Listed 33 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "CHALKIDA Province EVIA" .
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
Dionysius of Chalcis, a Greek historian, who lived before the Christian era. He wrote a work on the
foundation of towns (ktiseis) in five books, which is frequently referred to by
the ancients. A considerable number of fragments of the work have thus been preserved,
but its author is otherwise unknown (Marcian. Heracl. Peripl.; Suid. s. v. Chalkidike;
Harpocrat. s. v. Hephaistia and Heraion teichos; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 558,
1024, iv. 264, ad Aristoph. Nub. 397; Dionys. Hal. A. R. i. 72; Strab. xii.; Plut.
de Malign. Herod. 2; Seymnus, 115; Clem. Alex. Strom. i.; Zenob. Proverb. v. 64;
Apostol. xviii. 25; Photius, s. vv. Praxidike, Telmiseis; Eudoc.)
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
. . Cephissus, which fills lake Copais; for when the lake had increased so much that Copae was in danger of being swallowed up . ., a rent in the earth, which was formed by the lake near Copae, opened up a subterranean channel about thirty stadia in length and admitted the river; and then the river burst forth to the surface near Larymna in Locris; I mean the Upper Larymna . . The place is called Anchoe; and there is also a lake of the same name. And when it leaves this lake the Cephissus at last flows out to the sea. Now at that time, when the flooding of the lake ceased, there was also a cessation of danger to those who lived near it, except in the case of the cities which had already been swallowed up. And though the subterranean channels filled up again, Crates the mining engineer of Chalcis ceased clearing away the obstructions because of party strife among the Boeotians, although, as he himself says in the letter to Alexander, many places had already been drained.
(Strabo 9,2,18)
Isaeus (Isaios). One of the ten Attic orators. He was born at Chalcis, and came to Athens at an early age. He wrote judicial orations for others and established a rhetorical school at Athens, in which Demosthenes is said to have been his pupil. He lived between B.C. 420 and 348. Eleven of his orations are extant, all relating to questions of inheritance. They afford considerable information respecting this branch of the Attic law, of which he was a master, and are marked by intellectual acumen, clearness of statement, and vigour of style.
Editor's Information
The e-texts of the works by Isaeus are found in Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings.
ERETRIA (Ancient city) EVIA
340 - 265
Menedemus, (Menedemos). A Greek philosopher, a native of Eretria.
Though of noble birth, he was poor, and worked for a livelihood either as a builder
or as a tent-maker. According to one story, he seized the opportunity afforded
by his being sent on some military service to Megara to hear Plato, and abandoned
the army to addict himself to philosophy; but it may be questioned whether he
was old enough to have heard Plato before the death of the latter. According to
another story, he and his friend Asclepiades got their livelihood as millers,
working during the night that they might have leisure for philosophy in the day.
The two friends afterwards became disciples of Stilpo at Megara. From Megara they
went to Elis, and placed themselves under the instruction of some disciples of
Phaedo. On his return to Eretria Menedemus established a school of philosophy,
which was called the Eretrian. He did not, however, confine himself to philosophical
pursuits, but took an active part in the political affairs of his native city,
and came to be the leading man in the State. He went on various embassies to Lysimachus,
Demetrius, and others; but being suspected of the treacherous intention of betraying
Eretria into the power of Antigonus, he quitted his native city secretly, and
took refuge with Antigonus in Asia. Here he starved himself to death in the seventy-fourth
year of his age, probably about B.C. 277. Of the philosophy of Menedemus little
is known, except that it closely resembled that of the Megarian School.
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
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
Euphorion. Of Chalcis in Euboea, an eminent grammarian and poet, was the son of
Polymnetus, and was born, according to Suidas (s. r.), in the 126th Olympiad,
when Pyrrhus was defeated by the Romans, B. C. 274. He became, but at what period
of his life is not known, a citizen of Athens. (Hellad. ap. Phot. Cod 279, p.
532, Bekker.) He was instructed in philosophy by Lacydes, who flourished about
B. C. 241, and Prytanis (comp. Athen. xi.), and in poetry by Archebulus of Thera.
Though he was sallow, fat, and bandylegged, he was beloved by Nicia (or Nicaea),
the wife of Alexander, king of Euboea. His amours are referred to in more than
one passage in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii.) Having amassed great
wealth, he went into Syria, to Antiochus the Great (B. C. 221), who made him his
librarian. He died in Syria, and was buried at Apameia, or, according to others,
at Antioch. (Suid. s. v.) The epigram (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii.), which places his
tomb at the Peiraeeus, must be understood as referring to a cenotaph.
