4370 Brother of Cæsonia, the wife of Caligula, and father of Domitia Longina, the wife of Domitian. He was the greatest general of his day, and conquered Tiridates, the powerful king of Parthia. He slew himself at Cenchreæ, A.D. 67, upon hearing that Nero had given orders for his execution.
4372 The Roman emperor, grandson of Livia, the wife of Augustus. As an author, the character in which he is here referred to, he occupied himself chiefly with history, and was encouraged in the pursuit by Livy the historian. At an early age he began to write a history from the death of the Dictator Cæsar, a plan which he afterwards abandoned, and began his work with the restoration of peace, after the battle of Actium. Of the earlier period he had written only four books, but the latter work he extended to forty-four. He also wrote memoirs of his own life, which Suetonius describes as written with more silliness than inelegance. A fourth work was a defence of Cicero against the attacks of Asinius Pollio. He also wrote histories of Carthage and of Etruria in Greek. All of his literary works have perished.
4374 Nothing whatever is known of this son of T. Livius, the great Roman historian. It is not improbable that the transcribers have committed an error in inserting the word filio, and that the historian himself is the person meant.
4376 “Acta Triumphorum” probably mean the registers kept in the Capitol, in which were inscribed the names of those who were honoured with triumphs, and the decrees of the senate or the people in their favour. This register must not be confounded with the “Tabulæ Consulares.”
4377 Juba II., king of Mauritania. After the defeat of his father at Thapsus, he was carried a prisoner to Rome, though quite a child, and compelled to grace the conqueror’s triumph. Augustus Cæsar afterwards restored to him his kingdom, and gave him in marriage Cleopatra, or Selene, the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. To his literary pursuits he is chiefly indebted for his reputation. His works are continually quoted by Pliny, who regards his authority with the utmost deference. Among his numerous works he seems to have written a History of Africa, Assyria, Arabia, and Rome; as also Treatises on the Stage, Music, Grammar, and Painting.
4382 He was employed by Alexander the Great in measuring distances in his marches. He wrote a work upon this subject, entitled, “Distances of the Marches of Alexander.”
4394 Of Rhodes, the friend of P. Scipio Æmilianus and Lælius. He was the head of the Stoic School at Athens, where he died. His principal work was a Treatise on Moral Duties, which served as a model for Cicero in the composition of his work, “De Officiis.” He also wrote a work on the philosophical sects.
4405 There are four literary persons mentioned of this name. 1. An Athenian comic poet of the middle comedy. 2. A native of Maronæa, in Thrace, or else of Crete, who wrote lascivious and abusive verses, and was at last put to death by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He was the inventor of the Sotadean verse, or Ionic a Majore, Tetrameter Brachycatalectic. 3. An Athenian philosopher, who wrote a book on mysteries. 4. A Byzantine philosopher, of whom nothing whatever is known.
4406 There were two writers of this name, before the time of Pliny. 1. Periander of Corinth, one of the Seven Wise Men, who wrote a didactic poem, containing moral and political precepts, in 2000 lines; and, 2. a physician and bad poet, contemporary with Archidamas, the son of Agesilaüs. It is uncertain to which Pliny here refers.
4407 Probably a writer on geography. Nothing appears to be known of him.
4409 A Greek historian, who appears, from Plutarch, to have written a history of the expeditions of Alexander the Great.
4413 The author of the Periplus, or voyage which he performed round a part of Libya, of which we have a Greek translation from the Punic original. His age is not known, but Pliny states (B. ii. c. 67, and B. v. c. 1) that the voyage was undertaken in the most flourishing days of Carthage. It has been considered on the whole, that he may be probably identified with Hanno, the son or the father of Hamilcar, who was slain at Himera, B.C. 480.
4414 Mentioned also by Pliny, B. ii. c. 67, as having conducted a voyage of discovery from Gades towards the north, along the western shores of Europe, at the same time that Hanno proceeded on his voyage along the western coast of Africa. He is repeatedly quoted by Festus Avienus, in his geographical poem called Ora Maritima. His voyage is said to have lasted four months, but it is impossible to judge how far it extended.
4418 A Greek geographer, and friend of Seleucus Nicator, by whom he was sent on an embassy to Sandrocottus, king of the Prasii, whoso capital was Palibothra, a town probably in the vicinity of the present Patna. Whether he had accompanied Alexander on his invasion of India is quite uncertain. He wrote a work on India in four books, to which the subsequent Greek writers were chiefly indebted for their accounts of India. Arrian speaks highly of him as a writer, but Strabo impeaches his veracity; and we find Pliny hinting the same in B. vi. c. 21. Of his work only a few fragments survive.
4421 There was a philosopher of this name, a nephew of Chrysippus, and his pupil; but it is not known whether he is the person referred to, in C. 10, either as having written a work on universal geography, or on that of Egypt.