Macedonia, and reigned 38 years, B.C. 640.――――The second of that
name was the fourth son of Amyntas king of Macedonia. He was sent
to Thebes as a hostage by his father, where he learnt the art of war
under Epaminondas, and studied with the greatest care the manners and
the pursuits of the Greeks. He was recalled to Macedonia, and at the
death of his brother Perdiccas, he ascended the throne as guardian
and protector of the youthful years of his nephew. His ambition,
however, soon discovered itself, and he made himself independent.
The valour of a prudent general, and the policy of an experienced
statesman, seemed requisite to ensure his power. The neighbouring
nations, ridiculing the youth and inexperience of the new king
of Macedonia, appeared in arms, but Philip soon convinced them of
their error. Unable to meet them as yet in the field of battle, he
suspended their fury by presents, and soon turned his arms against
Amphipolis, a colony tributary to the Athenians. Amphipolis was
conquered, and added to the kingdom of Macedonia, and Philip
meditated no less than the destruction of a republic which had
rendered itself so formidable to the rest of Greece, and had even
claimed submission from the princes of Macedonia. His designs,
however, were as yet immature, and before he could make Athens an
object of conquest, the Thracians and the Illyrians demanded his
attention. He made himself master of a Thracian colony, to which he
gave the name of Philippi, and from which he received the greatest
advantages on account of the golden mines in the neighbourhood.
In the midst of his political prosperity, Philip did not neglect
the honour of his family. He married Olympias, the daughter of
Neoptolemus king of the Molossi; and when, some time after he became
father of Alexander, the monarch, conscious of the inestimable
advantages which arise from the lessons, the example, and the
conversation of a learned and virtuous preceptor, wrote a letter
with his own hand to the philosopher Aristotle, and begged him to
retire from his usual pursuits, and to dedicate his whole time to the
instruction of the young prince. Everything seemed now to conspire
to his aggrandizement, and historians have observed, that Philip
received in one day the intelligence of three things which could
gratify the most unbounded ambition, and flatter the hopes of the
most aspiring monarch: the birth of a son, an honourable crown at
the Olympic games, and a victory over the barbarians of Illyricum.
But all these increased rather than satiated his ambition; he
declared his inimical sentiments against the power of Athens, and
the independence of all Greece, by laying siege to Olynthus, a place
which, on account of its situation and consequence, would prove most
injurious to the interests of the Athenians, and most advantageous to
the intrigues and military operations of every Macedonian prince. The
Athenians, roused by the eloquence of Demosthenes, sent 17 vessels
and 2000 men to the assistance of Olynthus, but the money of Philip
prevailed over all their efforts. The greatest part of the citizens
suffered themselves to be bribed by the Macedonian gold, and Olynthus
surrendered to the enemy, and was instantly reduced to ruins. His
successes were as great in every part of Greece; he was declared head
of the Amphictyonic council, and was entrusted with the care of the
sacred temple of Apollo at Delphi. If he was recalled to Macedonia,
it was only to add fresh laurels to his crown, by victories over
his enemies in Illyricum and Thessaly. By assuming the mask of a
moderator and peacemaker he gained confidence, and in attempting to
protect the Peloponnesians against the encroaching power of Sparta,
he rendered his cause popular, and by ridiculing the insults that
were offered to his person as he passed through Corinth, he displayed
to the world his moderation and philosophic virtues. In his attempts
to make himself master of Eubœa, Philip was unsuccessful; and
Phocion, who despised his gold as well as his meanness, obliged him
to evacuate an island whose inhabitants were as insensible to the
charms of money, as they were unmoved at the horrors of war, and
the bold efforts of a vigilant enemy. From Eubœa he turned his arms
against the Scythians, but the advantages which he obtained over
this indigent nation were inconsiderable, and he again made Greece
an object of plunder and rapine. He advanced far into Bœotia, and
a general engagement was fought at Chæronea. The fight was long and
bloody, but Philip obtained the victory. His behaviour after the
battle reflects great disgrace upon him as a man, and as a monarch.
