi. 9.1). We are also told, in an epigram by Antipater Sidonius (Greek Anthol. ii.), that Aristocles made one of three statues of the Muses, the other two of which were made by Ageladas and Canachus.
Pantias of Chios, the disciple and son of Sostratus, was the seventh
disciple reckoned in order from Aristocles of Sicyon (Paus. vi. 3.4), that is,
according to a mode of reckoning which was common with the Greeks, counting both
the first and the last of the series.
From these passages we infer, that there were two sculptors of this
name: Aristocles the elder, who is called both a Cydonian and a Sicyonian, probably
because he was born at Cydonia and practised and taught his art in Sicyon; and
Aristocles the younger, of Sicyon, who was the grandson of the former, son of
Cleoetas, and brother of Canachus : and that these artists founded a school of
sculpture at Sicyon, which secured an hereditary reputation, and of which we have
the heads for seven generations, namely, Aristocles, Cleoetas, Aristocles and
Canachus, Synnon, Ptolichus, Sostratus, and Pantias.
There is some difficulty in determining the age of these artists;
but, supposing the date of Canachus to be fixed at about 540-508 B. C., we have
the date of his brother, the younger Aristocles, and allowing 30 years to a generation,
the elder Aristocles must have lived about 600-568 B. C. Boeckh places him immediately
before the period when Zancle was first called Messene, but there is nothing in
the words of Pausanias to require such a restriction. By extending the calculation
to the other artists mentioned above, we get the following table of dates:
1. Aristocles flourished 600-568 B. C.
2. Cleoetas " 570-538
"
3. Aristocles " 540-508
"
Canachus " 540-508
"
4. Synnon " 510-478
"
5. Ptolichus " 480-448
"
6. Sostratus " 450-418
"
7. Pantias " 420-388
"
These dates are found to agree very well with all that we know of the artists.
Sillig gives a table which does not materially differ from the above. He calculates
the dates at 564, 536, 508, 480, 452, 424, and 396 B. C. respectively. In this
computation it has been assumed that the elder Canachus was the brother of the
younger Aristocles, and that Pantias was the seventh in order from the elder Aristocles.
Any other supposition would throw the whole matter into confusion.
Pausanias mentions, as a work of the elder Aristocles, a group in
bronze representing Hercules struggling for a girdle with an Amazon on horseback,
which was dedicated at Olympia by Evagoras of Zancle (v. 25.6); and, as a work
of the younger, a group in bronze of Zeus and Ganymede, dedicated at Olympia by
Gnothis, a Thessalian. (v. 24.1). The Muse by the latter, was in bronze, held
a lyre (chelus), and was intended to represent the Muse of the diatonic genus
of music
Kanachos and Aristokles of Sikyon
Kanachos and his shadowy brother Aristokles are dated only by their collaboration
with Hageladas, and the removal of Kanachos' bronze Apollo Philesios from Didyma,
either by Darius in 494 (cf. Hdt. 6.19) or, less likely, by Xerxes (so Paus. 1.16.3,
Paus. 7.46.3). Their floruit should therefore lie around 500. Aside from their
Muses and Kanachos' chryselephantine Aphrodite for Sikyon, we hear only of the
Apollo and its wooden replica -or archetype- at Thebes:
Pausanias
9.10.2: The image [of Ismenian Apollo] is equal in size
to that at Branchidai (Didyma) and is exactly like it in form; whoever has seen
one of these two images and has learnt who the artist was needs no great skill
to discern, when he looks at the other, that it is the work of Kanachos. The only
difference is this: that the one at Branchidai is of bronze, the Ismenian of cedar-wood.
Pliny, N.H. 34.75: Canachus did the nude Apollo, surnamed Philesius,
at Didyma, made of Aeginetan bronze, and with it a stag suspended in its tracks
in such a way that a thread can be passed under its feet, with the heel and toe
alternately retaining their grip, for a "tooth" on each part is so geared that
when one is dislodged by pressure the other in turn springs into place.
For copies and comments see Romano 1980, 221-35; Stewart 1990, fig. 167. Kanachos,
who also worked in marble (Pliny, N.H. 36.42) is placed first in Cicero's "hardness"
scale (Cicero,
Brutus 18.70), and the two brothers were recognized by Pausanias as founders
of the Sikyonian bronzeworking school, linking it to the Argive from its very
outset. They also taught sculptors from Aegina and Chios.
This extract is from: Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works. Cited Oct 2005 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains extracts from the ancient literature, bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Alypus (Alupos), a statuary, a native of Sicyon. He studied under Naucydes, the Argive. His age may be fixed from his having executed bronze statues of some Lacedaemonians who shared in the victory of Lysander at Aegospotami. (B. C. 405.) Pausanias also mentions some statues of Olympic victors made by him. (vi. 1.2, x. 9.4, vi. 1.2, 8.3)
Asterion, a statuary, the son of a man named Aeschylus. Pausanias (vi. 3.1) mentions a statue of Chaereas, a Sicyonian pugilist, which was of his workmanship.
Γλύπτης από τη Σικυώνα, γιος του Αλέξη και μαθητής του Ευτυχίδη (Παυσ. 6,3,6).
Cleoetas (Kleoitas), a sculptor and architect, celebrated for the skilful construction
of the aphesis or starting place in the stadium at Olympia (Paus. vi. 20.7). He
was the author of a bronze statue of a warrior which existed at the acropolis
of Athens at the time of Pausanias (i. 24.3). As he was the son and father of
an Aristocles, Thiersch and Sillig reckon him as one of the Sicyonian artists,
among whom Aristocles, the brother of Canachus, is a conspicuous name, and assign
him therefore to 01. 61. But this is a manifest error, as may be seen by comparing
two passages of Pausanias (vi. 3.4, vi. 9.1); and it is highly probable that Cleoetas
was an Athenian. His name occurs (01. 86) in an inscription, from which we learn,
that he was one of Phidias' assistants, that he accompanied his master to Olympias,
and that thus he came to construct the the aphesis.