Euphorion wrote numerous works, both in poetry and prose, relating
chiefly to mythological history. The following were poems in heroic verse :--
1. Hesiodos, the subject of which can only be conjectured from the title. Some
suppose it to have been an agricultural poem. Euphorion is mentioned among the
agricultural writers by Varro (i. 1.9) and Columella (i. 1.10). 2. Mopsopia, so
called from an old name of Attica, the legends of which country seem to have been
the chief subject of the poem. From the variety of its contents, which Suidas
calls summingeir historiar, it was also called Atakta, a title which was frequently
given to the writings of that period. 3. Chiliades, a poem written against certain
persons, who had defrauded Euphorion of money which he had entrusted to their
care. It probably derived its title from each of its books consisting of a thousand
verses. The fifth book, or chilias, was entitled peri chresmon, and contained
an enumeration of oracles which had been fulfilled; and it is probably of this
book in particular that the statement of Suidas concerning the object of the poem
should be understood, namely, that the poet taught his defrauders that they would
in the end suffer the penalty of their faithlessness. The above seems the best
explanation of the passage in Suidas, which is, however, very corrupt, and has
been very variously explained. (See especially Heyne and Harless, l. c., and Meineke,
Euphor.) To these epic poems must be added the following, which are not mentioned
by Suidas : -- 4. Alexandros, which Meineke conjectures to have been addressed
to some friend of that name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Suloi.) 5. Anios, a mythological
poem referring to Anius, the son and priest of the Delian Apollo. (Steph. Byz.
Fragment. p. 744, c., ed. Pined.) 6. Antigraphai pros Theoridan (Clem. Alex. Strom.
v., ed. Sylb.), a work of which nothing further is known, unless we accept the
not improbable conjecture of Meursius and Schneider, who read Theodoridan for
Theoridan, and suppose that the poem was written in controversy with the grammarian
Theodoridas, who afterwards wrote the epitaph on Euphorion, which is extant, with
seventeen other epigrams by Theodoridas, in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal.
vol. ii.) 7. Apollodoros, which seems to have been a mythological poem addressed
to a friend of that name. (Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr. 513; Schol. ad Apollon.
Rhod. i. 1063; Suid. and Harpocrat. s. v. Ho katothen nomos; Phot. s. v. Ho katothen
logos.) 8. Arai e poteriokleptes (Steph. Byz. s. v. Alube ; Schol. ad Theocrit.
ii. 2), an attack on some person who had stolen a cup from Euphorion, which Callimachus
imitated in his Ibis, and both were probably followed by Ovid in his Ibis, and
by Cato and Virgil in their Dirae. (Meineke, Euphor.) 9. Artemidoros, probably
a poem like the Apollodorus. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Assoron.) 10. Geranos, the subject
of which, as well as its genuineness, is very uncertain. (Athen. iii.) 11. Demosthenes,
the title of which Meineke explains as he does the Alexander, Apollodorus, and
Artemidorus, and he conjectures that the person to whom the poem was addressed
was Demosthenes of Bithynia. (Choeroboscus, ap. Bekker. Anecd. Graec. iii.) 12.
Dionusos, which doubtless contained a full account of the myths relating to Dionysus.
(Schol. Ph. ad Odyss. iv., ed. Buttmann; Steph. Byz. s. v. Oruchion, Akte, Lukapsos;
Schol. ad Arat. Phaenom. 172; Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr. 320; Etym. Mag.) 13.
Epikedeios eis Protagoran, an elegy on an astrologer named Protagoras. (Diog.
Laert. ix. 56.) This poem was doubtless in the elegiac, and not in the heroic
verse. 14. Thraix. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Asbotos, Onkaiai; Parthen. Erot. xiii.,
xxvi.) 15. Hippomedon. (Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr. 451.) 16. Xenion. (Schol.
ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 354.) 17. Poluchares. (Etym. Mag.; Choeroboscus, ap. Bekker.
Anecd. Graec. iii. ) 18. Huakinthor. (Schol. Theocr. x. 28; Eustath. ad Hom.)
19. Philoktetes. (Stobaeus, Serm. lviii., Tit. lix.; Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr.
911.)
Euphorion was an epigrammatist as well as an epic poet. He had a place
in the Garland of Meleager (Prooem, 23), and the Greek Anthology contains two
epigrams by him. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i.; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. i.) They are
both erotic; and that such was the character of most of his epigrams, is clear
from the manner in which he is mentioned by Meleager, as well as from the fact
that he was among the poets who were imitated by Propertius, Tibullus, and Gallus.
