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Listed 20 sub titles with search on: Biographies for destination: "CHALKIS Ancient city EVIA".


Biographies (20)

Tyrants

Phoxus

...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

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


Orators

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.

Philosophers

Ctesibius

Ctesibius, a Cynic philosopher, a native of Chalcis and a friend of Menedemus. According to Athenaeus, who relates an anecdote about him, he lived in the reign of Antigonus, king of Macedonia. (Athen. i., 15, iv.)

Poets

Euphorion

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

A Hellenistic Bibliography: Euphorion

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

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


Writers

Callidemus

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.

Historians

Dionysius

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.)

Mechanics

Crates

. . 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)

Related to the place

Aristotle

Aristotle died in Chalchis in 322 BCE.

Hesiod

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).

Dinarchus

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.

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