Cleon, a sculptor of Sicyon, a pupil of Antiphanes, who had been taught by Pericletus, a follower of the great Polycletus of Argos (Paus. v. 17.1). Cleon's age is determined by two bronze statues of Zeus at Olympia executed after 01. 98, and another of Deinolochus, after 01. 102. (Paus. vi. 1. Β§ 2.) He excelled in portrait-statues (Philosophos, Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 19, is to be taken as a general term), of which several athletic ones are mentioned by Pausanias. (vi. 3.4, 8.3, 9.1, 10, fin.)
Γλύπτης από τη Σικυώνα (Παυσ. 6,2,8).
Χαλκουργός από τη Σικυώνα, 4ος π.Χ αιώνας. Ηταν μαθητής του γιου του Λυσίππου, αλλά τα έργα του δύσκολα ξεχώριζαν από εκείνα του ίδιου του Λυσίππου.
Euthycrates, (Euthukrates). A sculptor of Sicyon, son and pupil of Lysippus,
flourished about B.C. 300. He was peculiarly happy in the proportions of his statues.
Those of Heracles and Alexander were in general esteem, and particularly one of
Medea, which was borne on a chariot by four horses.
Euthycrates, (Euthukrates), a Greek statuary, whom Pliny places at Ol. 120, B.
C. 300. (xxxiv. 8. s. 19.) He was the most distinguished son and pupil of Lysippus,
whom he imitated more in his diligence than in his gracefulness, preferring severe
truth to elegance of expression. (Plin. l. c. § 7.) This feature of his style
was seen in a most excellent statue of Hercules, at Delphi, and in his statues
of Alexander, the hunter Thestis, and the Thestiadae: the rest of the passage,
in which Pliny enumerates his works, is hopelessly corrupt. (See Sillig, Catal.
Artif. s. v.) According to Tatian, Euthycrates made statues of courtezans. (Orat.
in Graec. 52 , ed. Worth.)
Lysistratus of Sicyon, statuary, was the brother of Lysippus, with whom he is placed by Pliny at the 114th Olympiad (H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19.) He devoted himself entirely to the making of portraits, and, if we may believe Pliny, his portraits were nothing more than exact likenesses, without any ideal beauty. (Hic et similitudinem reddere instituit: ante eum quam pulcherrimas facere studebant.) He was the first who took a cast of the human face in gypsum; and from this mould he produced copies by pouring into it melted wax. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 12. s. 44.) He made a statue of Melanippe. (Tatian. adv. Graec. 54, p. 117, ed. Worth.)
Lysippus, (Lusippos). A native of Sicyon, and one of the most
famous Greek artists, a contemporary of Alexander the Great. He was originally
a worker in metal, and taught himself the art of the sculptor by studying nature
and the canon of Polyclitus. His works, which were said to amount to 1500, were
all statues in bronze, and were remarkable for their lifelike characterization
and their careful and accurate execution, shown particularly in the treatment
of the hair. He aimed at representing the beauty and harmony more especially of
the male human body; and substituted for the proportions of Polyclitus a new ideal,
which kept in view the effect produced, by giving the body a more slender and
elegant shape, and by making the head smaller in comparison with the trunk, than
is the case with the actual average man. The most famous among his statues of
gods were the colossal forms of Zeus and Heracles, at Tarentum of which the former
was second in size only to that at Rhodes, while the latter was afterwards brought
to the Capitol at Rome, and then to the Hippodrome at Constantinople, where it
was melted down in A.D. 1022; and, lastly, the sun-god on the four-horse chariot
at Rhodes.
The first example of pure allegory in Greek art was his Kairos,
the "Favourable Moment"--a delicate youth with modest look standing
on a ball, with his foot winged, and holding shears and a balance in his hands.
The hair hung down in front, while it was so short behind that it could not be
grasped.
By far the greater number of his statues were portraits. Of
these the various representations of Alexander the Great from boyhood onwards
were of marked excellence. Indeed, the king would have no sculptor but Lysippus
to represent him, even as he would have no other painter than Apelles.
Among his large groups were Craterus saving the life of Alexander
chasing the lion, and the portraits of twenty-five horsemen and nine foot soldiers
who fell at the first assault in the battle of the Granicus. The excellent copy
in marble, at the Vatican, of the Apoxyomenos, a youth removing the dust of the
palaestra with a strigil, affords an idea of his skill in representing beautiful
and perfectly developed bodies of delicate elasticity and graceful suppleness.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Lysippus (Lusippos). Of Sicyon, one of the most distinguished Greek statuaries,
is placed by Pliny at Ol. 114, as a contemporary of Alexander the Great. (H. N.
xxxiv. 8. s. 19). We have no very clear intimation of how long he lived; but there
is no doubt that the great period of his artistic activity was during the reign
of Alexander; and perhaps Pliny has mentioned the 114th Olympiad in particular,
as being that in which Alexander died. We learn from Pausanias (vi. 1. 2) that
he made the statue of the Olympic victor Troilus, who conquered in the 102nd Olympiad
; but there is abundant evidence that the statues of victors in the games were
often made long after the date of their victories. On the other hand, there is
an inscription on a base found at Rome, Seleukos basileus. Lusippos epoiei. Now
Seleucus did not assume the title of King till 01. 117. 1. But this proves nothing;
for the addition of an inscription to a statue made long before, was a most frequent
occurrence, of which we have many examples.