In the hour of festivity, and during the entertainment which he had
given to celebrate the trophies he had won, Philip sallied from his
camp, and with the inhumanity of a brute he insulted the bodies of
the slain, and exulted over the calamities of the prisoners of war.
His insolence, however, was checked when Demades, one of the Athenian
captives, reminded him of his meanness, by exclaiming, “Why do you,
O king, act the part of a Thersites, when you can represent with so
much dignity the elevated character of an Agamemnon?” The reproof
was felt; Demades received his liberty, and Philip learned how to
gain popularity even among his fallen enemies, by relieving their
wants and easing their distresses. At the battle of Chæronea the
independence of Greece was extinguished; and Philip, unable to
find new enemies in Europe, formed new enterprises, and meditated
new conquests. He was nominated general of the Greeks against the
Persians, and was called upon as well from inclination as duty to
revenge those injuries which Greece had suffered from the invasions
of Darius and of Xerxes. But he was stopped in the midst of his
warlike preparations; he was stabbed by Pausanius as he entered the
theatre, at the celebration of the nuptials of his daughter Cleopatra.
This murder has given rise to many reflections upon the causes which
produced it; and many who consider the recent repudiation of Olympias,
and the resentment of Alexander, are apt to investigate the causes
of his death in the bosom of his family. The ridiculous honours which
Olympias paid to her husband’s murderer strengthened the suspicion,
yet Alexander declared that he invaded the kingdom of Persia to
revenge his father’s death upon the Persian satraps and princes,
by whose immediate intrigues the assassination had been committed.
The character of Philip is that of a sagacious, artful, prudent, and
intriguing monarch: he was brave in the field of battle, eloquent and
dissimulating at home; and he possessed the wonderful art of changing
his conduct according to the disposition and caprice of mankind,
without ever altering his purpose, or losing sight of his ambitious
aims. He possessed much perseverance, and in the execution of his
plans he was always vigorous. The hand of an assassin prevented him
from achieving the boldest and the most extensive of his undertakings;
and he might have acquired as many laurels, and conquered as many
nations, as his son Alexander did in the succeeding reign, and the
kingdom of Persia might have been added to the Macedonian empire,
perhaps with greater moderation, with more glory, and with more
lasting advantages. The private character of Philip lies open to
censure, and raises indignation. The admirer of his virtues is
disgusted to find him amongst the most abandoned prostitutes, and
disgracing himself by the most unnatural crimes and lascivious
indulgencies, which can make even the most debauched and the most
profligate to blush. He was murdered in the 47th year of his age,
and the 24th of his reign, about 336 years before the christian era.
His reign is become uncommonly interesting, and his administration a
matter of instruction. He is the first monarch whose life and actions
are described with peculiar accuracy and historical faithfulness.
Philip was the father of Alexander the Great and of Cleopatra by
Olympias; he had also by Audaca, an Illyrian, Cyna, who married
Amyntas the son of Perdiccas, Philip’s elder brother; by Nicasipolis,
a Thessalian, Nicæa, who married Cassander; by Philinna, a Larissæan
dancer, Aridæus, who reigned some time after Alexander’s death;
by Cleopatra the niece of Attalus, Caranus and Europa, who were
both murdered by Olympias; and Ptolemy the first king of Egypt by
Arsinoe, who in the first month of her pregnancy was married to
Lagus. _Demosthenes_, _Philippics_ & _Olynthiacs_.――_Justin_ 7, &c.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_, _Demosthenes_, &
_Apophthegmata Laconica_.――_Isocrates_, _ad Philippum_.――_Curtius_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Æschines._――_Pausanias_, _Bœotia_, &c.――――The last king
of Macedonia, of that name, was son of Demetrius. His infancy, at the
death of his father, was protected by Antigonus, one of his friends,
who ascended the throne, and reigned for 12 years, with the title
of independent monarch. When Antigonus died, Philip recovered
his father’s throne, though only 15 years of age, and he early
distinguished himself by his boldness and his ambitious views. His
cruelty, however, to Aratus, soon displayed his character in its true
light; and to the gratification of every vice, and every extravagant
propensity, he had the meanness to sacrifice this faithful and
virtuous Athenian. Not satisfied with the kingdom of Macedonia,
Philip aspired to become the friend of Annibal, and wished to share
with him the spoils which the distresses and continual loss of the
Romans seemed soon to promise. But his expectations were frustrated;
the Romans discovered his intrigues, and though weakened by the
valour and artifice of the Carthaginian, yet they were soon enabled
to meet him in the field of battle. The consul Lævinus entered
without delay his territories of Macedonia, and after he had obtained
a victory over him near Apollonia, and reduced his fleet to ashes,
he compelled him to sue for peace. This peaceful disposition was
not permanent, and when the Romans discovered that he had assisted
their immortal enemy Annibal with men and money they appointed Titus
Quinctius Flaminius to punish his perfidy, and the violation of
the treaty. The Roman consul, with his usual expedition, invaded
Macedonia; and in a general engagement which was fought near
Cynocephale, the hostile army was totally defeated, and the monarch
saved his life with difficulty by flying from the field of battle.