(Diomed. iii.; Probus, ad Virgil. Ecl. x. 50.) It was probably this seductive
elegiac poetry of Euphorion, the popularity of which at Rome, to the neglect of
Ennius, moved the indignation of Cicero. (Tusc. Disp. iii. 19.) It was therefore
quite natural that Euphorion should be a great favourite with the emperor Tiberius,
who wrote Greek poems in imitation of him (Sueton. Tiber. 70)
Some writers have supposed that Euphorion was also a dramatic poet.
Ernesti (Clav. Ciceron. s. v.) and C. G. Muller (ad Tzetz. Schol. p. 651) say,
that he composed tragedies; but they give no reasons for the assertion, and none
are known. Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. vol. ii.) places him in his list of comic poets,
mentioning as his plays the Apollodoros, which was an epic poem (vid. sup.), and
the Apodidousa, respecting which there can be no doubt that for Euphorion we should
read Euphron in the passage of Athenaieus (xi.).
Euphorion's writings in prose were chiefly historical and grammatical.
They were : 1. Historika upomnemata. (Athen. iv., xv.) 2. Peri ton Aleuadon (Clem.
Alex. Strom. i., Sylb.; Schol. Theocr. ad Idyll. xvi. 34; Quintil. x. 2), which
Suidas (s. v. Ephoros) attributes to the younger Ephorus. 3. Peri ton Isthmion.
(Athen. iv.) 4. Peri Melopoiion (Athen. iv.) 5. A grammatical work of great celebrity,
which related chiefly to the language of Hippocrates, and appears to have been
entitled Lexis Hippokratous.
The character of Euphorion as a poet may be pretty clearly understood
from the statements of the ancient writers, and from his extant fragments, as
well as from the general literary character of his age. He lived at the time when
the literature of the Alexandrian school had become thoroughly established, when
originality of thought and vigour of expression were all but extinct, and, though
the ancient writers were most highly valued, their spirit was lost, and the chief
use made of them was to heap together their materials in elaborate compilations
and expand them by trivial and fanciful additions, while the noble forms of verse
in which they had embodied their thoughts were made the vehicles of a mass of
cumbrous learning. Hence the complaints which the best of succeeding writers made
of the obscurity, verboseness, and tediousness of Euphorion, Callimachus, Parthenius,
Lycophron, and the other chief writers of the long period during which the Alexandrian
grammarians ruled the literary world. (Clem. Alex. Strom. v.; Cic. de Div. ii.
64; Lucian. de Conscrib. Hist. 57, vol. ii.) These faults seem to have been carried
to excess in Euphorion, who was particularly distinguished by an obscurity, which
arose, according to Meineke, from his choice of the most out of the way subjects,
from the cumbrous learning with which he overloaded his poems, from the arbitrary
changes which he made in the common legends, from his choice of obsolete words,
and from his use of ordinary words with a new meaning of his own. The most ancient
and one of the most interesting judgments concerning him is in an epigram by Crates
of Mallus (Brunck, Anal., vol. ii.), from which we learn that he was a great admirer
of Choerilus, notwithstanding which, however, the fragments of his poetry shew
that he also imitated Antimachus. Meineke conjectures that the epigram of Crates
was written while the contest about receiving Antimachus or Choerilus into the
epic canon was at its height, and that some of the Alexandrian grammarians proposed
to confer that honour on Euphorion. In the same epigram Euphorion is called Omerikos,
which can only mean that he endeavoured, however unsuccessfully, to imitate Homer,
-- a fact which his fragments confirm. (Comp. Cic. de Div. l. c.) That he also
imitated Hesiod, may be inferred from the fact of his writing a poem entitled
Hesiodos; and there is a certain similarity in the circumstance of each poet making
a personal wrong the foundation of an epic poem,--Hesiod in the Erga kai Hemerai,
and Euphorion in the Chiliades.
As above stated, Euphorion was greatly admired by many of the Romans,
and some of his poems were imitated or translated by Cornelius Gallus ; but the
arguments by which Heyne and others have attempted to decide what poems of Euphorion
were so translated, are quite inconclusive.