Originally a simple workman in bronze (faber aerarilus), he rose to
the eminence which he afterwards obtained by the direct study of nature. It was
to the painter Eupompus that he owed the guiding principle of his art; for, having
asked him which of the former masters he should follow, Eupompus replied by pointing
to a crowd of men, engaged in their various pursuits, and told him that nature
must be imitated, and not an artist (Plin. l. c. 6). It is not to be inferred,
how ever, that he neglected the study of existing works of art: on the contrary
Cicero tells us (Brut. 86), that Lysippus used to call the Doryphorus of Polycleitus
his master; and there can be no doubt that the school of Lysippus was connected
with the Argive school of Polycleitus, as the school of Scopas and Praxiteles
was with the Attic school of Phidias; there being in each case a succession of
great principles, modified by a closer imitation of the real, and by a preference
for beauty above dig nity. Perhaps the great distinction between Lysippus and
his predecessors could not, in a few words, be better expressed than by saying
that lie rejected the last remains of the old conventional rules which the early
artists followed, and which Phidias, without permitting himself to be enslaved
by them, had wisely continued to bear in mind, as a check upon the liberty permitted
by mere natural models, and which even Polycleitus had not altogether disregarded
(Varr. de Ling. Lat. ix. 18). In Lysippus's imitation of nature the ideal appears
almost to have vanished, or perhaps it should rather be said that he aimed to
idealize merely human beauty. He made statues of gods, it is true; but even in
this field of art his favourite subject was the human hero Hercules; while his
portraits seem to have been the chief foundation of his fame. He ventured even
to depart from the proportions observed by the earlier artists, and to alter the
robust form (to tetragonon, quadratas veterum staturas) which his predecessors
had used in order to give dignity to their statues, and which Polycleitus had
brought to perfection. Lysippus made the heads smaller, and the bodies more slender
and more compact (graciliora siccioraque), and thus gave his statues an appearance
of greater height. He used to say that former artists made men as they were, but
he as they appeared to be. His imitation of nature was carried out in the minutest
details: " propriae hujus videntur esse argutiae operum, custoditae in minimus
rebus," says Pliny, who also mentions the care which Lysippus bestowed upon the
hair. Properties (iii. 7. 9) speaks of his statues as seeming to have the breath
of life (animosa), and the same idea is expressed by the grammarian Nicephorus
Chumnus, in an interesting but little known passage, in which he describes Lysippus
and Apelles as making and painting zosas eikonas kai pnnes mones kai kineseos
apoleeipomenas.
The works of Lysippus are said to have amounted to the enormous number
of 1500; at least this is the story of Pliny, who tells us that Lysippus used
to lay by a single piece of gold out of the price received for each of his works,
and that, after his death, the number of these pieces was found to be 1500 (HN.
xxxiv. 7. s. 17). His works were almost all, if not all, in bronze; in consequence
of which none of them are extant. But from copies, from coins, and from the works
of his successors, we derive valuable materials for judging of his style. The
following are the chief works of his which are mentioned by the ancient authors:
First, those of a mythological character. 1. A colossal statue of Zeus, 60 feet
high, at Tarentum, which is fully described by Pliny (H. N xxxiv. 7. s. 18; comp
Strab. vi.; Lucil. ap. Non. s. v. Cubitus). 2. Zeus in the forum of Sicyon (Paus.
ii 9. 6). 3. Zeus Nemeus, in an erect position, at Argos (Paus. ii. 20. 3). 4.
Zeus attended by the Muses (Paus. i. 43. 6). 5. Poseidon, at Corinth (Lucian,
Jup. Trag. 9, vol. ii. p. 652, Wetst.). 6. Dionysus, in the sacred grove on Mt.
Helicon (Paus. ix. 30.1). 7. Eros, at Thespiae (Paus. ix. 27. 3).
As above stated, his favourite mythological subject was Hercules.
The following are some of his statues of that here:--8. A colossal Hercules resting
from his labours, in a sitting posture, at Tarentum, whence it was carried to
Rome by Fabius Maximus, when he took Tarentum (Strab. vi.; Plut. Fab. Max. 22).
It was afterwards transferred to Byzantium (Nicet. Stat. Constant. 5). It is frequently
copied on gems. 9. Hercules, yielding to the power of Eros, and deprived of his
weapons. The statue is described in an epigram by Geminus (Anth. Pal. App. ii.
p. 655; Anth. Plan. iv. 103). This also often appears on gems. 10. A small statue
(epitra pezios), representing the deified hero as sitting at the banquet of the
gods, described by Statius (Silv. iv. 6) and Martial (ix. 44). The celebrated
Belvedere Torso is most probably a copy of this (Meyer, Kunstgeschichte, vol.
li. p. 114; Heyne, Prisc. Art. Op. ex Epigr. illust. p. 87). 11. Hercules in the
forum at Sicyon (Paus. ii. 9. 7). 12. There were originally at Alyzia in Arcadia,
and afterwards at Rome, a set of statues by Lysippus, representing the labours
of Hercules (Strab. x.). Perhaps one of this group may have been the original
of the Farnese Hercules of Glycon, which is undoubtedly a copy of a work of Lysippus.
To his mythological works must be added: 13. A celebrated statue of
Time, or rather Opportunity (Kairos; Callistr. Stat.). 14. Helios in a quadriga,
at Rhodes (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. 6). 15. A Satyr at Athens (Ibid.).
Of those of his statues which were neither mythological nor strictly
portraits, the following are mentioned: 16. A bather or athlete, scraping himself
with a strigil, which was placed by M. Agrippa in front of his baths, and was
so admired by the emperor Tiberius that he transferred it to his own chamber;
the resentment of the people, however, compelled him to restore it (Plin. l. c.).
From the way in which Pliny speaks of this statue, it may be conjectured that
it was intended by Lysippus to be a normal specimen of his art, like the Doryphorus
of Polycleitus. 17. An intoxicated female flute-player. 18. Several statues of
athletes (Paus. vi. 1. 2, 2. 1, 4. 4, 5. 1, 17. 2). 19. A statue of Socrates (Diog.
Laert. ii. 43). 20. Of Aesop (Anth. Graec.. iv. 33). 21. Of Praxilla. (Tatian.
adv. Graec. 52.)
We pass on to his actual portraits, and chiefly those of Alexander.
In this department of his art Lysippus kept true to his great principle, and imitated
nature so closely as even to indicate Alexander's personal defects, such as the
inclination of his head sidewards, but without impairing the beauty and heroic
expression of the figure. He made statues of Alexander at all periods of life,
and in many different positions. Alexander's edict is well known, that no one
should paint him but Apelles, and no one make his statue but Lysippus. The most
celebrated of these statues is that in which Alexander was represented with a
lance. (Plut. de Isid. 24), which was considered as a sort of companion to the
picture of Alexander wielding a thunderbolt, by Apelles. The impression which
it produced upon spectators was described by an epigram afterwards affixed to
it,-- audasounti d' eoiken ho chalkeos eis Dia leusson:
gan hup' emoi tithemai, Zeu, su d' Olumpon eche.
(Plut. de Alex. Virt. ii. 2, Alex. 4; Tzetz. Chil. viii. 426.) The rest of his
portraits of Alexander are described by MuΌller (Archeol. d. Kunst, § 129, n.
2). To the same class belongs his group of the chieftains who fell in the battle
at the Granicus.