Destitute of resources, without friends either at home or abroad,
Philip was obliged to submit to the mercy of the conqueror, and to
demand peace by his ambassadors. It was granted with difficulty.
The terms were humiliating; but the poverty of Philip obliged him
to accept the conditions, however disadvantageous and degrading
to his dignity. In the midst of these public calamities the peace
of his family was disturbed; and Perses, the eldest of his sons
by a concubine, raised seditions against his brother Demetrius,
whose condescension and humanity had gained popularity among the
Macedonians, and who, from his residence at Rome as a hostage,
had gained the good graces of the senate, and by the modesty
and innocence of his manners, had obtained forgiveness from that
venerable body for the hostilities of his father. Philip listened
with too much avidity to the false accusation of Perses; and when
he heard it asserted that Demetrius wished to rob him of his crown,
he no longer hesitated to punish with death so unworthy and so
ungrateful a son. No sooner was Demetrius sacrificed to credulity,
than Philip became convinced of his cruelty and rashness, and, to
punish the perfidy of Perses, he attempted to make Antigonus, another
son, his successor on the Macedonian throne. But he was prevented
from executing his purpose by death, in the 42nd year of his reign,
179 years before the christian era. The assassin of Demetrius
succeeded his father; and with the same ambition, with the same
rashness and oppression, renewed the war against the Romans till his
empire was destroyed and Macedonia became a Roman province. Philip
has been compared with his great ancestor of the same name; but
though they possessed the same virtues, the same ambition, and were
tainted with the same vices, yet the father of Alexander was more
sagacious and more intriguing, and the son of Demetrius was more
suspicious, more cruel, and more implacable; and according to the
pretended prophecy of one of the Sibyls, Macedonia was indebted to
one Philip for her rise and consequence among nations, and under
another Philip she lamented the loss of her power, her empire,
and her dignity. _Polybius_, bk. 16, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 29, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Titus Flamininus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 8.――_Livy_,
bk. 31, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 8.――_Orosius_, bk. 4,
ch. 20.――――Marcus Julius, a Roman emperor, of an obscure family in
Arabia, from which he was surnamed _Arabian_. From the lowest rank
in the army he gradually rose to the highest offices, and when he
was made general of the pretorian guards he assassinated Gordian to
make himself emperor. To establish himself with more certainty on
the imperial throne, he left Mesopotamia a prey to the continual
invasions of the Persians, and hurried to Rome, where his election
was universally approved by the senate and the Roman people. Philip
rendered his cause popular by his liberality and profusion; and it
added much to his splendour and dignity that the Romans during his
reign commemorated the foundation of their city, a solemnity which
was observed but once every 100 years, and which was celebrated with
more pomp and more magnificence than under the preceding reigns. The
people were entertained with games and spectacles, the theatre of
Pompey was successively crowded during three days and three nights,
and 2000 gladiators bled in the circus at once, for the amusement and
pleasure of a gazing populace. His usurpation, however, was short;
Philip was defeated by Decius, who had proclaimed himself emperor in
Pannonia, and he was assassinated by his own soldiers near Verona,
in the 45th year of his age, and the 5th of his reign, A.D. 249. His
son, who bore the same name, and who had shared with him the imperial
dignity, was also massacred in the arms of his mother. Young Philip
was then in the 12th year of his age, and the Romans lamented in
him the loss of rising talents, of natural humanity, and endearing
virtues. _Aurelius Victor._――_Zosimus._――――A native of Acarnania,
physician to Alexander the Great. When the monarch had been suddenly
