Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/89

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
loc cit.
loc cit.

EUCRATES. ■ EUCLEIDES (EvKd5T]s). ]. A Greek phy- sician, to whom is addressed one of the Letters attributed to Theano {Socrat. et Pythag. Epist. p. 61, ed. OrelL), and who therefore may be sup- posed to have lived in the fifth century b. c. 2. The author of an antidote against venomous animals, &c., the composition of which is preserved by Galen, de Antid. ii. 10, vol. xiv. p. 162. Eu- cleides must have lived in or before the second century after Christ. [W. A. G.] EUCLEIDES. 1. Of Athens, a sculptor, made the statues of Pentelic marble, in the temples of Demeter, Aphrodite, and Dionysus, and Eileithuia at Bura in Achaia. (Pans. vii. 25. § 5.) This town, as seen by Pausanias, had been rebuilt after its destruction by an earthquake, in b. c. 37-§. (Pans. I. c, comp. § 2.) The artist probably flou- rished, therefore, soon after this date. 2. A medallist, whose name is seen on the coins of Syracuse. (R. Rochette, Lettre a M. le Due de Lignes, 1831.) [P. S.] EUCLES (Et5/c^s). ]. Of Rhodes, a son of Cal- lianax and Callipateira, the daughter of Diagoras, belonged to the family of the Eratidae or Diagoridae. lie gained a victory in boxing at Olympia, though it is uncertain in what year ; and there was a sta- tue of him at Olympia, the work of Naucydes. (Paus. vi. 6. $ 1> 7. $ 1.) The Scholiast on Pin- dar {01. vii. 16) calls him Euclon, and describes him as a nephew of Callipateira. {B'6ckEayplicat. ad Find. 01. vii. p. 166, &c.; Diagoras, Era- tidae.) 2. A son of Hippon of Syracuse, was one of the three new commanders wlio were appointed in B. c. 414. Subsequently he was one of the com- manders of the fleet which the Syracusans sent to Miletus to assist Tissaphernes against the Athe- nians. (Thuc. vi. 103 ; Xen. Hell. i. 2. § 8.) A third person of this name is Eucles, who was archon at Athens in b. c 427. (Thuc. iv. 104.) [L. S.] EUCLOUS (ElkAow), an ancient Cyprian soothsayer, who, according to Pausanias (x, 12. § 6, 14. § 3, 24. § 3), lived before the time of -Ho- mer, who, as he predicted, was to spring from Cyprus. Pausanias quotes some lines professing to be the bard's prophecy of this event. The poem called the Cyprian Poem has been errone- ously supposed to have been of his composition. (Fabric. Bibl Grace, vol. i. p. 35.) [C. P. M.] EU'CRATES (Eu/cpaTTjs), the demagogue, ac- cording to the Scholiast, alluded to by Aristophanes {Equit. 130), where he speaks of a flax-seller who ruled next but one before Cleon. (Comp. Equit. 254.) He might possibly be the same as the father of Diodotus (Thuc. iii. 41), who spoke against Cleon in the Mytilenaean debate, b. c. 427, but it is not very probable. The Eucrates men- tioned in the Lysistrata {Qo) of Aristophanes as a general in Thrace is a different person, and pro- bably the same as the brother of Nicias spoken of below. [A. H. C] EU'CRATES {Y.tKparr}s). 1. An Athenian, a brother of the noted general Nicias. The few notices we have of him are to be found in the speeches of Andocides and Lysias, and these do not tally with each other. According to Lysias, he was made general by the Athenians, apparently after the last naval defeat of Nicias in the harbour of Syracuse (unless indeed by the last sea fight ■Lysias means the battle of Aegos Potami), and ■shewed hia attachment to the principles of liberty | EUCRATIDES. 75 by refusing to become one of the Thirty Tyrants, and was put to death by them. According to Andocides, Eucrates was one of the victims of the popular ferment about the mutilation of the Hermea busts, having been put to death on the information of Diocleides. We have a speech of Lysias, com- posed in defence of the son of Eucrates on the occasion of a trial as to whether his hereditary property should be confiscated or not. (Lys. de Bonis Niciae frat. c. 2 ; Andoc. de Myst. c. II.) 2. A writer mentioned by Hesychius (s. v. eXarpov) as the author of a work entitled 'PoSiaKci. Athenaeus (iii. p. Ill, c.) also mentions a writer of this name. [C. P. M.] EUCRA'TIDES (ECKparldvs), king of Bactria, was contemporary with Mithridates I. (Arsacea VI.), king of Parthia, and appears to have been one of the most powerful of the Bactrian kings, and to have greatly extended his dominions ; but all the events of his reign are involved in the greatest obscurity and confusion. It seems pro- bable that he established his power in Bactria proper, while Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus, still reigned in the Indian provinces south of the Paropamisus [Demetrius] ; and, in the course of the wars that he carried on against that prince, he was at one time besieged by him with very superior forces for a space of near five months, and with difficulty escaped. (Justin, xli. 6.) At a subse- quent period, and probably after the death of Demetrius, he made great conquests in northern India, so that he was said to have been lord of a thousand cities. (Strab.xv, p. 686.) Yet in the later years of his reign he appears to have suffered heavy losses in his wars against Mithridates, king of Parthia, who wrested from him several of his pro- vinces (Strab. xi, pp. 515, 517), though it seema impossible to admit the statement of Justin (xli. 6), that the Parthian king conquered all the dominions of Eucratides, even as far as India. It appears certain at least, from the same author, that Eucratides retained possession of his Indian dominions up to the time of his death, and that it was on his return from thence to Bactria that he was assassinated by his son, whom he had associated with himself in the sovereignty. (Justin, xli. 6.) The statements of ancient authors concerning the power and greatness of Eucratides are confirmed by the number of his coins that have been found on both sides of the Paropamisus : on these he bears the title of " the Great." (Wilson's Jriana, p. 235 — 237.) The date suggested for the commencement of his reign by Bayer, and adopted by Wilson, is 181 b. c. ; but authorities differ widely as to its termination, which is placed by Lassen in 160 b. c, while it is extended by Bayer and Wilson to 147 B. c. (See Wilson's Ariana, p. 234 — 238, where all the points relating to Eucratides are discussed and the authorities referred to.) CUIN OF EUCRATIDEh,