There are still some other works of Lysippus of less importance, which are described
by the historians of Greek art. (Sillig, Cat. s. n.; Meyer, Kunstgeschichte; Hirt,
Gesch. d. Bild. Kunst; Nagler, Konstler-Lexicon. )
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Dahippus or Dahippus (Daippos), a statuary who made statues of athletes (Paus. vi. 12.3, 16.4), and a statue which Pliny (xxxiv. 8. s. 19.28) calls Perixyomenon, for which Brotier would read paraluomenon. He is mentioned in two other passages of Pliny (l. c. 19, 19.7), where all the MSS. give Laippus, through a confusion between D and L. From these two passages it appears that he was a son of Lysippus, and that he flourished in the 120th Olympiad. (B. C. 300, and onwards.)
Eutychides, (Eutuchides). Of Sicyon, a statuary in bronze and marble, is placed by Pliny at Ol. 10, B. C. 300. (xxxiv. 8. s. 19.) He was a disciple of Lysippus. (Paus. vi. 2.4.) He made in bronze a statue of the river Eurotas, " in quo artem ipso amne liquidiorem plurimi dixere" (Plin. l. c. § 16), one of the Olympic victor Timosthenes, of Elis, and a highly-prized statue of Fortune for the Syrians on the Orontes. (Paus. l. c.) There is a copy of the last-named work in the Vatican Museum. (Visconti, Mus. Pio.-Clem. t. iii. tab. 46.) His statue of Father Liber, in the collection of Asinius Pollio, was of marble. (Plin. xxxvi. 5. s. 4.10.) A statue of Priapus is mentioned in the Greek Anthology (Brunck, Anal. ii.; Jacobs, iii. ) as the work of Eutychides, but it is not known whether Eutychides of Sicyon is meant. Cantharus of Sicyon was the pupil of Eutychides.
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Σικυώνιος γλύπτης, μαθητής του Λυσίππου.
Bedas, a sculptor, the son and pupil of Lysippus, sculptured a praying youth (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19), probably the original of which the fine bronze statue in Berlin is a copy.
Daetondas (Daitondas), a statuary of Sicyon, made a statue of the Eleian athlete Theotimus
at Olympia. (Paus. vi. 17.3.) Since Moschion, the father of Theotimus, accompanied
Alexander the Great into Asia, Daetondas probably flourished from B. C. 320 downwards.
Damocritus or Democritus (Damokritos, Demokritos). A statuary, born at Sicyon,
was a pupil of Pison, the pupil of Amphion, the pupil of Ptolichus, the pupil
of Critias of Athens. He probably flourished, therefore, about the 100th Olympiad.
(B. C. 380.) There was at Olympia a statue by him of Hippus (or Hippon), an Eleian,
who was victor in boxing among the boys. (Paus. vi. 3.2.) Pliny mentions a Democritus,
who made statues of philosophers. (xxxiv. 8. s. 19.8.)
Alexis, a sculptor and statuary, mentioned by Pliny (xxxiv. 8. s. 19) as one of the pupils of Polycletus. Pausanias (vi. 3.3) mentions an artist of the same name, a native of Sicyon, and father of the sculptor Cantharus. It cannot be satisfactorily settled whether these are the same, or different persons. Pliny's account implies that he had the elder Polycletus in view, in which case Alexis could not have flourished later than Ol. 95 (B. C. 400), whereas Eutychides, under whom Cantharus studied, flourished about Ol. 120, B. C. 300 (Pliny, H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19). If the two were identical, as Thiersch, we must suppose either that Pliny made a mistake, and that Alexis studied under the younger Polycletus, or else that the Eutychides, whose date is given by Pliny, was not the artist under whom Cantharus studied.
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Diputades, of Sicyon, was the reputed inventor of the art of modelling in relief, which an accident first led him to practise, in conjunction with his daughter, at Corinth. The story is, that the daughter traced the profile of her lover's face as thrown in shadow on the wall, and that Dibutades filled in the outline with clay, and thus made a face in relief, which he afterwards hardened with fire. The work was preserved in the Nymphaeum till the destruction of Corinth by Mummius. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 12. s. 43.) Pliny adds, that Dibutades invented the colouring of plastic works by adding a red colour to them (from the existing works of this kind it seems to have been red sand), or modelling them in red clialk; and also that he was the first who made masks on the edges of the gutter tiles of the roofs of buildings, at first in low relief (protypa,) and afterwards in high relief (ectypa). Pliny adds "Hine et fastigia templorum orta," that is, the terra-cotta figures which Dibutades was said to have invented, were used to ornament the pediments of temples. (See Dict. of Ant. s. v. Fastigium.)
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Τύραννος της Σικυώνας, πατέρας του Αριστόνυμου και παππούς του Κλεισθένη.
Ηταν τύραννος στη νεώτερη πόλη, αυτή που είδε και ο Παυσανίας (Παυσ. 2,8,1).
Είχε την εξουσία ταυτόχρονα με τον Τιμοκλείδα (Παυσ. 2,8,2).
Euthydemus. A man of Sicyon, who made himself tyrant of the city, together with Timocleidas. On their deposition, according to Pausanias, the supreme power was committed to Cleinias, the father of Aratus.
Αβαντίδας, γιος του Πασέα, τύραννος της Σικυώνας, δολοφονήθηκε από κατοίκους της Σικυώνας (Παυσ. 2,8,2).