taken ill, after bathing in the Cydnus, Philip undertook to remove
the complaint when the rest of the physicians believed that all
medical assistance would be ineffectual. But as he was preparing
his medicine, Alexander received a letter from Parmenio, in which he
was advised to beware of his physician Philip, as he had conspired
against his life. The monarch was alarmed; and when Philip presented
him the medicine, he gave him Parmenio’s letter to peruse, and
began to drink the potion. The serenity and composure of Philip’s
countenance, as he read the letter, removed every suspicion from
Alexander’s breast, and he pursued the directions of his physician,
and in a few days recovered. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius_,
bk. 3.――_Arrian_, bk. 2.――――A son of Alexander the Great, murdered
by order of Olympias.――――A governor of Sparta.――――A son of Cassander.
――――A man who pretended to be the son of Perses, that he might lay
claim to the kingdom of Macedonia. He was called _Pseudophilippus_.
――――A general of Cassander, in Ætolia.――――A Phrygian, made governor
of Jerusalem by Antiochus, &c.――――A son of Herod the Great, in the
reign of Augustus.――――A brother of Alexander the Great, called also
Aridæus. _See:_ Aridæus.――――A freedman of Pompey the Great. He found
his master’s body deserted on the sea-shore, in Egypt, and he gave it
a decent burial, with the assistance of an old Roman soldier, who had
fought under Pompey.――――The father-in-law of the emperor Augustus.
――――A Lacedæmonian who wished to make himself absolute in Thebes.
――――An officer made master of Parthia, after the death of Alexander
the Great.――――A king of part of Syria, son of Antiochus Gryphus.――――A
son of Antipater in the army of Alexander.――――A brother of Lysimachus,
who died suddenly after hard walking and labour.――――An historian of
Amphipolis.――――A Carthaginian, &c.――――A man who wrote a history of
Caria.――――A native of Megara, &c.――――A native of Pamphylia, who wrote
a diffuse history from the creation down to his own time. It was not
much valued. He lived in the age of Theodosius II.
=Philiscus=, a famous sculptor, whose statues of Latona, Venus,
Diana, the Muses, and a naked Apollo, were preserved in the portico
belonging to Octavia.――――A Greek comic poet. _Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 9.
――――An Athenian who received Cicero when he fled to Macedonia.――――An
officer of Artaxerxes, appointed to make peace with the Greeks.
=Philistion=, a comic poet of Nicæa in the age of Socrates. _Martial_,
bk. 2, ltr. 41.――――A physician of Locris. _Aulus Gellius_, bk. 7,
ch. 12.
=Philistus=, a musician of Miletus.――――A Syracusan, who, during his
banishment from his native country, wrote a history of Sicily, in 12
books, which was commended by some, though condemned for inaccuracy
by Pausanias. He was afterwards sent against the Syracusans by
Dionysius the younger, and he killed himself when overcome by the
enemy, 356 B.C. _Plutarch_, _Dion_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 13.
=Phillo=, an Arcadian maid, by whom Hercules had a son. The father,
named Alcimedon, exposed his daughter, but she was saved by means
of her lover, who was directed to the place where she was doomed to
perish, by the chirping of a magpie, which imitated the plaintive
cries of a child. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Philo=, a Jewish writer of Alexandria, A.D. 40, sent as ambassador
from his nation to Caligula. He was unsuccessful in his embassy, of
which he wrote an entertaining account; and the emperor, who wished
to be worshipped as a god, expressed his dissatisfaction with the
Jews, because they refused to place his statues in their temples. He
was so happy in his expressions, and elegant in his variety, that he
has been called the Jewish Plato, and the book which he wrote on the
sufferings of the Jews in the reign of Caius, met with such unbounded
applause in the Roman senate, where he read it publicly, that he was
permitted to consecrate it in the public libraries. His works were
divided into three parts, of which the first related to the creation
of the world, the second spoke of sacred history, and in the third
the author made mention of the laws and customs of the Jewish nation.
