8
An Enquiry into the Life
and Poets[1], were Natives of the Aſiatick Coaſt, and adjacent Iſlands. And after an Interval of Slavery, when the Influences of the Roman Freedom, and of their mild Government, had reached that happy Country, it repaid them, not only with the Delicacies of their Fields and Gardens, but with the more valuable Productions of Men of Virtue and Learning[2]; and in ſuch Numbers, as to fill their
Schools,
- ↑ Heſiod, near Homer’s own Days, was of Cumæ; Mimnermus of Colophon, Archilochus of Paros, Tyrtæus of Miletus; Thales, the Poet and Law-giver, and Epimenides, the Charmer, were of Crete. Anacreon was a Teian, Simonides a Cean, Arion and Terpander were Leſbians: And not to mention the particular Places of every one’s Birth, The admired Sappho, her Lover Alcæus, Bacyllides, Chærilus (not Alexander’s), Phocylides, Bion, Simmias, Philetas, Ion the Tragedian, Philemon Menander’s Rival, Hegemon Epaminondas’s Panegyriſt, and the Aſtronomick Poet Aratus, were all born in this Poetical Region. It had alſo the Honour of producing the Erythræan Sibyl, and another inſpired Lady, Athenaïs, under Alexander. But what is far the moſt remarkable upon this Article is, That the famous Five, who diſtinguiſhed themſelves in Epick-Poetry, were all Natives of this very Climate. Hear the Teſtimony of the learned Tzetzes: Γεγόνασι δὲ τούτων τῶν ποιητῶν (Ἐπικᾶν) ἄνδρες ὀνομαστοὶ πέντε; Ὅμηρος ὁ παλαιὸς, Ἀντίμαχος ὁ Κολοφώνιος, Πανύασις, Πείσανδρος ὁ Καμειρεὺς, καὶ οὖτος ὁ Ἡσίοδος. Ἰωαν. Τζέτζης εἰς Ἡσιωδὸν. Piſander was of Rhodes, and of great Reputation. Πείσανδρος ὁ διασημότατος Ποιητὴς, Καμιρεὺς ἦν. Στέφαν. περὶ πολεῶν Antimachus wrote the Theban War; and Panyaſis the Labours of Hercules: He was of Halicarnaſſus. Suidas ſays of him, Σβεσθεῖσαν τὴν ποιητικὴν ἐπανήγαγε.
- ↑ Panætius, Stratocles, Andronicus the Peripatetick, Leonidas the Stoick, and before them Praxiphanes, Eudemus, and Hieronymus, were all of Rhodes. Poſidonius was of Apamea in Syria, but lived, governed and taught in the ſame Iſland. Charon the Hiſtorian, Adeimantus, and Anaximenes the Rhetor, were of Lampſacus. Agatharchides the Ariſtotelick, of Gnidus. Eraſtus and Caryſeus, of the Socratick School, were Natives of Scepſis near Troy. That little Place was formerly famous for the Birth of Demetrius, the celebrated Critick, contemporary with Ariſtarchus; and of Metrodorus, a Man of high Spirit and Eloquence, the unhappy Favourite of the
great