Cleisthenes (Kleisthenes), son of Aristonymus and tyrant of Sicyon. He was descended from Orthagoras, who founded the dynasty about 100 years before his time, and succeeded his grandfather Myron in the tyranny, though probably not without some opposition (Herod. vi. 126; Aristot. Polit. v. 12; Paus. ii. 8). In B. C. 595, he aided the Amphictyons in the sacred war against Cirrha, which ended, after ten years, in the destruction of the guilty city, and in which Solon too is said to have assisted with his counsel the avengers of the god (Paus. x. 37; Aesch. c. Ctes.§ 107, &c.). We find Cleisthenes also engaged in war with Argos, his enmity to which is said by Herodotus to have been so great, that he prohibited the recitation at Sicyon of Homer's poems, because Argos was celebrated in them, and restored to the worship of Dionysus what the historian calls, by a prolepsis, the tragic choruses in which Adrastus, the Argive hero, was commemorated (Herod. v. 67). Muller connects this hostility of Cleisthenes towards Argos, the chief Dorian city of the district, with his systematic endeavour to depress and dishonour the Dorian tribes at Sicyon. The old names of these he altered, calling them by new ones derived from the sow, the ass, and the pig (Huatai, Oneatai, Xoireatai), while to his own tribe he gave the title of Archelaoi (lords of the people). The explanation of his motive for this given by Muller (Dor. iii. 4.3) seems even less satisfactory than the one of Herodotus which he sets aside; and the historian's statement, that Cleisthenes of Athens imitated his grandfather in his political changes, may justify the inference, that the measures adopted at Sicyon with respect to the tribes extended to more than a mere alteration of their names (Herod. v. 67, 68). From Aristotle (Pol. v. 12) we learn, that Cleisthenes maintained his power partly through the respect inspired by his military exploits, and partly by the popular and moderate course which he adopted in his general government. His administration also appears to have been characterized by much magnificence, and Pausanias mentions a colonnade (stoa Kleistheneios) which he built with the spoils taken in the sacred war (Paus. ii. 9). We have no means of ascertaining the exact date of the death of Cleisthenes, or the conclusion of his tyranny, but we know that it cannot be placed earlier than B. C. 582, in which year he won the victory in the chariot-race at the Pythian games. His daughter Agarista, whom so many suitors sought, was given in marriage to Megacles the Alcmaeonid.
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Είχε την εξουσία ταυτόχρονα με τον Ευθύδημο (Παυσ. 2,8,2).
A tyrant of Sicyon, deposed by Aratus in B.C. 251.
Ο τελευταίος τύραννος της Σικυώνας, που τον έδιωξε από την εξουσία ο Αρατος (Παυσ. 2,8,3), βλ. Perseus Encyclopedia.
Nicocles : Perseus Project index
Πατέρας του Αβαντίδα, έγινε τύραννος αμέσως μετά τη δολοφονία του γιού του από πολίτες. Τον Πασέα σκότωσε ο Νικοκλής, για να γίνει ο ίδιος τύραννος (Παυσ. 2,8,3).
Paseas : Perseus Project index
A celebrated Greek painter at Sicyon, contemporary with Zeuxis and Parrhasius, about B.C. 400. The masterpiece of Timanthes was his celebrated picture of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, in which Agamemnon was painted with his face hidden in his mantle.
In this school (the Sicyonian) we may include the name of Timanthes, who is indeed expressly called the Sicyonian painter by Eustathius (ad Il. p. 1343, 60). Pliny tells us that he successfully competed at Samos (doubtless at one of the annual art exhibitions already mentioned) with Parrhasius. [p. 413] Parrhasius' picture on this occasion represented the contest between Ajax and Odysseus for the arms of Achilles; and when beaten, he complained that Ajax had again been defeated by an unworthy opponent (i. e. in Homer, by Odysseus, and at Samos, by Timanthes). We are not told what was the subject of Timanthes' picture on this occasion; but it is clear that it could not have been, as Brunn supposes, the same as that of Parrhasius. Of the four other pictures ascribed to him, the Palamedes is uncertain, the hero in the temple of Pax at Rome tells us nothing, and the Sleeping Cyclops is probably not by him: Pliny (xxxv. § 74) describes it as a Cyclops sleeping, a tiny picture; to bring out the colossal size of the monster, the artist inserted figures of Satyrs, measuring his thumb with a thyrsos. The whole idea of this picture seems out of keeping with the age of our artist, and to belong rather to that idyllic time which treats the Cyclops from the idyllic point of view as the lover of Galatea. The Timanthes therefore who painted this may have been some much later artist of the same name.
We are thus left, for our estimate of Timanthes, to the most famous of his pictures, the Sacrifice of Iphigeneia, and the one with which he overcame in competition Colotes of Teos. The maiden was represented standing before the altar on which she was about to be offered up, and grief is exhibited in the faces of the by-standers. The intensity of emotion is graduated in the different faces, culminating in the climax with the father Agamemnon, whose head is veiled from view. More than one monument has come down to us which seems to have been inspired by this picture (see Wiener Vorlegebl. v. 8-10; the mosaic in Arch. Zeit. 1869, pl. 14; and Overbeck, Her. Bildw. p. 314 fol.): the most important of these is the Pompeian wall-painting (Overbeck, ib. pl. xiv. 10), which agrees in most of the important details with the description. The detail which appears constant throughout, the veiled grief of Agamemnon, is what seems most to have caught the fancy of the ancients; and it is possibly this fact which has inspired Pliny's estimate of his ingenium, so that he says of Timanthes that in his works the spectator sees more than is actually there (intelligitur plus semper quam pingitur). Apart, however, from oratorical gush, we may obtain a real idea of the grandeur of Timanthes' conception, which would seem to place him on a level higher than that of his contemporaries.
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After the invention of linear drawing, Pliny mentions Apicides of Corinth and Telephanes of Sicyon, spargentes lineas intra, and who also attached the names to their figures; the term lineas has usually been misunderstood as an allusion to the inner markings of the figure, giving the drawing of the eyes, nostrils, all in short which goes beyond mere silhouette. We cannot, however, suppose that all previous artists drew their figures as blind; and it is obvious moreover from vases, that inner markings must have been adopted long before the practice of writing in the names. Klein therefore suggests that this expression in Pliny refers to the linear ornaments, borrowed probably from the imitation of textile fabrics, which fill in the background in the designs of the end of the seventh and beginning of the sixth centuries B.C. And though this explanation upsets the chronological sequence of Pliny's statements, we need not reject it on that ground, for in this, as well as many other points, Pliny is demonstrably incorrect.
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Craton of Sikyon painted a man and woman on a whitened pinax; we are naturally led to think of the vase-paintings in black figures on a white ground: the term leleukomenos, however, need not imply more than the practice common to all the paintings of this period, which obtains equally in the Penteskuphia tablets and in the Clazomenae sarcophagi, of preparing the ground of the design with a yellowish-white pigment. The man and woman of Pliny's statement suggests the symmetrical pairs of figures which are commonly mentioned in the descriptions of works of this period, such as the Chest of Cypselus and the Spartan basis.