The best edition of Philo is that of Mangey, 2 vols., folio, London,
1742.――――A man who fell in love with his daughter, called Proserpine,
as she was bathing. He had by her a son, Mercurius Trismegistus.――――A
man who wrote an account of a journey to Arabia.――――A philosopher who
followed the doctrines of Carneades, B.C. 100.――――Another philosopher
of Athens, tutor to Cicero.――――A grammarian in the first century.
――――An architect of Byzantium, who flourished about three centuries
before the christian era. He built a dock at Athens, where ships were
drawn in safety, and protected from storms. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_,
bk. 1, ch. 14.――――A Greek christian writer, whose work was edited at
Rome, 4to, 1772.――――A dialectic philosopher, 260 B.C.
=Philobœotus=, a mountain of Bœotia. _Plutarch._
=Philochorus=, a man who wrote a history of Athens in 17 books,
a catalogue of the archons, two books of olympiads, &c. He died
B.C. 222.
=Philŏcles=, one of the admirals of the Athenian fleet, during the
Peloponnesian war. He recommended to his countrymen to cut off the
right hand of such of the enemies as were taken, that they might
be rendered unfit for service. His plan was adopted by all the
10 admirals except one; but their expectations were frustrated,
and instead of being conquerors, they were totally defeated at
Ægospotamos by Lysander, and Philocles, with 3000 of his countrymen,
was put to death, and denied the honours of a burial. _Plutarch_,
_Lysander_.――――A general of Ptolemy king of Egypt.――――A comic poet.
――――Another, who wrote tragedies at Athens.
=Philocrātes=, an Athenian, famous for his treachery, &c.――――A writer
who published a history of Thessaly.――――A servant of Caius Gracchus.
――――A Greek orator.
=Philoctētes=, son of Pœan and Demonassa, was one of the Argonauts,
according to Flaccus and Hyginus, and the arm-bearer and particular
friend of Hercules. He was present at the death of Hercules, and
because he had erected the burning pile on which the hero was
consumed, he received from him the arrows which had been dipped in
the gall of the hydra, after he had bound himself by a solemn oath
not to betray the place where his ashes were deposited. He had no
sooner paid the last office to Hercules, than he returned to Melibœa,
where his father reigned. From thence he visited Sparta, where he
became one of the numerous suitors of Helen, and soon after, like the
rest of those princes who had courted the daughter of Tyndarus, and
who had bound themselves to protect her from injury, he was called
upon by Menelaus to accompany the Greeks to the Trojan war, and he
immediately set sail from Melibœa with seven ships, and repaired
to Aulis, the general rendezvous of the combined fleet. He was
here prevented from joining his countrymen, and the offensive smell
which arose from a wound in his foot, obliged the Greeks, at the
instigation of Ulysses, to remove him from the camp, and he was
accordingly carried to the island of Lemnos, or, as others say, to
Chryse, where Phimachus the son of Dolophion was ordered to wait upon
him. In this solitary retreat he was suffered to remain for some time,
till the Greeks, on the tenth year of the Trojan war, were informed
by the oracle that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of
Hercules, which were then in the possession of Philoctetes. Upon this
Ulysses, accompanied by Diomedes, or, according to others, by Pyrrhus,
was commissioned by the rest of the Grecian army to go to Lemnos,
and to prevail upon Philoctetes to come and finish the tedious siege.
