philosopher who measured the height of mount Olympus.
=Xenarchus=, a comic poet.――――A peripatetic philosopher of Seleucia,
who taught at Alexandria and at Rome, and was intimate with Augustus.
_Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A pretor of the Achæan league, who wished to
favour the interest of Perseus king of Macedonia against the Romans.
=Xenares=, an intimate friend of Cleomenes king of Sparta.
=Xenetus=, a rich Locrian, whose daughter Doris married Dionysius of
Sicily, &c. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 7.
=Xeneus=, a Chian writer who composed a history of his country.
=Xeniădes=, a Corinthian who went to buy Diogenes the Cynic when sold
as a slave. He asked him what he could do; upon which the Cynic
answered, “Command freemen.” This noble answer so pleased Xeniades,
that he gave the Cynic his liberty, and entrusted him with the care
and education of his children. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Aulus Gellius_,
bk. 2, ch. 18.
=Xenius=, a surname given to Jupiter as the god of _hospitality_.
=Xenoclea=, a priestess of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, from whom
Hercules extorted an oracle by force, when she refused to answer
him because he was not purified of the blood and death of Iphitus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 13.
=Xenŏcles=, a tragic writer, who obtained four times a poetical prize
in a contention in which Euripides was competitor, either through the
ignorance or by the bribery of his judges. The names of his tragedies
which obtained the victory were Œdipus, Lycaon, Bacchæ, Athamas
Satyricus, against the Alexander, Palamedes, Trojani, and Sisyphus
Satyricus of Euripides. His grandson bore also the name of Xenocles,
and excelled in tragical compositions. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 2, ch. 8.――――A Spartan officer in the expedition which Agesilaus
undertook against the Persians.――――An architect of Eleusis.――――A
friend of Aratus.――――One of the friends of Cicero.――――A celebrated
rhetorician of Adramyttium. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Xenocrătes=, an ancient philosopher born at Chalcedonia, and educated
in the school of Plato, whose friendship he gained, and whose
approbation he merited. Though of a dull and sluggish disposition, he
supplied the defects of nature by unwearied attention and industry,
and was at last found capable of succeeding in the school of Plato
after Speusippus, about 339 years before Christ. He was remarkable
as a disciplinarian, and he required that his pupils should be
acquainted with mathematics before they came under his care, and he
even rejected some who had not the necessary qualification, saying
that they had not yet found the key of philosophy. He recommended
himself to his pupils not only by precepts, but more powerfully
by example, and since the wonderful change he had made upon the
conduct of one of his auditors [_See:_ Polemon], his company was
as much shunned by the dissolute and extravagant, as it was courted
by the virtuous and benevolent. Philip of Macedon attempted to gain
his confidence with money, but with no success. Alexander in this
imitated his father, and sent some of his friends with 50 talents
for the philosopher. They were introduced, and supped with Xenocrates.
The repast was small, frugal, and elegant, without ostentation.
On the morrow, the officers of Alexander wished to pay down the
50 talents, but the philosopher asked them whether they had not
perceived from the entertainment of the preceding day that he was not
in want of money. “Tell your master,” said he, “to keep his money;
he has more people to maintain than I have.” Yet, not to offend the
monarch, he accepted a small sum, about the 200th part of one talent.
His character was not less conspicuous in every other particular,
and he has been cited as an instance of virtue from the following
circumstance: The courtesan Lais had pledged herself to forfeit
an immense sum of money, if she did not triumph over the virtue of
Xenocrates. She tried every art, assumed the most captivating looks,
and used the most tempting attitudes to gain the philosopher, but
in vain; and she declared at last that she had not lost her money,
as she had pledged herself to conquer a human being, not a lifeless
stone. Though so respected and admired, yet Xenocrates was poor,
and he was dragged to prison, because he was unable to pay a small
tribute to the state. He was delivered from confinement by one of his
friends. His integrity was so well known, that when he appeared in
the court as a witness, the judges dispensed with his oath. He died
B.C. 314, in his 82nd year, after he had presided in the academy
for above 25 years. It is said that he fell in the night with his
head into a basin of water, and that he was suffocated. He had
written above 60 treatises on different subjects, all now lost.
