HYPSTCLES. 125, was joint commissioner with his colleague, M. Fulvius Flaccus [Flaccus, M. Fr.fLVius, No. 7j, for resuming and re-apportioning such de- mesnes of the state as were held contrary to the provisions of the Licinian and Sempronian laws. (Fasti ; Val. Max. ix. 5. § 1 ; Obseq. 90 ; Phlegon. Trail. 10.) Cicero {de Or. i. 3G. § 166) mentions Hypsaeiis as ill-versed in the civil law. 5. P. Plautius Hypsaeus, as tribune of the plebs in B. c. 54, exerted himself to procure for Cn. Pompey, whose quaestor he had been, the com- mission for restoring Ptolemy Auletes to the throne of Egypt. {Cc. ad Fam. i. 1. § 3.) In B. c. 54, Hypsaeus was a candidate for the con- sulship, and since Milo was his opponent, he had the support of P. Clodius and his gladiators. [Claudius, No. 40.] With his fellow-candidate, Q. Metellus Scipio, Hypsaeus employed in his canvass the most open corruption and violence. In the tumults that followed the murder of Clo- dius, Hypsaeus and Scipio besieged the interrex, M. Aemilius Lepidus, in his own house for five daja. because he would not consent to hold the comitia illegally. Scipio and Hypsaeus were na- turally favourites with the Clodian mob, who carried off the fasces from the temple of Libitina (I)ionys. iv. 15; Suet. Ner. 39), and offered them to these candidates, before they tendered them to Cn. Pompey. Hypsaeus was singled out by Milo's faction for their especial attack. At the examination of the witnesses at Milo's trial, they demanded that the slaves of Hypsaeus be submitted to torture, and shortly afterwards, through Pom- pey's law de Ambitu, they procured the banish- ment of Hypsaeus himself for bribery in his con- sular canvass. Although he had been an active partizan of Pompey's, his patron deserted him. He had thrown himself at Pompey's feet, as he was going from the bath to the supper-table ; but Pompey rejected his entreaties, and waived him off with " Away; you will spoil my supper ! " (Cic. ad Alt. iii. 8,/>ro Place. 9 ; Ascon. in Cic. Milon. p. 31, 36 ; Schol. Bob. pro Mil. p. 281, id. in Or. de Aer. al. Mil. 341, Orelli ; Cic. fragm. p. 456, vol, iv. Orolli ; Appian, B. C. ii. 24 ; Plut. Pomjp. 55 ; Val. Max! ix. 5. § 3 ; Liv. Efit. 107.) L W. B. D.] H YPSE'NOR ('Tv|/rfi^a>p), the name of two my- thical personages, one a son of the Trojan priest Dolopion, who was killed by Eurypylus (Hom. //. V. 76, &c.), and the other, a son of Hippasus, was killed bv the Trojan Deiphobus. (xiii.411.) [L.S.] HYPSEUS ('Tt^eu's), a son of Peneius, and the Naiad Creusa, or Phillyra, the daughter of Asopus, was king of the Lapithae, and married to Chlida- nope, by whom he became the father of Cyrene, Alcaea, Themisto, and Astyageia. (Pind. Pyih. ix. 13, &c.; ApoUod. i. 9, $ 2 ; Diod. iv. %^ Paus. ix. 34. § 5.) Another personage of this name occurs in Ovid {Met. v. 99). [L. S.] HYPSICLES ('Tii/i/cA7js), was of Alexandria, or, as the Arabic writers say, of Ascalon. Both may be right, for to say that a Greek mathema- tician or astronomer was of Alexandria, fixes his place of birth or general residence about as much as we do when we name an Englishman of the same stamp as of Oxford or Cambridge. The time at which he lived will require some discussion, inasmuch as we intend to differ from the account generally received, and our theory on the matter involves the period at which Diophantus wrote, which is of somewhat more importance. HYPSICLES. 541 It is generally stated that Hypsicles lived A. d. 160, on the authority of Suidas, who states that his teacher, Isidore the philosopher, k(piKoa6< af: utto To?j ddeAtpoTs ; hence, says Fabricius, he lived sub Divis Fratrilms,ard the Divi Fratres are Antoninus and Verus. [Antoninus Pius.] But Fabricius (or Harless) adds a note to the effect that it is possible this Isidore may be stated to have studied under his own brothers, and that he may be the Isidore whose life was written by Damascius. August, the editor of Euclid, assumes, without an allusion to any other opinion, that Isidore was Isidore of Miletus, Justinian's architect, and the preceptor of EuTOCius. Whether this last supposition be true or not, it is certain that the former one must be correct, for Suidas, at the word Syrianus., mentions Isidore " the philosopher" again, and cites Damascius by name for his information. Now Phoiius, who has given a long commentary on the life of Isidore by Damascius, repeats again and again that Isidore was the successor of Marinus, the successor of Proclus, and that Damascius was his fellow pupil. This brings Isidore fairly into the reign of Justi- nian ; and if we look at the strong feeling of ad- miration which Eutocius and Hypsicles both ex- press for their teachers (Hypsicles calls his the great)., we cannot suppose that these two Isidores were two different persons. Again, the Isidore of Damascius was a Christian, and Suidas calls him eTTLfxeXrjs ip Upo7s. If an editor of Archimedes in the second century had been a Christian, the fact must have been noted in many forms, and probably he would have been one of the saint Isidores from whom Suidas always distinguishes him by the title of the philosopher. There are other strong presumptions against Hypsicles having lived in the second century. Neither Pappus, Proclus, nor Eutocius, mentions his name. Now Proclus names the commentators on Euclid : it is unlikely he would have forgotten the editor who added two Avhole books to the Elements. Moreover, he specifies it as the ulti- mate object of the Elements to investigate the pro- perties of regular solids: it is very unlikely that he should have suppressed the fact of two books on those very solids having been written as an ap- pendix to Euclid. Again, Marinu.s, in his preface to the Duta^ states the Elements to consist of thir- teen books, which is a presumption against the additional books of Hypsicles having been added before his time. Putting all these things together, we feel that we may confidently assert Hypsicles to have written not earlier than a. d. 550. Diophantus mentions Hypsicles in the work on polygonal numbers (prop, viii.), and seems to attri- bute to him the notion and definition of polygonal numbers. We must accordingly place Diophantus at least something later than Hypsicles, perhaps at the beginning of the seventh century. Achilles Tatius also mentions Hypsicles (Isag. in PJiaenom. Arati) as one of those who wrote on the harmony of the planetary motions, ir^pi t^s kvapjxoviov kiv/i- fffws : and thus the date of Achilles Tatius is con- siderably altered.*
- The date of Achilles Tatius is supposed to be
settled by a passage of Julius Firmicus (iv. 10), in which he announces his intention to defer certain astrological topics till he treats of the barbarian sphere, quae divinus ille Ahraam et prudenlissimus Achilles verissimis conaii sunt rationihus invenire et