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
Euphorion. An epic and epigrammatic poet, born at Chalcis in Euboea, B.C. 276, and who became librarian to Antiochus the Great. He wrote various poems, entitled Hesiod, Alexander, Arius, Apollodorus, etc. His Mopsopia or Miscellanies (Mopsopia e atakta) was a collection, in five books, of fables and histories relative to Attica, a very learned work, but rivalling in obscurity the Cassandra of Lycophron. The fifth book bore the title of Chiliad (Chilias), either because it consisted of a thousand verses, or because it contained the ancient oracles that referred to a period of a thousand years. Perhaps, however, each of the five books contained a thousand verses, for the passage of Suidas respecting this writer is somewhat obscure and defective, and Eudocia, in the "Garden of Violets," speaks of a fifth Chiliad, entitled Peri Chresmon, "Of Oracles." Quintilian recommends the reading of this poet, and Vergil is said to have esteemed his productions very highly. A passage in the tenth eclogue and a remark made by Servius have led Heyne to suppose that C. Cornelius Gallus , the friend of Vergil, had translated Euphorion into Latin verse. This poet was one of the favourite authors of the emperor Tiberius, one of those whom he imitated, and whose busts he placed in his library. . .
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
275 - 200
This file forms part of A Hellenistic Bibliography, a bibliography on post-classical Greek poetry and its influence, accessible through the website of the department of Classics of the University of Leiden.
The file contains 22 titles on Euphorion, listed by year/author.
Compiled and maintained by Martijn Cuypers
Email: m.p.cuypers@let.leidenuniv.nl
Additions and corrections will be gratefully received.
Last updated: 3 july 2002
Lycophron (Lukophron). A grammarian and poet who was a native of Chalcis in Euboea, and lived at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 285-247). He was the author of an extant poem in 1474 iambic lines, entitled Cassandra or Alexandra, in which Cassandra is made to prophesy the fall of Troy, with numerous other events. The obscurity of this work is proverbial, and it is filled with obsolete words and long compounds. Among the numerous ancient commentaries on the poem, the most important are the scholia of Isaac and John Tzetzes, which are far more valuable than the poem itself. The earliest edition is that which appeared at Venice in 1513. It has since been edited by Bachmann (Leipzig, 1828), Kinkel (1880), and Scheer (1881). There is an English version by Lord Royston. Lycophron also wrote a work on the history of Greek comedy and the comic poets, and composed tragedies now lost.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited August 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Lycophron (Lukophron), the celebrated Alexandrian grammarian and poet, was a native
of Chalcis in Euboea, the son of Socles, and the adopted son of the historian
Lycus of Rhegium (Suid. s. v.). Other accounts made him the son of Lycus (Tzetz,
Chil. viii. 481). He lived at Alexandria, under Ptolemy Philadelphus, who entrusted
to him the arrangement of the works of the comic poets contained in the Alexandrian
library. In the execution of this commission Lycophron drew up a very extensive
work on comedy (peri komoidias), which appears to have embraced the whole subject
of the history and nature of the Greek comedy, together with accounts of the comic
poets, and, besides this, many matters bearing indirectly on the interpretation
of the comedians (Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec.). Nothing more is known of
his life. Ovid (Ibis, 533) states that he was killed by an arrow.
As a poet, Lycophron obtained a place in the Tragic Pleiad; but there
is scarcely a fragment of his tragedies extant. Suidas gives the titles of twenty
of Lycophron's tragedies; while Tzetzes (Schol. in Lyc. 262, 270) makes their
number forty-six or sixty-four. Four lines of his Pelopidai are quoted by Stobaeus
(cxix. 1). He also wrote a satyric drama, entitled Menedemos, in which he ridiculed
his fellow-countryman, the philosopher Menedemus of Eretria (Ath. x.; Diog. Laert.
ii. 140; comp. Menag. ad loc.), who, nevertheless, highly prized the tragedies
of Lycophron (Diog. ii 133). He is said to have been a very skilful commposer
of anagrams, of which he wrote several in honour of Ptolemy and Arsinoe.
The only one of his poems which has come down to us is the Cassandra
or Alexandra. This is neither a tragedy nor an epic poem, but a long iambic monologue
of 1474 verses, in which Cassandra is made to prophesy the fall of Troy, the adventures
of the Grecian and Trojan heroes, with numerous other mythological and historical
events, going back as early as the Argonauts, the Amazons, and the fables of Io
and Europa, and ending with Alexander the Great. The work has no pretensions to
poetical merit. It is simply a cumbrous store of traditional learning. Its obscurity
is proverbial. Suidas calls it skoteinon poiema, and its author himself obtained
the epithet skoteinos. Its stores of learning and its obscurity alike excited
the efforts of the ancient grammarians, several of whom wrote commentaries on
the poem: among them were Theon, Dection, and Orus. The only one of these works
which survives, is the Scholia of Isaac and John Tzetzes, which are far more valuable
than the poem itself.
