first who delivered his thoughts in prose. He was acquainted with the
periods of the moon, and foretold eclipses with the greatest accuracy.
The doctrine of the immortality of the soul was first supported
by him, as also that of the metempsychosis. Pythagoras was one of
his disciples, remarkable for his esteem and his attachment to his
learned master. When Pherecydes lay dangerously ill in the island of
Delos, Pythagoras hastened to give him every assistance in his power,
and when all his efforts had proved ineffectual, he buried him, and
after he had paid him the last offices, he retired to Italy. Some,
however, suppose, that Pherecydes threw himself down from a precipice
as he was going to Delphi, or, according to others, he fell a
sacrifice to the lousy disease, B.C. 515, in the 85th year of his
age. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Lactantius [Placidus]._――――An historian
of Leros, surnamed the Athenian. He wrote a history of Attica, now
lost, in the age of Darius Hystaspes.――――A tragic poet.
=Pherendates=, a Persian set over Egypt by Artaxerxes.
=Pherephate=, a surname of Proserpine, from the production of corn.
=Pheres=, a son of Cretheus and Tyro, who built Pheræ in Thessaly,
where he reigned. He married Clymene, by whom he had Admetus and
Lycurgus. _Apollodorus._――――A son of Medea, stoned to death by the
Corinthians, on account of the poisonous clothes which he had given
to Glauce, Creon’s daughter. _See:_ Medea. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Halesus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 413.
=Pheretias=, a patronymic of Admetus son of Pheres. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 291.
=Pheretīma=, the wife of Battus king of Cyrene, and mother of
Arcesilaus. After her son’s death, she recovered the kingdom by means
of Amasis king of Egypt, and to avenge the murder of Arcesilaus, she
caused all his assassins to be crucified round the walls of Cyrene,
and she cut off the breasts of their wives, and hung them up near the
bodies of their husbands. It is said that she was devoured alive by
worms, a punishment which, according to some of the ancients, was
inflicted by Providence for her unparalleled cruelties. _Polyænus_,
bk. 8.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 204, &c.
=Pherinum=, a town of Thessaly.
=Pheron=, a king of Egypt, who succeeded Sesostris. He was blind,
and he recovered his sight by washing his eyes, according to the
directions of the oracle, in the urine of a woman who had never had
any unlawful connexions. He tried his wife first, but she appeared
to have been faithless to his bed, and she was burnt with all those
whose urine could not restore sight to the king. He married the woman
whose urine proved beneficial. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 111.
=Pherūsa=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Phiăle=, one of Diana’s nymphs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.――――A
celebrated courtesan. _Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 238.
=Phialia=, or =Phigalia=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Phiălus=, a king of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Phicores=, a people near the Palus Mæotis. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.
=Phidias=, a celebrated statuary of Athens, who died B.C. 432. He made
a statue of Minerva, at the request of Pericles, which was placed
in the Pantheon. It was made with ivory and gold, and measured 39
feet in height. His presumption raised him many enemies, and he
was accused of having carved his own image and that of Pericles on
the shield of the statue of the goddess, for which he was banished
from Athens by the clamorous populace. He retired to Elis, where
he determined to revenge the ill-treatment he had received from his
countrymen, by making a statue which should eclipse the fame of that
of Minerva. He was successful in the attempt; and the statue he made
of Jupiter Olympius was always reckoned the best of all his pieces,
and has passed for one of the wonders of the world. The people of
Elis were so sensible of his merit, and of the honour he had done
to their city, that they appointed his descendants to the honourable
office of keeping clean that magnificent statue, and of preserving
it from injury. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 4.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Quintilian_, bk. 12, ch. 10.――_Plutarch_,
_Pericles_.
=Phidilē=, a woman. _See:_ ♦Phidyle.
♦ ‘Phidyle’ not referenced in the text.
=Phidippĭdes= a celebrated courier, who ran from Athens to Lacedæmon,
about 152 English miles, in two days, to ask of the Lacedæmonians
assistance against the Persians. The Athenians raised a temple to his
memory. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 105.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades._
=Phiditia=, a public entertainment at Sparta, where much frugality was
observed, as the word (φειδιτια, from φειδομαι, _parco_) denotes.
Persons of all ages were admitted; the younger frequented it as
a school of temperance and sobriety, where they were trained to
good manners and useful knowledge, by the example and discourse of
their elders. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 34.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Phidon=, a man who enjoyed the sovereign power at Argos, and is
supposed to have invented scales and measures, and coined silver at
Ægina. He died B.C. 854. _Aristotle._――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 127.
――――An ancient legislator at Corinth.
=Phidy̆re=, a female servant of Horace, to whom he addressed bk. 3,
ode 23.
=Phigalei=, a people of Peloponnesus, near Messenia. They were
naturally fond of drinking, and negligent of domestic affairs.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 39.
=Phila=, the eldest daughter of Antipater, who married Craterus. She
afterwards married Demetrius, and when her husband had lost the
kingdom of Macedonia, she poisoned herself. _Plutarch._――――A town of
Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 67; bk. 44, chs. 2 & 34.――――An island
called also ♦Phila.
♦ ‘Phla’ replaced with ‘Phila’
=Philadelphia=, now _Alahasher_, a town of Lydia. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 29.――――Another, in Cilicia,――――Arabia,――――-Syria.
=Philadelphus=, a king of Paphlagonia, who followed the interest
of Marcus Antony.――――The surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of
Egypt, by antiphrasis, because he destroyed all his brothers. _See:_
Ptolemæus II.