He acknowledged no other deity but heaven, and the seven planets.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 10, ltr. 1,
&c. _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 2, ch. 10.――_Lucian._――――A physician in the age of Nero, not in
great esteem. His Greek treatise, _de alimento ex aquatilibus_, is
best edited by Franzius, Lipscomb, 8vo, 1774.――――An excellent painter.
_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.
=Xenodamus=, an illegitimate son of Menelaus by Gnossia. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 11.――――An athlete of Anticyra. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 36.
=Xēnodĭce=, a daughter of Syleus, killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 6.――――A daughter of Minos and Pasiphae. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Xenodŏchus=, a Messenian crowned at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 5.――――A native of Cardia, &c.
=Xenophănes=, a Greek philosopher of Colophon, disciple of Archelaus,
B.C. 535. He wrote several poems and treatises, and founded a
sect which was called the Eleatic, in Sicily. Wild in his opinions
about astronomy, he supposed that the stars were extinguished every
morning, and rekindled at night; that eclipses were occasioned by
the temporary extinction of the sun; that the moon was inhabited,
and 18 times bigger than the earth; and that there were several suns
and moons for the convenience of the different climates of the earth.
He further imagined that God and the world were the same, and he
credited the eternity of the universe, but his incoherent opinion
about the divinity raised the indignation of his countrymen, and
he was banished. He died very poor, when about 100 years old.
_Cicero_, _Academica Priora_, bk. 4, ch. 37; _de Divinatione_, bk. 1,
ch. 3; _De Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Lactantius_, _Divinae
institutiones_, bk. 3, ch. 23.――――A governor of Olbus, in the age of
Marcus Antony. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――One of the ministers of Philip,
who went to Annibal’s camp, and made a treaty of alliance between
Macedonia and Carthage.
=Xenophĭlus=, a Pythagorean philosopher, who lived to his 170th year,
and enjoyed all his faculties to the last. He wrote upon music, and
thence he was called the musician. _Lucian_, _Macrobii_.――_Pliny_, bk.
7, ch. 50.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 13.――――One of Alexander’s
generals. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――――A robber of whom Aratus hired
some troops.
=Xenŏphon=, an Athenian, son of Gryllus, celebrated as a general, an
historian, and a philosopher. In the school of Socrates he received
those instructions and precepts which afterwards so eminently
distinguished him at the head of an army, in literary solitude, and
as the prudent father of a family. He was invited by Proxenus, one of
his intimate friends, to accompany Cyrus the younger in an expedition
against his brother Artaxerxes king of Persia; but he refused to
comply without previously consulting his venerable master, and
inquiring into the propriety of such a measure. Socrates strongly
opposed it, and observed that it might raise the resentment of his
countrymen, as Sparta had made an alliance with the Persian monarch;
but, however, before he proceeded further, he advised him to consult
the oracle of Apollo. Xenophon paid due deference to the injunctions
of Socrates, but as he was ambitious of glory, and eager to engage
in a distant expedition, he hastened with precipitation to Sardis,
where he was introduced to the young prince, and treated with great
attention. In the army of Cyrus, Xenophon showed that he was a true
disciple of Socrates, and that he had been educated in the warlike
city of Athens. After the decisive battle in the plains of Cunaxa,
and the fall of young Cyrus, the prudence and vigour of his mind were
called into action. The 10,000 Greeks who had followed the standard
of an ambitious prince were now at the distance of above 600 leagues
from their native home, in a country surrounded on every side by a
victorious enemy, without money, without provisions, and without a
leader. Xenophon was selected from among the officers to superintend
the retreat of his countrymen, and though he was often opposed by
malevolence and envy, yet his persuasive eloquence and his activity
convinced the Greeks that no general could extricate them from every
difficulty better than the disciple of Socrates. He rose superior to
danger, and though under continual alarms from the sudden attacks of
the Persians, he was enabled to cross rapid rivers, penetrate through
vast deserts, gain the tops of mountains, till he could rest secure
for a while and refresh his tired companions. This celebrated retreat
was at last happily effected; the Greeks returned home after a march
of 1155 parasangs, or leagues, which was performed in 215 days, after
an absence of 15 months. The whole, perhaps, might now be forgotten,
or at least obscurely known, if the great philosopher who planned it
