ARCHIAS of Corinth, the founder of Syracuse, lived in the eighth century before Christ. He was directed by the oracle of Delphi to repair to Sicily. There, by the help of a colony of Dorians, he founded Syracuse, 733 b.c.
ARCHIAS, the Fugitive-Hunter (Αρχιας Φυγαθοδηρας), so called from his having been the agent of Antipater in his bloody proscription of the Athenian chiefs, 322 b.c., was an Italian Greek, and originally an actor.
ARCHIAS of Corinth, a celebrated naval architect, who designed and constructed the famous three-decker that Archimedes launched for Hieron the second of Syracuse. He was flourishing about 250 b.c.
ARCHIAS, Aulus Licinius, a Greek poet, the friend and client of Cicero, was born at Antioch about the year 118 b.c. His poems have been lost, with the exception of a number of epigrams, and these are of doubtful authenticity, as well as questionable merit. His fame with posterity he owes to Cicero, who defended the poet's right to be a citizen of Rome in the splendid oration, "Pro Archia poeta."—J. S., G.
ARCHIAS of Athens, a sculptor and toreutes of the time and school of Phidias.
ARCHIBIUS, the name of three Greek grammarians—one, the father of Apollonius, author of the Homeric Lexicon; another, a son of this Apollonius; a third, a son of Ptolemæus. The last taught grammar at Rome in the reign of Trajan.
ARCHIDAMIA, a Spartan woman, who successfully opposed the proposal to remove the women of Lacedæmon to Crete, when King Pyrrhus was about to take the town.
ARCHIDAMUS, a Greek physician, a contemporary of Hipprocrates, in the fifth and fourth centuries b.c. He is quoted by Galen, and mentioned by Pliny.
ARCHIDAMUS, the name of five Spartan kings:—
Archidamus I., son of Anaxidamus, thirteenth of the Proclid dynasty, ascended the throne probably about 630 b.c.
Archidamus II. reigned 42 years, from about 469 b.c. He led an army into Attica in 431, and again in 430—on the second occasion laying waste the Athenian territory ten miles round the capital. His death occurred in the following year.
Archidamus III., son of Agesilaus the Great, ascended the throne in 361 b.c. Ten years before his accession he invaded and ravaged Arcadia, and in 362 successfully resisted Epaminondas in his attack on Sparta. In 338 he went to aid the Tarentines against the Lucanians in Italy, and there perished in a battle.
Archidamus IV., son of Eudamidas I., was defeated and taken prisoner by Demetrius Poliorcetes in a battle fought near Mantineia, 296 b.c.
Archidamus V., on the death of his brother Agis IV., in 240 b.c., fled into Messenia, was recalled by the general of the Achæan league, Aratus, but was shortly after put to death by the murderers of Agis.—J. S., G.
ARCHIDEMUS or ARCHEDAMUS, a Stoic philosopher of Tarsus in Cilicia, author of two works:—Περι φωνης and Περι στοιχειων lived about the year 160 b.c.
ARCHIGENES, a celebrated Greek physician, son of Philippus, a native of Apamea and pupil of Agathinus, founder of the sect of the Episynthetics, settled at Rome in the reign of Domitian, and enjoyed a great reputation under that emperor and his successors, Nerva and Trajan. (81-117 a.d.)
ARCHILOCHUS of Paros, one of the most famous Greek lyric poets, was the son of Telesicles and Enipo. The poet's mother, according to his own statement, was a slave. When a young man, he was compelled by poverty to leave Paros to colonize Thasos, and one writer states that he was chosen to be the leader of the colony. Here, however, he soon became disagreeable to the majority of the people, in consequence of his sarcastic poetry, and he seems to have left the place. He fell, during a war which the Parians carried on with the Naxians, by the hands of one Charondas, whom the Delphic priestess would not admit to the temple till he had appeased the soul of the poet. An epigram informs us that his grave was by the sea-shore. Archilochus is represented by the ancients as one of the greatest poets that ever lived. His name is often associated with that of Homer. He appears to have been a man of extraordinary powers of mind, extremely versatile, and always successful in whatever he attempted. The rhythmical inventions ascribed to him are very numerous. His life, however, was embittered by poverty and misfortune, and he spent his great powers in lashing indiscriminately all that came in his way. He spoke ill of friends and foes. His ire was poured out especially on Lycambes, who had refused to give him his daughter Neobule in marriage; and so stinging was the satire, that a story was current in ancient times, that both Lycambes and Neobule had hanged themselves out of vexation. His poems were also blamed for their impurity; so much so, that the Spartans interdicted them, and the Emperor Julian forbade any priest to read them. The few fragments of Archilochus that have come down to us fail to give us a complete notion of the man, or to justify to us the extravagant praises lavished on him by most ancient critics. Neither do they reveal the depth of wretchedness and bitterness which some have ascribed to the poet. They are pervaded by a theistic fatalism; but, at the same time, they are manly and vigorous, urging patience in the endurance of suffering. Archilochus flourished about the beginning of the seventh century b.c.—J. D.