A question has been raised respecting the identity of Lycophron the
tragedian and Lycophron the author of the Cassandra. From some lines of the poem
(1226, &c., 1446, &c.) which refer to Roman history, Niebuhr was led to suppose
that the author could not have lived before the time of Flamininus (about B. C.
190); but Welcker, in an elaborate discussion of. the question, regards the lines
as interpolated.
The first printed edition of Lycophron was the Aldine, with Pindar
and Callimachus, Venet. 1513, 8vo.; the next was that of Lacisius, with the Scholia,
Basil. 1546, fol.: of the later editions the most important are those of Potter,
Oxon. 1697, fol., reprinted 1702; Reichard, Lips. 1788, 2 vols. 8vo.; and Bachmann,
Lips. 1828, 2 vols. 8vo.; to which must be added the admirable edition of the
Scholia by C. G. Miller, Lips. 1811, 3 vols. 8vo. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii.
p. 750; Welcker, die Griech. Tragd. pp. 1256-1263; Bernhardy, Grundriss d. Griech.
Lift. vol. ii. pp. 613, 1026-1029.)
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
ERETRIA (Ancient city) EVIA
484 - 401
Achaeus. A Greek tragic poet of Eretria, born about B.C. 484, a contemporary
of Sophocles, and especially famous in the line of satyric drama. He wrote about
forty plays, of which only small fragments are preserved. These have been edited
by Urlichs (Bonn, 1834).
Achaeus (Achaios) of Eretria in Euboea, a tragic poet, was born B. C. 484, the year in which Aeschylus gained his first victory, and four years before the birth of Euripides. In B. C. 477, he contended with Sophocles and Euripides, and though he subsequently brought out many dramas, according to some as many as thirty or forty, he nevertheless only gained the prize once. The fragments of Achaeus contain much strange mythology, and his expressions were often forced and obscure (Athen. x.). Still in the satyrical drama he must have possessed considerable merit, for in this department some ancient critics thought him inferior only to Aeschylus (Diog. Laer. ii. 133). The titles of seven of his satyrical dramas and of ten of his tragedies are still known. The extant fragments of his pieces have been collected, and edited by Urlichs, Bonn, 1834. (Suidas, s. v.) This Achaeus should not be confounded with a later tragic writer of the same name, who was a native of Syracuse. According to Suidas and Phavorinus he wrote ten, according to Eudocia fourteen tragedies.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
Aristotle died in Chalchis in 322 BCE.
Then I crossed over to Chalcis, to the games of wise Amphidamas where the sons of the great hearted hero proclaimed and appointed prizes (Hesiod, Works and Days: line 655).
On Helicon tripods have been dedicated, of which the oldest is the one which it is said Hesiod received for winning the prize for song at Chalcis on the Euripus (Paus. 9.31.3).
360 - 290
Dinarchus (c. 360-c. 290 BC), the youngest of the ten Attic Orators .. In 307 he retired to Chalcis in order to safeguard his wealth. He returned to Athens in 292 and died sometime thereafter.
