J. A. Symonds in
his work on the Greek poets. He is made the subject of a very bitter
allusion by Pindar (Ol. ii. s. fin. c. Schol.) We may suppose that the
stern and lofty spirit of Pindar had little sympathy with the “tearful”
(Catullus, xxxviii.) strains of Simonides or his imitators.

CAECILIUS, a native of Kale Akte in Sicily, and hence known as Caecilius
Kalaktinus, lived in Rome at the time of Augustus. He is mentioned with
distinction as a learned Greek rhetorician and grammarian, and was the
author of numerous works, frequently referred to by Plutarch and other
later writers. He may be regarded as one of the most distinguished Greek
rhetoricians of his time. His works, all of which have perished,
comprised, among many others, commentaries on Antipho and Lysias;
several treatises on Demosthenes, among which is a dissertation on the
genuine and spurious speeches, and another comparing that orator with
Cicero; “On the Distinction between Athenian and Asiatic Eloquence”; and
the work on the Sublime, referred to by Longinus (Pauly). The criticism
of Longinus on the above work may be thus summed up: Caecilius is
censured (1) as failing to rise to the dignity of his subject; (2) as
missing the cardinal points; and (3) as failing in practical utility.
He wastes his energy in tedious attempts to define the Sublime, but does
not tell us how it is to be attained (I. i.) He is further blamed for
omitting to deal with the Pathetic (VIII. i. _sqq._) He allows only two
metaphors to be employed together in the same passage (XXXII. ii.) He
extols Lysias as a far greater writer than Plato (_ib._ viii.), and is a
bitter assailant of Plato’s style (_ib._) On the whole, he seems to have
been a cold and uninspired critic, finding his chief pleasure in minute
verbal details, and incapable of rising to an elevated and extensive
view of his subject.

ERATOSTHENES, a native of Cyrene, born in 275 B.C.; appointed by Ptolemy
III. Euergetes as the successor of Kallimachus in the post of librarian
in the great library of Alexandria. He was the teacher of Aristophanes
of Byzantium, and his fame as a man of learning is testified by the
various fanciful titles which were conferred on him, such as “The
Pentathlete,” “The second Plato,” etc. His great work was a treatise on
geography (Lübker).

GORGIAS of Leontini, according to some authorities a pupil of
Empedokles, came, when already advanced in years, as ambassador from his
native city to ask help against Syracuse (427 B.C.) Here he attracted
notice by a novel style of eloquence. Some time after he settled
permanently in Greece, wandering from city to city, and acquiring wealth
and fame by practising and teaching rhetoric. We find him last in
Larissa, where he died at the age of a hundred in 375 B.C. As a teacher
of eloquence Gorgias belongs to what is known as the Sicilian school,
in which he followed the steps of his predecessors, Korax and Tisias. At
the time when this school arose the Greek ear was still accustomed to
the rhythm and beat of poetry, and the whole rhetorical system of the
Gorgian school (compare the phrases γοργίεια σχήματα, γοργιάζειν) is
built on a poetical plan (Lübker, _Reallexikon des classischen
Alterthums_). Hermogenes, as quoted by Jahn, appears to classify him
among the “hollow pedants” (ὑπόξυλοι σοφισταί), “who,” he says, “talk
of vultures as ‘living tombs,’ to which they themselves would best be
committed, and indulge in many other such frigid conceits.” (With the
metaphor censured by Longinus compare Achilles Tatius, III. v. 50, ed.
Didot.) See also Plato, _Phaedrus_, 267, A.

HEGESIAS of Magnesia, rhetorician and historian, contemporary of Timaeus
(300 B.C.) He belongs to the period of the decline of Greek learning,
and Cicero treats him as the representative of the decline of taste. His
style was harsh and broken in character, and a parody on the Old Attic.
He wrote a life of Alexander the Great, of which Plutarch (_Alexander_,
c. 3) gives the following specimen: “On the day of Alexander’s birth the
temple of Artemis in Ephesus was burnt down, a coincidence which
occasions Hegesias to utter a conceit frigid enough to extinguish the
conflagration. ‘It was natural,’ he says, ‘that the temple should be
burnt down, as Artemis was engaged with bringing Alexander into the
world’” (Pauly, with the references).

HEKATAEUS of Miletus, the logographer; born in 549 B.C., died soon after
the battle of Plataea. He was the author of two works--(1) περίοδος γῆς;
and (2) γενεηλογίαι. The _Periodos_ deals in two books, first with
Europe, then with Asia and Libya. The quotation in the text is from his
genealogies (Lübker).

ION of Chios, poet, historian, and philosopher, highly distinguished
among his contemporaries, and mentioned by Strabo among the celebrated
men of the island. He won the tragic prize at Athens in 452 B.C., and
Aristophanes (_Peace_, 421 B.C.) speaks of him as already dead. He was
not less celebrated as an elegiac poet, and we still possess some
specimens of his elegies, which are characterised by an Anacreontic
spirit, a cheerful, joyous tone, and even by a certain degree of
inspiration. He wrote also Skolia, Hymns, and Epigrams, and was a
pretty voluminous writer in prose (Pauly). Compare the Scholiast on Ar.
_Peace_, 801.