ARCHIMBAULD, Jac., a Dominican of Vermont, born in 1583, and died in 1667; taught philosophy in various places, and composed several devotional pieces.
ARCHIMEDES (Ἀρχιμήδης) of Syracuse, the greatest mathematician and engineer of antiquity, was born about the year 287 b.c. According to Plutarch ("Life of Marcellus"), Hiero, king of Syracuse, was related to Archimedes; and it is certain that to that sovereign Archimedes was a friend and counsellor, and was by him induced to apply his scientific knowledge to practical purposes,—circumstances which, during the lifetime of Archimedes, might increase his consequence amongst his countrymen, by connecting his name with the dignity of his royal patron; but which, in after ages, have served chiefly to perpetuate the memory of the monarch, by associating it with the imperishable glory of the sage. The nature and extent of the scientific labours of Archimedes will be best understood from a brief notice of those fragments of his works which have been handed down to our times. The best edition is the Oxford folio, edited by Torelli, in 1793. "Περὶ τῆς σφαίρας και τοῦ κυλινδρου," (on the sphere and the cylinder.) In this work occurs the celebrated theorem, considered by Archimedes himself as the greatest of his discoveries, that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds of that of its circumscribing cylinder. "Κύκλου μέτρησις" (the measurement of the circle.) This work contains the demonstration, that the area of a circle is equal to that of a triangle, having the circumference of the circle for base, and the radius for height; and also a closer approximation than had been previously attained, to the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, viz., less than 3 1/7, and greater than 3 10/71 Its investigations are founded on the principle, that the circumference of a circle is less than that of any circumscribed polygon, and greater than that of any inscribed polygon; and that a series of successive approximations to the circumference of a circle, may be obtained by determining successively the circumferences of two series of polygons, circumscribed and inscribed respectively; each polygon in each series having double the number of sides of that which precedes it. "Περὶ κωνοειδέων και σφαιροειδέων," (on conoids and spheroids,) a treatise on the geometry of solids generated by the revolution of conic sections about their axes. "Περὶ ἑλίκων," (on spirals.) This treatise relates to that spiral which has since been called "the spiral of Archimedes," and which is traced by a radius-vector whose length is proportional to the angle through which it has swept from the commencement of the curve. "Τέτραγωνισμος παραβολης," (the quadrature of the parabola.) This, like the treatise on the sphere and the cylinder, is an example of that "method of exhaustions" of the ancient geometers, which led the way to the modern calculus of fluxions or infinitesimals. "Ψαμμίτης," called in Latin "Arenarius," which may be translated "the sand-counter," (an essay on the powers of arithmetical notation.) "Περὶ ἐπιπέδων ἰσοῤῥοπικων ἤ κέντραβαρῶν ἐπιπέδων," (on balanced planes, or, on the centres of gravity of planes;) a work in which are demonstrated the fundamental principles of the balance of parallel forces, by a method which is followed by the first mechanical writers of the present time. "Περὶ τῶν ὕδατι ἐφισταμένων," (on bodies floating in water;) containing the true principles of the equilibrium between the weight of a floating body, and the hydrostatic pressure of the liquid in which it floats.
These immortal works, to this day the delight of every one whose knowledge of mechanics and geometry is sufficient to enable him to understand them, bear unfortunately but a small