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A Greek painter, a native of Sicyon, who flourished about B.C. 400. He was the founder of the Sicyonian school of painting, which laid great emphasis on professional knowledge.
Eupompus, (Eupompos), of Sicyon, one of the most distinguished Greek painters, was the contemporary of Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and Timanthes, and the instructor of Pamphilus, the master of Apelles. He was held in such esteem by his contemporaries, that a new division was made of the schools of art, and he was placed at the head of one of them. Formerly only two schools had been recognized, the Greek Proper or Helladic, and the Asiatic; but the fame of Eupompus led to the creation of a new school, the Sicyonian, as a branch of the Helladic, and the division then adopted was the Ionian, the Sicyonian, and the Attic, the last of which had, no doubt, Apollodorus for its head. Another instance of the influence of Eupompus is his celebrated answer to Lysippus, who, at the beginning of his career, asked the great painter whom he should take for his model; and Eupompus answered that he ought to imitate nature herself, and no single artist. The only work of Eupompus which is mentioned is a victor in the games carrying a palm. (Plin. xxxiv. 8. s. 19.6, xxxv. 9, 10. s. 36.3, 7.)
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Eupompus of Sicyon is named by Pliny as belonging to this period (hac aetate), but that he was later than Timanthes we see from the fact that his pupils belong to a considerably later date. Of his pictures we know scarcely anything; but his importance is emphasised by the statement of Pliny, who says that on his account the schools of painting were now reckoned as three--viz. Ionic, Sicyonic, and Attic. It is evident from what has gone before that this cannot mean that Eupompus founded the Sicyonic school; it had existed from time immemorial; it merely means that from this time the Sicyonic painters begin to raise themselves as a separate class above the level of the rest of the Helladic school.
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Melanthius (Melanthios). A Greek painter of the Sicyonian School, contemporary with Apelles (B.C. 332), with whom he studied under Pamphilus (Pliny , Pliny H. N.xxxv. 50).
Of the pupils of Pamphilus, Melanthius, whose superiority in composition is said to have been conceded by his fellowpupil Apelles: of him, again, we only know one picture, which represented Aristratus, the Tyrant of Sicyon in Philip's time, standing beside the chariot of Nike: when under Aratus all effigies of Tyrants were subsequently destroyed, the figure of Aristratus was scraped out, and a palm-tree inserted in its place.
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Εργα του Η Μέθη και ο Ερωτας που κρατά λύρα (Παυσ. 2,27,3).
Pausias. A Greek painter, a pupil of Pamphilus and a follower of the Sicyonian school. He lived about 360-330 B.C. at Sicyon, and invented the art of painting vaulted ceilings, and also of foreshortening; he brought encaustic painting with the cestrum to perfection. He painted chiefly children and flowers. One of his most famous pictures was the Flower Girl (Stephanoplokos), representing the flower girl Glycera, of whom he was enamoured in his youth.
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Another of the pupils of Pamphilus, Pausias, may be considered to have done most
to develop the capabilities of the new method (Pliny, xxxv. § 123, primum in hoc
genere nobilem ). Striking effects of transparency, such as the face of his Methe
visible through the glass out of which she drank; of gradations of single colours,
so that in his famous Sacrifice picture the entire body of a bull seen in foreshortening
was coloured black: such were the features of his work; which, moreover, seems
to have been limited in other directions by the tediousness of the encaustic method;
so that his pictures were almost all on a small scale, and occupied with subjects
appropriate to the size, such as scenes of child life (pueri) and even (for the
first time) flower subjects. Pliny tells a story of his restoring the mural paintings
of Polygnotus at Thespiae, and adds that he was not very successful, quoniam non
suo genere certasset. We have, however, seen that Pliny neither knew nor cared
anything about the great mural paintings; the Thespiae here is a mistake for Delphi,
so that we can place no reliance on this evidence of Pausias' practice with the
brush.
From this point the history of Painting seems to branch off. Brunn,
and most critics following him, have thought to be able to trace a new school
existing side by side with the Sicyonian, of which the name of Aristeides stands
at the head, and which includes Nicomachus, Euphranor, and Nicias. This school
was termed the Theban Attic, for this reason; Aristeides is frequently termed
Thebanus, and we hear of a picture by him in Thebes; after the decline of Theban
power the, school is supposed to have taken root at Athens; and a contrast is
drawn between the severe academic exactness and thoroughness chrestographia) of
the Sicyonian school, and the greater ease and versatility, and invention more
intent upon the expression of human emotion of the Theban-Attic. This conclusion,
which, has been generally accepted, certainly, appears to rest on very insufficient
grounds, and it leaves us with, an impression of the narrowness and one-sidedness
of the Sicyonic school which is hardly warrantable in fact. Klein, who has subjected
each of the artists of the period now succeeding to a searching examination, advances
a theory which seems to do away with the difficulty. He, traces the whole of these
artists, back in two pedigrees to the tutelage of the two artists, Aristeides
and Pausias; he finds that Aristeides the Theban belongs no less to the Sicyonic
school than Pausias or than Pamphilus of Amphipolis; that most of these artists
can be more or less directly associated with Sicyon. The powerful reaction which
tradition, intelligibly enough, connects with Sicyon, . . . is only comprehensible
by the knowledge that it was preceded by a freshening and permeation of the ancestral
parent stock with Northern Greek blood. From North Greece it acquired the technique
of encaustic, which it developed, to the highest perfection; and thence arose
the idea that Aristides and Pamphilus were the first artists in encaustic. From
what we know of these artists it would appear that all spheres of art, from the
highest to the lowest, were handled by them; but there is no reason to suppose
that the traditions of technique and style which marked the Sicyonic school were
not preserved in painting as they were in sculpture.
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Erigonus, originally a colour-grinder to the painter Nealces, obtained so much knowledge of his master's art, that he became the teacher of the celebrated painter Pasias, the brother of the modeller Aegineta. (Plin. xxxv. 11, s. 40.41). From this statement it follows that he flourished about B. C. 240
Εργο του θεωρείται ο ζωγραφικός πίνακας του τεμένους της Αθηνάς και του Δία στον Πειραιά που παρίστανε το Λεωσθένη και τα παιδιά του (Παυσ. 1,1,3).