♦=Philæ=, a town and island of Egypt, above the smaller cataract, but
placed opposite Syene by _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 9. Isis was worshipped
there. _Lucan_, bk. 10, li. 313.――_Seneca_, _Quæstiones Naturales_,
bk. 4, ch. 2.――――One of the Sporades. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
♦ ‘Phile’ replaced with ‘Philæ’
=Philæni=, two brothers of Carthage. When a contest arose between the
Cyreneans and Carthaginians, about the extent of their territories,
it was mutually agreed that, at a stated hour, two men should depart
from each city, and that, wherever they met, there they should fix
the boundaries of their country. The Philæni accordingly departed
from Carthage, and met the Cyreneans, when they had advanced far
into their territories. This produced a quarrel, and the Cyreneans
supported that the Philæni had left Carthage before the appointment,
and that therefore they must retire or be buried in the sand. The
Philæni refused, upon which they were overpowered by the Cyreneans,
and accordingly buried in the sand. The Carthaginians, to commemorate
the patriotic deeds of the Philæni, who had sacrificed their lives
that the extent of their country might not be diminished, raised two
altars on the place where their bodies had been buried, which they
called _Philænorum aræ_. These altars were the boundaries of the
Carthaginian dominions, which on the other side extended as far as
the columns of Hercules, which is about 2000 miles, or, according
to the accurate observations of the moderns, only 1420 geographical
miles. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, chs. 19 & 79.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 15, li. 704.
=Philænis=, or =Phileris=, a courtesan. _See:_ Phileris.
=Philæus=, a son of Ajax, by Lyside the daughter of Coronus, one of the
Lapithæ. Miltiades, as some suppose, was descended from him.――――A son
of Augeas, who upbraided his father for not granting what Hercules
justly claimed for cleaning his stables. _See:_ Augeas. He was placed
upon his father’s throne by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Philammon=, a celebrated musician, son of Apollo and Chione.――――A man
who murdered Arsinoe, and who was slain by her female attendants.
=Philanthus=, a son of Prolaus of Elis, killed at the Olympic games.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Philarchus=, a hero who gave assistance to the Phocians when the
Persians invaded Greece.
=Philēmon=, a Greek comic poet, contemporary with Menander. He obtained
some poetical prizes over Menander, not so much by the merit of his
composition, as by the intrigues of his friends. Plautus imitated
some of his comedies. He lived to his 97th year, and died, as it is
reported, of laughing, on seeing an ass eat figs, B.C. 274.――――His
son, who bore the same name, wrote 54 comedies, of which some
few fragments remain, which do not seem to entitle him to great
rank among the Greek comic writers. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch.
12――_Quintilian_, bk. 10.――_Plutarch_, _de Cohibenda Ira_.――_Strabo_,
bk. 14.――――A poor man of Phrygia. _See:_ Baucis.――――An illegitimate
son of Priam.
=Philēne=, a town of Attica between Athens and Tanagra. _Statius_,
_Thebaid_, bk. 4, li. 102.
=Philēris=, an immodest woman, whom Philocrates the poet lampooned.
_Martial_, bk. 7.
=Philĕros=, a town of Macedonia. _Pliny._
=Philesius=, a leader of the 10,000 Greeks after the battle of Cunaxa.
=Philetærus=, a eunuch made governor of Pergamus by Lysimachus. He
quarrelled with Lysimachus, and made himself master of Pergamus,
where he laid the foundations of a kingdom called the kingdom of
Pergamus, B.C. 283. He reigned there for 20 years, and at his death
he appointed his nephew Eumenes as his successor. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――――A Cretan general who revolted from
Seleucus, and was conquered, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 4.
=Philētas=, a grammarian and poet of Cos, in the reign of king Philip,
and of his son Alexander the Great. He was made preceptor to Ptolemy
Philadelphus. The elegies and epigrams which he wrote have been
greatly commended by the ancients, and some fragments of them are
still preserved in Athenæus. He was so small and slender, according
to the improbable accounts of Ælian, that he always carried pieces of
lead in his pockets, to prevent being blown away by the wind. _Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 14.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, poem 5.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 1.――――An historian.
=Philetius=, a faithful steward of Ulysses, who, with Eumeus, assisted
him in destroying the suitors, who had not only insulted the queen,
but wasted the property of the absent monarch. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 20, &c.
=Philĭdas=, a friend of Pelopidas, who favoured the conspiracy formed
to expel the Spartans from Thebes. He received the conspirators in
his own house.
=Philides=, a dealer in horses in the age of Themistocles. _Plutarch_,
_Themistocles_.
=Philinna=, a courtesan, mother of Aridæus, by Philip the father of
Alexander.
=Philīnus=, a native of Agrigentum, who fought with Annibal against
the Romans. He wrote a partial history of the Punic wars. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Hannibal_.――_Polybius._
=Philippei=, or =Phillippi=, certain pieces of money coined in the
reign of Philip of Macedonia, and with his image. _Horace_, bk. 2,
ltr. 1, li. 284.――_Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 52; bk. 37, ch. 59; bk. 39,
chs. 5 & 7.
=Philippi=, a town of Macedonia, anciently called _Datos_, and situate
at the east of the Strymon on a rising ground, which abounds with
springs and water. It was called Philippi after Philip king of
Macedonia, who fortified it against the incursions of the barbarians
of Thrace, and became celebrated for two battles which were fought
there in October, B.C. 42, at the interval of about 20 days, between
Augustus and Antony, and the republican forces of Brutus and Cassius,
in which the former obtained the victory. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15, li. 284.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 45.――_Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 7, &c.――_Appian_, bk. 2, _Civil Wars_.
――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 490.
――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 2.
=Philippĭdes=, a comic poet in Alexander’s age.――――A courier, called
also Phidippides.
=Philippŏpŏlis=, a town of Thrace, near the Hebrus, built by Philip the
father of Alexander. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 53.――――Of Thessaly, called
Philippi.