KALLISTHENES of Olynthus, a near relative of Aristotle; born in 360, and
educated by the philosopher as fellow-pupil with Alexander, afterwards
the Great. He subsequently visited Athens, where he enjoyed the
friendship of Theophrastus, and devoted himself to history and natural
philosophy. He afterwards accompanied Alexander on his Asiatic
expedition, but soon became obnoxious to the tyrant on account of his
independent and manly bearing, which he carried even to the extreme of
rudeness and arrogance. He at last excited the enmity of Alexander to
such a degree that the latter took the opportunity afforded by the
conspiracy of Hermolaus, in which Kallisthenes was accused of
participating, to rid himself of his former school companion, whom he
caused to be put to death. He was the author of various historical and
scientific works. Of the latter two are mentioned--(1) _On the Nature of
the Eye_; (2) _On the Nature of Plants_. Among his historical works are
mentioned (1) the _Phocian War_ (read “Phocicum” for v. l. “Troikum” in
Cic. _Epp. ad Div._ v. 12); (2) a _History of Greece_ in ten books; (3)
τὰ Περσικά, apparently identical with the description of Alexander’s
march, of which we still possess fragments. As an historian he seems to
have displayed an undue love of recording signs and wonders. Polybius,
however (vi. 45), classes him among the best historical writers. His
style is said by Cicero (_de Or._ ii. 14) to approximate to the
rhetorical (Pauly).

KLEITARCHUS, a contemporary of Alexander, accompanied that monarch on
his Asiatic expedition, and wrote a history of the same in twelve books,
which must have included at least a short retrospect on the early
history of Asia. His talents are spoken of in high terms, but his credit
as an historian is held very light--“probatur ingenium, fides
infamatur,” Quint. x. 1, 74. Cicero also (_de Leg._ i. 2) ranks him
very low. That his credit as an historian was sacrificed to a childish
credulity and a foolish love of fable and adventure is sufficiently
testified by the pretty numerous fragments which still remain (Pauly).
Demetrius Phalereus, quoted by Pearce, quotes a grandiloquent
description of the wasp taken from Kleitarchus, “feeding on the
mountainside, her home the hollow oak.”

MATRIS, a native of Thebes, author of a panegyric on Herakles, whether
in verse or prose is uncertain. In one passage Athenaeus speaks of him
as an Athenian, but this must be a mistake. Toup restores a verse from
an allusion in Diodorus Siculus (i. 24), which, if genuine, would agree
well with the description given of him by Longinus: Ηρακλέα καλέεσκεν,
ὅτι κλέος ἔσχε διὰ Ἥραν (see Toup ad Long. III. ii.)

PHILISTUS of Syracuse, a relative of the elder Dionysius, whom he
assisted with his wealth in his attack on the liberty of that city, and
remained with him until 386 B.C., when he was banished by the jealous
suspicions of the tyrant. He retired to Epirus, where he remained until
Dionysius’s death. The younger Dionysius recalled him, wishing to employ
him in the character of supporter against Dion. By his instrumentality
it would seem that Dion and Plato were banished from Syracuse. He
commanded the fleet in the struggle between Dion and Dionysius, and lost
a battle, whereupon he was seized and put to death by the people. During
his banishment he wrote his historical work, τὰ Σικελικά, divided into
two parts and numbering eleven books. The first division embraced the
history of Sicily from the earliest times down to the capture of
Agrigentum (seven books), and the remaining four books dealt with the
life of Dionysius the elder. He afterwards added a supplement in two
books, giving an account of the younger Dionysius, which he did not,
however, complete. He is described as an imitator, though at a great
distance, of Thucydides, and hence was known as “the little Thucydides.”
As an historian he is deficient in conscientiousness and candour; he
appears as a partisan of Dionysius, and seeks to throw a veil over his
discreditable actions. Still he belongs to the most important of the
Greek historians (Lübker).

THEODORUS of Gadara, a rhetorician in the first century after Christ;
tutor of Tiberius, first in Rome, afterwards in Rhodes, from which
town he called himself a Rhodian, and where Tiberius during his exile
diligently attended his instruction. He was the author of various
grammatical and other works, but his fame chiefly rested on his
abilities as a teacher, in which capacity he seems to have had great
influence (Pauly). He was the author of that famous description of
Tiberius which is given by Suetonius (_Tib._ 57), πηλὸς αἵματι
πεφυραμένος, “A clod kneaded together with blood.”[1]

[Footnote 1: A remarkable parallel, if not actually an imitation,
occurs in Goethe’s _Faust_, “Du Spottgeburt von Dreck und Feuer.”]

THEOPOMPUS, a native of Chios; born 380 B.C.