...and at Chalcis the people with the aid of the notables overthrew the tyrant Phoxus and then immediately seized the government; and again at Ambracia similarly the people joined with the adversaries of the tyrant Periander in expelling him and then brought the government round to themselves. (Aristotle, Politics: section 1304a)
Callias, the Chalcidian, son of Mnesarchus, together with his brother Taurosthenes, succeeded his father in the tyranny of Chalcis, and formed an alliance with Philip of Macedon in order to support himself against Plutarchus, tyrant of Eretria, or rather with the view of extending his authority over the whole of Euboea -a design which, according to Aeschines, he covered under the disguise of a plan for uniting in one league the states of the island, and establishing a general Euboean congress at Chalcis. Plutarchus accordingly applied to Athens for aid, which was granted in opposition to the advice of Demosthenes, and an army was sent into Euboea under the command of Phocion, who defeated Callias at Tamynae, B. C. 350 (Aesch. c. Ctes.85-88, de Fals. Leg.180; Dem. de Pac.5; Plut. Phoc. 12). After this, Callias betook himself to the Macedonian court, where he was for some time high in the favour of the king; but, having in some way offended him, he withdrew to Thebes, in the hope of gaining her support in the furtherance of his views. Breaking, however, with the Thebans also, and fearing an attack both from them and from Philip, he applied to Athens, and through the influence of Demosthenes not only obtained alliance, and an acknowledgment of the independence of Chalcis, but even induced the Athenians to transfer to that state the annual contributions (suntaxeis) from Oreus and Eretria, Callias holding out great promises (apparently never realized) of assistance in men and money from Achaia, Megara, and Euboea. This seems to have been in B. C. 343, at the time of Philip's projected attempt on Ambracia. Aeschines of course ascribes his rival's support of Callias to corruption; but Demosthenes may have thought that Euboea, united under a strong government, might serve as an effectual barrier to Philip's ambition (Aesch. c. Ctes.89, &c.; Dem. Philipp. iii.85). In B. C. 341, the defeat by Phocion of the Macedonian party in Eretria and Oreus under Cleitarchus and Philistides gave the supremacy in the island to Callias (Dem. de Cor.86, 99, &c.; Philipp. iii.23, 75, 79; Diod. xvi. 74; Plut. Dem. 17). Callias seems to have been still living in B. C. 330, the date of the orations on "the Crown". See Aesch. c. Ctes.85, 87, who mentions a proposal of Demosthenes to confer on him and his brother Taurosthenes the honour of Athenian citizenship.
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
ERETRIA (Ancient city) EVIA
Cleitarchus (Kleitarchos), tyrant of Eretria in Euboea. After Plutarchus had been
expelled from the tyranny of Eretria by Phocion, B. C. 350, popular government
was at first established; but strong party struggles ensued, in which the adherents
of Athens were at length overpowered by those of Macedonia, and Philip then sent
Hipponicus, one of his generals, to destroy the walls of Porthmus, the harbour
of Eretria, and to set up Hipparchus, Automedon, and Cleitarchus as tyrants (Plut.
Phoc. 13; Dem. (de Cor.86, Philipp. iii.68, 69). This was subsequent to the peace
between Athens and Philip in B. C. 346, since Demosthenes adduces it as one of
the proofs of a breach of the peace on the part of Macedon (Philipp. iii.23).
The tyrants, however, were not suffered to retain their power quietly, for Demosthenes
(Philip. iii.69) mentions two armaments sent by Philip for their support, at different
times, under Eurylochus and Parmenion respectively. Soon after, we find Cleitarchus
in sole possession of the government; but he does not seem to have been at open
hostility with Athens, though he held Eretria for Philip, for we hear of the Athenians
sending ambassadors to request his consent to the arrangement for uniting Euboea
under one federative government, having its congress at Chalcis, to which Athens
was also to transfer the annual contributions from Oreus and Eretria. Aeschines
says, that a talent from Cleitarchus was part of the bribe which he alleges that
Demosthenes received for procuring the decree in question. Cleitarchus appears
therefore to have come into the above project of Demosthenes and Callias, to whom
he would naturally be opposed; but he thought it perhaps a point gained if he
could get rid of the remnant of Atheian influence in Eretria. The plan, however,
seems to have fallen to the ground, and Demosthenes in B. C. 341 carried a decree
for an expedition to Euboea with the view of putting down the Macedonian interest
in the island. On this, Cleitarchus and Philistides, the tyrant of Oreus, sent
ambassadors to Athens to prevent, if possible, the threatened invasion; and Aeschines,
at whose house the envoys were entertained, appears to have supported their cause
in the assembly. But the decree was carried into effect, and the command of the
armament was given to Phocion, by whom Cleitarchus and Philistides were expelled
from their respective cities (Aesch. c. Ctes.85-103; Dem. de Cor.; Diod. xvi.
74; Plut. Demi. 17).
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
But here was a man annexing Euboea and making it a basis of operations against Attica, attacking Megara, occupying Oreus, demolishing Porthmus, establishing the tyranny of Philistides at Oreus and of Cleitarchus at Eretria, subjugating the Hellespont, besieging Byzantium, destroying some of the Greek cities, reinstating exiled traitors in others: by these acts was he, or was he not, committing injustice, breaking treaty, and violating the terms of peace? (Demosthenes, Speeches 11-20: speech 18, section 71 [On the Crown])
Of Euboea: aided by Athenians.
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
Callidemus (Kallidemos), a Greek author about whom nothing is known, except that Pliny (H. N. iv. 12) and Solinus (17) refer to him as their authority for the statement, that the island of Euboea was originally called Chalcis from the fact of brass (chalkos) being discovered there first.
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