had not employed his pen in describing the dangers which he escaped,
and the difficulties which he surmounted. He was no sooner returned
from Cunaxa, than he sought new honours in following the fortune of
Agesilaus in Asia. He enjoyed his confidence, he fought under his
standard, and conquered with him in the Asiatic provinces, as well
as at the battle of Coronæa. His fame, however, did not escape the
aspersions of jealousy; he was publicly banished from Athens for
accompanying Cyrus against his brother, and being now without a home,
he retired to Scillus, a small town of the Lacedæmonians, in the
neighbourhood of Olympia. In this solitary retreat he dedicated his
time to literary pursuits, and as he had acquired riches in his
Asiatic expeditions, he began to adorn and variegate by the hand of
art, for his pleasure and enjoyment, the country which surrounded
Scillus. He built a magnificent temple to Diana, in imitation of that
of Ephesus, and spent part of his time in rural employments, or in
hunting in the woods and mountains. His peaceful occupations, however,
were soon disturbed. A war arose between the Lacedæmonians and Elis,
and the sanctity of Diana’s temple, and the venerable age of the
philosopher, who lived in the delightful retreats of Scillus, were
disregarded, and Xenophon, driven by the Elians from his favourite
spot, where he had composed and written for the information of
posterity, and the honour of his country, retired to the city of
Corinth. In this place he died in the 90th year of his age, 359
years before the christian era. The works of Xenophon are numerous.
He wrote an account of the expedition of Cyrus, called _the Anabasis_,
and as he had no inconsiderable share in the enterprise, his
description must be authentic, as he was himself an eye-witness.
Many, however, have accused him of partiality. He appeared often
too fond of extolling the virtues of his favourite Cyrus, and while
he describes with contempt the imprudent operations of the Persians,
he does not neglect to show that he was a native of Greece. His
_Cyropædia_, divided into eight books, has given rise to much
criticism, and while some warmly maintain that it is a faithful
account of the life and the actions of Cyrus the Great, and declare
that it is supported by the authority of Scripture, others as
vehemently deny its authenticity. According to the opinions of
Plato and of Cicero, the Cyropædia of Xenophon was a moral romance,
and these venerable philosophers support that the historian did
not so much write what Cyrus had been, as what every true, good,
and virtuous monarch ought to be. His _Hellenica_ were written as a
continuation of the history of Thucydides; and in his _Memorabilia_
of Socrates, and in his _Apology_, he has shown himself, as Valerius
Maximus observes, a perfect master of the philosophy of that great
man, and he has explained his doctrines and moral precepts with all
the success of persuasive eloquence and conscious integrity. These
are the most famous of his compositions, besides which there are
other small tracts, his eulogium given on Agesilaus, his œconomics,
on the duties of domestic life, the dialogue entitled Hiero, in
which he happily describes and compares the misery which attended the
tyrant, with the felicity of a virtuous prince; a treatise on hunting,
the symposium of the philosophers, on the government of Athens and
Sparta, a treatise on the revenues of Attica, &c. The simplicity
and the elegance of Xenophon’s diction have procured him the name
of the Athenian muse, and the bee of Greece, and they have induced
Quintilian to say that the graces dictated his language, and that
the goddess of persuasion dwelt upon his lips. His sentiments, as to
the divinity and religion, were the same as those of the venerable
Socrates; he supported the immortality of the soul, and exhorted
his friends to cultivate those virtues which ensure the happiness of
mankind, with all the zeal and fervour of a christian. He has been
quoted as an instance of tenderness and of resignation on Providence.
As he was offering a sacrifice, he was informed that Gryllus his
eldest son had been killed at the battle of Mantinea. Upon this he
tore the garland from his head, but when he was told that his son had
died like a Greek, and had given a mortal wound to Epaminondas, the
enemy’s general, he replaced the flowers on his head, and continued
the sacrifice, exclaiming that the pleasure he derived from the
valour of his son was greater than the grief which his unfortunate
death occasioned. The best editions of Xenophon are those of
Leunclavius, folio, Frankfurt, 1596, of Ernesti, 4 vols., 8vo,
Lipscomb, 1763, and the Glasgow edition, 12mo; of the Cyropædia,
1767, the expedition of Cyrus, 1764, the Memorabilia, 1761, and
the history of Greece, 1762, and likewise the edition of Zeunius,
published at Leipsic, in 8vo, in 6 vols., between the years 1778 and
1791. _Cicero_, _Orator_, ch. 19.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 10.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 2.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3, ch.
13; bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Xenophon_.――_Seneca._――――A
writer in the beginning of the fourth century, known by his Greek
romance in five books, _De Amoribus Anthiæ et Abrocomæ_, published in
8vo and 4to by Cocceius, London, 1726.――――A physician of the emperor
Claudius, born in the island of Cos, and said to be descended from
the Asclepiades. He enjoyed the emperor’s favours, and through him
the people of Cos were exempt from all taxes. He had the meanness
to poison his benefactor at the instigation of Agrippina. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 12, chs. 61 & 67.――――An officer under Adrian, &c.
=Xera=, a town of Spain, now _Xerex_, where the Moors gained a battle
over Roderic king of the Goths, and became masters of the country.
=Xerolibya=, a part of Africa between Egypt and Cyrene.
=Xerxena=, a part of Armenia. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Xerxes I.=, succeeded his father Darius on the throne of Persia, and
though but the second son of the monarch, he was preferred to his
elder brother Artabazanes. The causes alleged for this preference
were, that Artabazanes was son of Darius when a private man, and
that Xerxes was born, after his father had been raised on the Persian
throne, of Atossa the daughter of Cyrus. Xerxes continued the warlike
preparations of his father, and added the revolted kingdom of Egypt
to his extensive possessions. He afterwards invaded Europe, and
entered Greece with an army which, together with the numerous retinue
of servants, eunuchs, and women that attended it, amounted to no
less than 5,283,220 souls. This multitude, which the fidelity of the
historians has not exaggerated, was stopped at Thermopylæ, by the
valour of 300 Spartans, under king Leonidas. Xerxes, astonished that
such a handful of men should dare to oppose his progress, ordered
some of his soldiers to bring them alive into his presence; but
for three successive days the most valiant of the Persian troops
were repeatedly defeated in attempting to execute the monarch’s
injunctions, and the courage of the Spartans might perhaps have
triumphed longer, if a Trachinian had not led a detachment to the
top of the mountain, and suddenly fallen upon the devoted Leonidas.
The king himself nearly perished on this occasion, and it has been
reported that, in the night, the desperate Spartans sought, for
a while, the royal tent, which they found deserted, and wandered
through the Persian army, slaughtering thousands before them. The
battle of Thermopylæ was the beginning of the disgrace of Xerxes.
The more he advanced, it was to experience new disappointments; his
fleet was defeated at Artemisium and Salamis, and though he burnt the
deserted city of Athens, and trusted to the artful insinuations of
Themistocles, yet he found his millions unable to conquer a nation
that was superior to him in the knowledge of war and maritime affairs.
Mortified with the ill success of his expedition, and apprehensive
of imminent danger in an enemy’s country, Xerxes hastened to Persia,
and in 30 days he marched over all that territory which before he
had passed with much pomp and parade in the space of six months.
Mardonius, the best of his generals, was left behind with an army
of 300,000 men, and the rest that had survived the ravages of war,
of famine, and pestilence, followed their timid monarch into Thrace,
where his steps were marked by the numerous birds of prey that
hovered round him, and fed upon the dead carcases of the Persians.
When he reached the Hellespont, Xerxes found the bridge of boats
which he had erected there totally destroyed by the storms, and he
crossed the straits in a small fishing vessel. Restored to his
kingdom and safety, he forgot his dangers, his losses, and his
defeats, and gave himself up to riot and debauchery. His indolence
and luxurious voluptuousness offended his subjects, and Artabanus,
the captain of his guards, conspired against him, and murdered him
in his bed, in the 21st year of his reign, about 464 years before
the christian era. The personal accomplishments of Xerxes have been
commended by ancient authors, and Herodotus observes that there was
not one man among the millions of his army that was equal to the
monarch in comeliness or stature, or that was as worthy to preside
over a great and extensive empire. The picture is finished, and the
character of Xerxes completely known, when we hear Justin exclaim
that the vast armament which invaded Greece was without a head.