Philoctetes recollected the ill-treatment which he had received from
the Greeks, and particularly from Ulysses, and therefore he not only
refused to go to Troy, but he even persuaded Pyrrhus to conduct him
to Melibœa. As he embarked, the manes of Hercules forbade him to
proceed, but immediately to repair to the Grecian camp, where he
should be cured of his wounds, and put an end to the war. Philoctetes
obeyed, and after he had been restored to his former health by
Æsculapius, or, according to some, by Machaon, or Podalirus, he
destroyed an immense number of the Trojan enemy, among whom was Paris
the son of Priam, with the arrows of Hercules. When by his valour
Troy had been ruined, he set sail from Asia, but as he was unwilling
to visit his native country, he came to Italy, where, by the
assistance of his Thessalian followers, he was enabled to build a
town in Calabria, which he called Petilia. Authors disagree about
the causes of the wound which Philoctetes received on the foot. The
most ancient mythologists support that it was the bite of the serpent
which Juno had sent to torment him, because he had attended Hercules
in his last moments, and had buried his ashes. According to another
opinion, the princes of the Grecian army obliged him to discover
where the ashes of Hercules were deposited, and as he had made
an oath not to mention the place, he only with his foot struck
the ground where they lay, and by this means concluded he had not
violated his solemn engagement. For this, however, he was soon after
punished, and the fall of one of the poisoned arrows from his quiver
upon the foot which had struck the ground, occasioned so offensive
a wound, that the Greeks were obliged to remove him from their camp.
The sufferings and adventures of Philoctetes are the subject of one
of the best tragedies of Sophocles, _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 46.
――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, poem 1.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, ch. 14.
――_Seneca_, _Hercules_.――_Sophocles_, _Philoctetes_.――_Quintus
Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bks. 9 & 10.――_Hyginus_, fables 26, 97, & 102.
――_Diodorus_, bks. 2 & 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 329;
bk. 9, li. 234; _Tristia_, bk. 5, poem 2.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, ch. 2.――_Ptolemy_, _Hephæstion_, ch. 6.
=Philocyprus=, a prince of Cyprus in the age of Solon, by whose advice
he changed the situation of a city, which in gratitude he called Soli.
_Plutarch_, _Solon_.
=Philodamēa=, one of the Danaides, mother of Phares by Mercury.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 22.
=Philodēmus=, a poet in the age of Cicero, who rendered himself known
by his lascivious and indelicate verses. _Cicero_, _de Finibus
Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 2.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 121.――――A
comic poet, ridiculed by Aristophanes.
=Philodĭce=, a daughter of Inachus, who married Leucippus.
=Philolāus=, a son of Minos by the nymph Paria, from whom the island
of Paros received its name. Hercules put him to death, because he
had killed two of his companions. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A
Pythagorean philosopher of Crotona, B.C. 374, who first supported
the diurnal motion of the earth round its axis, and its annual motion
round the sun. _Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 4, ch. 39, has ascribed
this opinion to the Syracusan philosopher Nicetas, and likewise to
Plato; and from this passage some supposed that Copernicus started
the idea of the system which he afterwards established. _Diogenes
Laërtius._――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3.――_Plutarch._――――A lawgiver
of Thebes. He was a native of Corinth, and of the family of the
Bacchiades, &c. _Aristotle_, bk. 2, _Politics_, final chapter.――――A
mechanic of Tarentum.――――A surname of Æsculapius, who had a temple in
Laconia, near the Asopus.
=Philolŏgus=, a freedman of Cicero. He betrayed his master to Antony,
for which he was tortured by Pomponia the wife of Cicero’s brother,
and obliged to cut off his own flesh by piece-meal, and to boil and
eat it up. _Plutarch_, _Cicero_, &c.
=Philomăche=, the wife of Pelias king of Iolchos. According to some
writers, she was daughter to Amphion king of Thebes, though she is
more generally called Anaxibia daughter of Bias. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Philombrŏtus=, an archon at Athens, in whose age the state was
entrusted to Solon, when torn by factions. _Plutarch_, _Solon_.