Aegineta a modeller (fictor) mentioned by Pliny. (H. N. xxxv. 11. s. 40.) Scholars are now pretty well agreed, that Winckelmann was mistaken in supposing that the word Aeginetae in the passage of Pliny denoted merely the country of some artist, whose real name, for some reason or other, was not given. His brother Pasias, a painter of some distinction, was a pupil of Erigonus, who had been colour-grinder to the artist Nealces. We learn from Plutarch (Arat. 13), that Nealces was a friend of Aratus of Sicyon, who was elected praetor of the Achaean league B. C. 243. We shall not be far wrong therefore in assuming, that Aegineta and his brother flourished about Ol. CXL. B. C. 220.
Brietes, a painter, the father of Pausias of Sicyon. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 11. s. 40.)
Aristolaus, a painter, the son and scholar of Pausias. He flourished therefore
about Ol. 118, B. C. 308. Pliny (xxxv. 11. s. 40) mentions several of his works,
and characterises his style as in the highest degree severe.
Leontiscus, a painter of the Sicyonian school, contemporary with Aratus, whose portrait he painted, with a trophy (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 11. s. 40.35). It seems almost idle to inquire which of the victories of Aratus this picture was intended to celebrate. Harduin quotes Plutarch (Arat. 38, fol.), as making it probable that the victory referred to was that over Aristippus, the tyrant of Argos. This would place the painter's date about B. C. 235.
Machon, of Corinth or Sicyon, a comic poet, flourished at Alexandria, where he
gave instructions respecting comedy to the grammarian Aristophanes of Byzantium.
He was contemporary with Apollodorus of Carystus, and flourished between the 120th
and 130th Olympiads (B. C. 300--260). He held a high place among the Alexandrian
poets; Athenaeus says of hin, en d' agathos poietes eis tis allos ton meta touis
hepta, and quotes an elegant epigram in his praise. We have the titles of two
of his plays, Agnoia and Epistole, and of a sententious poem in iambic senarii,
entitled Chreiai, of which Athenaeus has preserved several fragments. (Athen.
vi.; xiv., viii., xiii.; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Corn. Graec.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec.
vol. ii.)
Baccheidas (Bakcheidas), of Sicyon, a dancer and teacher of music, in honour of whom there is an ancient epigram of four lines preserved by Athenaeus. (xiv.
Diogenes. Of Sicyon, is mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (vi. 81) as the author of a work on Peloponnesus.
Heracleitus. Of Sicyon, the author of a work on stones, of which the second book is quoted by Plutarch. (De Fluv. 13.)
Manaechmus or Menaechmus (Manaichmos or Menaichmos). A native of Sicyon, who lived
in the time of the first Ptolemy. He was the son of a man named Alcibius or Alcibiades.
He wrote an account of Alexander the Great; a treatise peri techniton, quoted
by Athenaeus, ii., and elsewhere; and a treatise entitled Sikuoniaka, quoted by
Athenaeus, vi.. Menaechmus is also quoted by the scholiast on Pindar (Nem. ii.
1, ix. 30), and by Pliny, H. N. iv. 12. s. 21. (Suid. s. v. Manaichmos Vossius,
de Hist. Gr.)
Cratesipolis (Kratesipolis), wife of Alexander, the son of Polysperchon, was highly distinguished for her beauty, talents, and energy. On the murder of her husband at Sicyon, in B. C. 314, she kept together his forces, with whom her kindness to the men had made her extremely popular, and when the Sicyonians, hoping for an easy conquest over a woman, rose against the garrison for the purpose of establishing an independent government, she quelled the sedition, and, leaving crucified thirty of the popular leaders, held the town firmly in subjection for Cassander. In B. C. 308, however, she was induced by Ptolemy Lagi to betray Corinth and Sicyon to him, these being the only places, except Athens, yet possessed by Cassander in Greece. Cratesipolis was at Corinth at the time, and, as her troops would not have consented to the surrender, she introduced a body of Ptolemy's forces into the town, pretending that they were a reinforcement which she had sent for from Sicyon. She then withdrew to Patrae in Achaia, where she was living, when, in the following year (B. C. 307), she held with Demetrius Poliorcetes the remarkable interview to which each party was attracted by the fame of the other (Diod. xix. 67, xx. 37; Polyaen. viii. 58; Plut. Demetrius, 9).
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Aratus, (Aratos). A Greek patriot, born in Sicyon B.C. 273, who expelled from his native state the tyrant Nicocles, and persuaded his countrymen to join the Achaean League, and in 244 secured the adhesion of Corinth. He afterwards had equal success with other States in southern Greece, so that the League became powerful, exciting the jealousy of the Aetolians, who made war upon it, but were defeated by Aratus aided by Antigonus, and for a time by Philip, nephew of Antigonus. This strong alliance overthrew Cleomenes, king of Sparta. Later, however, Aratus incurred the ill-will of Philip, who destroyed him by poison, B.C. 213.
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Aratus (Aratos), of Sicyon, lived from B. C. 271 to 213. The life of this remarkable
man, as afterwards of Philopoemen and Lycortas, was devoted to an attempt to unite
the several Grecian states together, and by this union to assert the national
independence against the dangers with which it was threatened by Macedonia and
Rome.
Aratus was the son of Cleinias, and was born at Sicyon, B. C. 271.
On the murder of his father by Abantidas Aratus was saved from the general extirpation
of the family by Soso, his uncle's widow, who conveyed him to Argos, where he
was brought up. When he had reached the age of twenty, he gained possession of
his native city by the help of some Argians, and the cooperation of the remainder
of his party in Sicyon itself, without loss of life, and deprived the usurper
Nicocles of his power, B. C. 251 (Comp. Polyb. ii. 43).
Through the influence of Aratus, Sicyon now joined the Achaean league,
and Aratus himself sailed to Egypt to obtain Ptolemy's alliance, in which he succeeded.