Xerxes has been cited as an instance of humanity. When he reviewed
his millions from a stately throne in the plains of Asia, he suddenly
shed a torrent of tears on the recollection that the multitude of
men he saw before his eyes in 100 years should be no more. His pride
and insolence have been deservedly censured; he ordered chains to be
thrown into the sea, and the waves to be whipped, because the first
bridge he had laid across the Hellespont had been destroyed by a
storm. He cut a channel through mount Athos, and saw his fleet sail
in a place which before was dry ground. The very rivers were dried
up by his army as he advanced towards Greece, and the cities which he
entered reduced to want and poverty. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 183; bk.
7, ch. 2, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Ælian_, bk. 3,
_Varia Historia_, ch. 25.――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 10, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 4; bk. 8, ch. 46.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 672.――_Plutarch_,
_Themistocles_, &c. _Valerius Maximus._――_Isocrates_, _Panathenaicus_.
――_Seneca_, _de Constantia Sapientis_, ch. 4.
=Xerxes II.=, succeeded his father Artaxerxes Longimanus on the throne
of Persia, 425 B.C., and was assassinated in the first year of his
reign by his brother Sogdianus.
=Xerxes=, a painter of Heraclea, who made a beautiful representation of
Venus.
=Xeuxes=, an officer of Antiochus the Great king of Syria.
=Xiline=, a town of Colchis.
=Xiphonia=, a promontory of Sicily at the north of Syracuse, now
_Cruce_. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――――Also a town near it, now _Augusta_.
=Xois=, an island formed by the mouths of the Nile. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Xuthia=, the ancient name of the plains of Leontium in Sicily.
_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Xuthus=, a son of Hellen, grandson of Deucalion. He was banished from
Thessaly by his brothers, and came to Athens, where he married Creusa
the daughter of king Erechtheus, by whom he had Achæus and Ion. He
retired after the death of his father-in-law into Achaia, where he
died. According to some, he had no children, but adopted Ion, the son
whom Creusa, before her marriage, had borne to Apollo. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 1.――_Euripides_, _Ion_, bk. 1,
scene 1.
=Xychus=, a Macedonian who told Philip of his cruelty when he had put
his son Demetrius to death, at the instigation of Perseus.
=Xylenopŏlis=, a town at the mouth of the Indus, built by Alexander,
supposed to be _Laheri_. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23.
=Xyline=, a town of Pamphylia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 15.
=Xylopŏlis=, a town of Macedonia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Xynias=, a lake of Thessaly, or, according to some, of Bœotia. _Livy_,
bk. 32, ch. 13; bk. 33, ch. 3.
=Xynoichia=, an anniversary day observed at Athens in honour of Minerva,
and in commemoration of the time in which the people of Attica left
their country seats, and, by advice of Theseus, all united in one
body.
Z
=Zabatus=, a river of Media, falling into the Tigris, near which the
10,000 Greeks stopped in their return. _Xenophon._
=Zabdicēne=, a province of Persia.
=Zabirna=, a town of Libya, where Bacchus destroyed a large beast that
infested the country. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.
=Zabus=, a river of Assyria, falling into the Tigris.
=Zacynthus=, a native of Bœotia, who accompanied Hercules when he went
into Spain to destroy Geryon. At the end of the expedition he was
entrusted with the care of Geryon’s flocks by the hero, and ordered
to conduct them to Thebes. As he went on his journey, he was bit by
a serpent, and some time after died. His companions carried his body
away, and buried it in an island of the Ionian sea, which from that
time was called _Zacynthus_. The island of Zacynthus, now called
_Zante_, is situate at the south of Cephalenia, and at the west of
the Peloponnesus. It is about 60 miles in circumference. _Livy_, bk.
26, ch. 24.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 & 8.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1, li. 246; bk. 9, li. 24.
――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 432.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 23.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 270.――――A son of Dardanus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8.
=Zadris=, a town of Colchis.
=Zagræus=, a son of Jupiter and Proserpine, the same as the first
Bacchus, of whom Cicero speaks. Some say that Jupiter obtained
Proserpine’s favours in the form of a serpent in one of the caves
of Sicily, where her mother had concealed her from his pursuits, and
that from this union Zagræus was born.
=Zagrus=, a mountain on the confines of Media and Babylonia. _Strabo_,
bk. 11.
=Zalates=, an effeminate youth brought to Rome from Armenia as a
hostage, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 20, li. 164.