=Philomēdus=, a man who made himself absolute in Phocæa, by promising
to assist the inhabitants. _Polyænus._
=Phĭlŏmēla=, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens, and sister to
Procne, who had married Tereus king of Thrace. Procne separated from
Philomela, to whom she was particularly attached, spent her time in
great melancholy till she prevailed upon her husband to go to Athens,
and bring his sister to Thrace. Tereus obeyed his wife’s injunctions,
but he had no sooner obtained Pandion’s permission to conduct
Philomela to Thrace, than he became enamoured of her, and resolved to
gratify his passion. He dismissed the guards, whom the suspicions of
Pandion had appointed to watch his conduct, and he offered violence
to Philomela, and afterwards cut off her tongue, that she might not
be able to discover his barbarity, and the indignities which she
had suffered. He confined her also in a lonely castle, and after he
had taken every precaution to prevent a discovery, he returned to
Thrace, and he told Procne that Philomela had died by the way, and
that he had paid the last offices to her remains. Procne, at this
sad intelligence, put on mourning for the loss of Philomela; but a
year had scarcely elapsed before she was secretly informed that her
sister was not dead. Philomela, during her captivity, described on
a piece of tapestry her misfortunes and the brutality of Tereus, and
privately conveyed it to Procne. She was then going to celebrate the
orgies of Bacchus when she received it; she disguised her resentment,
and as, during the festivals of the god of wine, she was permitted to
rove about the country, she hastened to deliver her sister Philomela
from her confinement, and she concerted with her on the best measures
of punishing the cruelty of Tereus. She murdered her son Itylus, who
was in the sixth year of his age, and served him up as food before
her husband during the festival. Tereus, in the midst of his repast,
called for Itylus, but Procne immediately informed him that he was
then feasting on his flesh, and that instant Philomela, by throwing
on the table the head of Itylus, convinced the monarch of the cruelty
of the scene. He drew his sword to punish Procne and Philomela, but
as he was going to stab them to the heart, he was changed into a
hoopoe, Philomela into a nightingale, Procne into a swallow, and
Itylus into a pheasant. This tragical scene happened at Daulis
in Phocis; but Pausanias and Strabo, who mention the whole of the
story, are silent about the transformation; and the former observes
that Tereus, after this bloody repast, fled to Megara, where he
destroyed himself. The inhabitants of the place raised a monument to
his memory, where they offered yearly sacrifices, and placed small
pebbles instead of barley. It was on this monument that the birds
called hoopoes were first seen; hence the fable of his metamorphosis.
Procne and Philomela died through excess of grief and melancholy, and
as the nightingale’s and swallow’s voice is peculiarly plaintive and
mournful, the poets have embellished the fable by supposing that the
two unfortunate sisters were changed into birds. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 42; bk. 10, ch. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable
45.――_♦Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fables 9 & 10.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, lis. 15 & 511.――――A daughter of Actor
king of the Myrmidons.
♦ ‘Stabo’ replaced with ‘Strabo’
=Philomēlum=, a town of Phrygia. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 5,
ltr. 20; _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 83.
=Philomēlus=, a general of Phocis, who plundered the temple of Delphi,
and died B.C. 354. _See:_ Phocis.――――A rich musician. _Martial_,
bk. 4, ltr. 5.
=Philon=, a general of some Greeks, who settled in Asia. _Diodorus_,
bk. 18.
=Philonides=, a courier of Alexander, who ran from Sicyon to Elis,
160 miles, in nine hours, and returned the same journey in 15 hours.
_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 71.
=Philonis=, a name of Chione daughter of Dædalion, made immortal by
Diana.
=Philonoe=, a daughter of Tyndarus king of Sparta by Leda daughter of
Thestius. _Apollodorus._――――A daughter of Iobates king of Lycia, who
married Bellerophon. _Pliny_, bk. 2.
=Philonŏme=, a daughter of Nyctimus king of Arcadia, who threw into
the Erymanthus two children whom she had by Mars. The children
were preserved, and afterwards ascended their grandfather’s throne.
_Plutarch_, _Pericles_.――――The second wife of Cycnus the son of
Neptune. She became enamoured of Tennes, her husband’s son by his
first wife Proclea the daughter of Clytius, and when he refused to
gratify her passion, she accused him of attempts upon her virtue.