In B. C. 245 he was elected general (strategos) of the league, and a second time
in 243. In the latter of these years he took the citadel of Corinth from the Macedonian
garrison, and induced the Corinthian people to join the league. It was chiefly
through his instrumentality that Megara, Troezen, Epidaurus, Argos, Cleonae, and
Megalopolis, were soon afterwards added to it. It was about this time that the
Aetolians, who had made a plundering expedition into Peloponnesus, were stopped
by Aratus at Pellene (Polyb. iv. 8), being surprised at the sack of that town,
and 700 of their number put to the sword. But at this very time, at which the
power of the league seemed most secure, the seeds of its ruin were laid. The very
prospect, which now for the first time opened, of the hitherto scattered powers
of Greece being united in the league, awakened the jealousy of Aetolia, and of
Cleomenes, who was too ready to have a pretext for war. Aratus, to save the league
from this danger, contrived to win the alliance of Antigonus Doson, on the condition,
as it afterwards appeared, of the surrender of Corinth. Ptolemy, as might be expected,
joined Cleomenes; and in a succession of actions at Lycaeum, Megalopolis, and
Hecatombaeum, near Dyme, the Achaeans were well nigh destroyed. By these Aratus
lost the confidence of the people, who passed a public censure on his conduct,
and Sparta was placed at the head of a confederacy, fully able to dictate to the
whole of Greece -Troezen, Epidaurus, Argos, Hermione, Pellene, Caphyae, Phlius,
Pheneus, and Corinth, in which the Achaean garrison kept only the citadel. It
was now necessary to call on Antigonus for the promised aid. Permission to pass
through Aetolia having been refused, he embarked his army in transports, and,
sailing by Euboea, landed his army near the isthmus, while Cleomenes was occupied
with the siege of Sicyon (Polyb. ii. 52). The latter immediately raised the siege,
and hastened to defend Corinth; but no sooner was he engaged there, than Aratus,
by a masterstroke of policy, gained the assistance of a party in Argos to place
the Lacedaemonian garrison in a state of siege. Cleomenes hastened thither, leaving
Corinth in the hands of Antigonus; but arriving too late to take effectual measures
against Aratus, while Antigonus was in his rear, he retreated to Mantineia and
thence home. Antigonus meanwhile was by Aratus' influence elected general of the
league, and made Corinth and Sicyon his winter quarters. What hope was there now
left that the great design of Aratus' life could be accomplished -to unite all
the Greek governments into one Greek nation? Henceforward the caprice of the Macedonian
monarch was to regulate the relations of the powers of Greece. The career of Antigonus,
in which Aratus seems henceforward to have been no further engaged than as his
adviser and guide, ended in the great battle of Sellasia (B. C. 222), in which
the Spartan power was for ever put down. Philip succeeded Antigonus in the throne
of Macedon (B. C. 221), and it was his policy during the next two years (from
221 to 219 B. C.) to make the Achaeans feel how dependent they were on him. This
period is accordingly taken up with incursions of the Aetolians, the unsuccessful
opposition of Aratus, and the trial which followed. The Aetolians seized Clarium,
a fortress near Megalopolis (Polyb. iv. 6), and thence made their plundering excursions,
till Timoxenus, general of the league, took the place and drove out the garrison.
As the time for the expiration of Aratus' office arrived, the Aetolian generals
Dorimachus and Scopas made an attack on Plarae and Patrae, and carried on their
ravages up to the borders of Messene, in the hope that no active measures would
be taken against them till the commander for the following year was chosen. To
remedy this, Aratus anticipated his command five days, and ordered the troops
of the league to assemble at Megalopolis. The Aetolians, finding his force superior,
prepared to quit the country, when Aratus, thinking his object sufficiently accomplished,
disbanded the chief part of his army, and marched with about 4000 to Patrae. The
Aetolians turned round in pursuit, and encamped at Methydrium, upon which Aratus
changed his position to Caphyae, and in a battle, which began in a skirmish of
cavalry to gain some high ground advantageous to both positions, was entirely
defeated and his army nearly destroyed. The Aetolians marched home in triumph,
and Aratus was recalled to take his trial on several charges,--assuming the command
before his legal time, disbanding his troops, unskilful conduct in choosing the
time and place of action, and carelessness in the action itself. He was acquitted,
not on the ground that the charges were untrue, but in consideration of his past
services. For some time after this the Aetolians continued their invasions, and
Aratus was unable effectually to check them, till at last Philip took the field
as commander of the allied army. The six remaining years of Aratus' life are a
mere history of intrigues, by which at different times his influence was more
or less shaken with the king. At first he was entirely set aside; and this cannot
be wondered at, when his object was to unite Greece as an independent nation,
while Philip wished to unite it as subject to himself. In B. C. 218, it appears
that Aratus regained his influence by an exposure of the treachery of his opponents;
and the effects of his presence were shewn in a victory gained over the combined
forces of the Aetolians, Eleans, and Lacedaemonians. In B. C. 217 Aratus was the
17th time chosen general, and every thing, so far as the security of the leagued
states was concerned, prospered; but the feelings and objects of the two men were
so different, that no unity was to be looked for, so soon as the immediate object
of subduing certain states was effected. The story told by Plutarch, of his advice
to Philip about the garrisoning of Ithome, would probably represent well the general
tendency of the feeling of these two men.
In B. C. 213 he died, as Plutarch and Polybius both say (Polyb. viii.
14; Plut. Arat. 52), from the effect of poison administered by the king's order.
Divine honours were paid to him by his countrymen, and annual solemnities established
(Dict. of Ant. s. v. Arateia). Aratus wrote Commentaries, being a history of his
own times down to B. C. 220 (Polyb. iv. 2), which Polybius characterises as clearly
written and faithful records (ii. 40). The greatness of Aratus lay in the steadiness
with which he pursued a noble purpose -of uniting the Greeks as one nation; the
consummate ability with which he guided the elements of the stonn which raged
about him; and the zeal which kept him true to his object to the end, when a different
conduct would have secured to him the greatest personal advantage. As a general,
he was unsuccessful in the open field; but for success in stratagem, which required
calculation and dexterity of the first order, unrivalled. The leading object of
his life was noble in its conception, and, considering the state of Macedon and
of Egypt, and more especially the existence of a contemporary with the virtues
and abilities of Cleomenes, ably conducted. Had he been supported in his attempt
to raise Greece by vigour and purity, such as that of Cleomenes in the cause of
Sparta, his fate might have been different. As it was, he left his country surrounded
by difficulty and danger to the guiding hand of Philopoemen and Lycortas. (Plut.
Aratus and Agis; Polyb. ii. iv. vii. viii).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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