Cycnus believed the accusation, and ordered Tennes to be thrown into
the sea, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 14.
=Philonŏmus=, a son of Electryon king of Mycenæ by Anaxo. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2.
=Philonus=, a village of Egypt. _Strabo._
=Philopător=, a surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt. _See:_
Ptolemæus.
=Philophron=, a general who, with 5000 soldiers, defended Pelusium
against the Greeks who invaded Egypt. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Philopœmen=, a celebrated general of the Achæan league, born at
Megalopolis. His father’s name was Grangis. His education was begun
and finished under Cassander, Ecdemus, and Demophanes, and he early
distinguished himself in the field of battle, and appeared fond of
agriculture and a country life. He proposed himself Epaminondas for a
model, and he was not unsuccessful in imitating the prudence and the
simplicity, the disinterestedness and activity, of this famous Theban.
When Megalopolis was attacked by the Spartans, Philopœmen, then in
the 30th year of his age, gave the most decisive proofs of his valour
and intrepidity. He afterwards assisted Antigonus, and was present
in the famous battle in which the Ætolians were defeated. Raised to
the rank of chief commander, he showed his ability to discharge that
important trust, by killing with his own hand Mechanidas the ♦tyrant
of Sparta; and if he was defeated in a naval battle by Nabis, he
soon after repaired his losses by taking the capital of Laconia, B.C.
188, and by abolishing the laws of ♠Lycurgus, which had flourished
there for such a length of time. Sparta, after its conquest, became
tributary to the Achæans, and Philopœmen enjoyed the triumph of
having reduced to ruins one of the greatest and the most powerful
of the cities of Greece. Some time after the Messenians revolted
from the Achæan league, and Philopœmen, who headed the Achæans,
unfortunately fell from his horse, and was dragged to the enemy’s
camp. ♣Dinocrates the general of the Messenians treated him with
great severity; he was thrown into a dungeon, and obliged to drink
a dose of poison. When he received the cup from the hand of the
executioner, Philopœmen asked him how his countrymen had behaved in
the field of battle; and when he heard that they had obtained the
victory, he drank the whole with pleasure, exclaiming that this was
comfortable news. The death of Philopœmen, which happened about 183
years before the christian era, in his 70th year, was universally
lamented, and the Achæans, to revenge his fate, immediately marched
to Messenia, where Dinocrates, to avoid their resentment, killed
himself. The rest of his murderers were dragged to his tomb, where
they were sacrificed; and the people of Megalopolis, to show further
their great sense of his merit, ordered a bull to be yearly offered
on his tomb, and hymns to be sung in his praise, and his actions to
be celebrated in a panegyrical oration. He had also statues raised
to his memory, which some of the Romans attempted to violate, and
to destroy, to no purpose, when Mummius took Corinth. Philopœmen
has been justly called by his countrymen the last of the Greeks.
_Plutarch_, _ Lives_.――_Justin_, bk. 32, ch. 4.――_Polybius._――――A
native of Pergamus, who died B.C. 138.
♦ ‘tyant’ replaced with ‘tyrant’
♠ ‘Lyturgus’ replaced with ‘Lycurgus’
♣ ‘Dioncrates’ replaced with ‘Dinocrates’
=Phĭlostrătus=, a famous sophist born at Lemnos, or, according to some,
at Athens. He came to Rome, where he lived under the patronage of
Julia the wife of the emperor Severus, and he was entrusted by the
empress with all the papers which contained some account or anecdotes
of Apollonius Thyanæus, and he was ordered to review them, and with
them to compile a history. The life of Apollonius is written with
elegance, but the improbable accounts, the fabulous stories, and
the exaggerated details which it gives, render it disgusting. There
is, besides, another treatise remaining of his writings, &c. He died
A.D. 244. The best edition of his writings is that of Olearius, folio,
Lipscomb, 1709.――――His nephew, who lived in the reign of Heliogabalus,
wrote an account of sophists.――――A philosopher in the reign of Nero.
――――Another in the age of Augustus.