disciples of Pythagoras, 550 B.C. He was very humane, and at the
same time very austere, and he attempted to enforce his laws more
by inspiring shame than dread. He had wisely decreed that a person
guilty of adultery should lose both his eyes. His philosophy was
called to a trial when he was informed that his son was an adulterer.
He ordered the law to be executed; the people interfered, but
Zaleucus resisted, and rather than violate his own institutions, he
commanded one of his own eyes, and one of those of his son, to be
put out. This made such an impression upon the people, that while
Zaleucus presided over the Locrians, no person was again found
guilty of adultery. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 6, ch. 5.
――_Cicero_, _de Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 6; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 6,
ltr. 1.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 37; bk. 3, ch. 17;
bk. 13, ch. 24.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Zama=, or =Zagma=, a town of Numidia, 300 miles from Carthage,
celebrated for the victory which Scipio obtained there over the great
Annibal, B.C. 202. Metellus besieged it, and was obliged to retire
with great loss. After Juba’s death it was destroyed by the Romans.
_Hirtius_, _African War_, ch. 91.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.
――_Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 29.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.――_Florus_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 261.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
――――A town of Cappadocia,――――of Mesopotamia.
=Zameis=, a debauched king of Assyria, son of Semiramis and Ninus, as
some report. He reigned 38 years.
=Zamolxis=, or =Zalmoxis=, a slave and disciple of Pythagoras. He
accompanied his master in Egypt, and afterwards retired into the
country of the Getæ, which had given him birth. He began to civilize
his countrymen, and the more easily to gain reputation, he concealed
himself for three years in a subterraneous cave, and afterwards made
them believe that he was just raised from the dead. Some place him
before the age of Pythagoras. After death he received divine honours.
_Diodorus._――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 19, &c.
=Zancle=, a town of Sicily, on the straits which separate that island
from Italy. It received its name from its appearing like a scythe,
which was called ξανκλον in the language of the country, or, as
others say, because the scythe with which Saturn mutilated his father
fell there, or because, as Diodorus reports, a person named Zanclus
had either built it or exercised its sovereignty. Zancle fell into
the hands of the Samians 497 years before the christian era, and
three years after it was recovered by Anaxilaus the Messenian tyrant
of Rhegium, who gave it the name of his native country, and called it
_Messana_. It was founded, as most chronologers support, about 1058
years before the christian era, by the pirates of Cumæ in Italy,
and peopled by Samians, Ionians, and Chalcidians. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 662.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 499; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 6; bk. 15,
li. 290.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 23.
=Zarax=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Zarbiēnus=, a petty monarch of Asia, who was gained to the interest
of the Romans by one of the officers of Lucullus. Tigranes put him
to death for his desertion, and his funeral was celebrated with great
magnificence by the Roman general. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.
=Zariaspes=, a Persian who attempted to revolt from Alexander, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――A river, now _Dehash_, on which Bactria,
the capital of Bactriana, was built. It is called Bactrus by Curtius,
bk. 7, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, chs. 15 & 16.
=Zathes=, a river of Armenia.
=Zaueces=, a people of Libya. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 193.
=Zebīna Alexander=, an impostor who usurped the throne of Syria, at the
instigation of Ptolemy Physcon.
=Zela=, or =Zelia=, a town of Pontus near the river Lycus, where Cæsar
defeated Pharnaces son of Mithridates. In expressing this victory,
the general used the words, _Veni_, _vidi_, _vinci_. _Suetonius_,
_Cæsar_, ch. 37.――_Hirtius_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 72.――――A town of
Troas at the foot of Ida.――――Another in Lycia.
=Zelasium=, a promontory of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 46.
=Zeles=, a town of Spain.
=Zelus=, a daughter of Pallas.
=Zeno=, a philosopher of Elia or Velia in Italy, the disciple, or,
according to some, the adopted son of Parmenides, and the supposed
inventor of dialectic. His opinions about the universe, the unity,
incomprehensibility, and immutability of all things, were the same
with those of Xenophanes and the rest of the Eleatic philosophers.
It is said that he attempted to deliver his country from the tyranny
of Nearchus. His plot was discovered, and he was exposed to the most
excruciating torments to reveal the name of his accomplices, but this
he bore with unparalleled fortitude, and not to be at last conquered
by tortures, he cut off his tongue with his teeth, and spit it into
the face of the tyrant. Some say that he was pounded alive in a
mortar, and that in the midst of his torments he called to Nearchus,
as if to reveal something of importance; the tyrant approached him,
and Zeno, as if willing to whisper to him, caught his ear with his
teeth, and bit it off. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 2,
ch. 22; _De Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 33.――_Diodorus Siculus_,
_Fragment_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 9.――――The founder of the sect of the stoics, born at Citium
in the island of Cyprus. The first part of his life was spent
in commercial pursuits, but he was soon called to more elevated
employments. As he was returning from Phœnicia, a storm drove his
ship on the coast of Attica, and he was shipwrecked near the Piræus.
This moment of calamity he regarded as the beginning of his fame. He
entered the house of a bookseller, and, to dissipate his melancholy
reflections, he began to read. The book was written by Xenophon;
and the merchant was so pleased and captivated by the eloquence
and beauties of the philosopher, that from that time he renounced
the pursuits of a busy life, and applied himself to the study of
philosophy. Ten years were spent in frequenting the school of Crates,
and the same number under Stilpo, Xenocrates, and Polemon. Perfect
in every branch of knowledge, and improved from experience as well
as observation, Zeno opened a school at Athens, and soon saw himself
attended by the great, the learned, and the powerful. His followers
were called _Stoics_, because they received the instructions of the
philosopher in the portico called στοα. He was so respected during
his lifetime, that the Athenians publicly decreed him a brazen statue
and a crown of gold, and engraved their decree, to give it more
publicity, on two columns in the academy, and in the Lyceum. His
life was an example of soberness and moderation; his manners were
austere, and to his temperance and regularity he was indebted for the
continual flow of health which he always enjoyed. After he had taught
publicly for 48 years, he died in the 98th year of his age, B.C. 264,
a stranger to diseases, and never incommoded by a real indisposition.
He was buried in that part of the city called Ceramicus, where the
Athenians raised him a monument. The founder of the stoic philosophy
shone before his followers as a pure example of imitation. Virtue he
perceived to be the ultimate aim of his researches. He wished to live
in the world as if nothing was properly his own; he loved others, and
his affections were extended even to his enemies. He felt a pleasure
in being kind, benevolent, and attentive, and he found that these
sentiments of pleasure were reciprocal. He saw a connection and
dependence in the system of the universe, and perceived that from
thence arose the harmony of civil society, the tenderness of parents,
and filial gratitude. In the attainment of virtue the goods of the
mind were to be preferred to those of the body, and when that point
was once gained, nothing could equal our happiness and perfection,
and the stoic could view with indifference health or sickness, riches
or poverty, pain and pleasure, which could neither move nor influence
the serenity of his mind. Zeno recommended resignation; he knew that
the laws of the universe cannot be changed by man, and therefore he
wished that his disciples should not in prayer deprecate impending
calamities, but rather beseech Providence to grant them fortitude
to bear the severest trials with pleasure and due resignation to the
will of Heaven. An arbitrary command over the passions was one of
the rules of stoicism; to assist our friends in the hour of calamity
was our duty, but to give way to childish sensations was unbecoming
our nature. Pity, therefore, and anger, were to be banished from the
heart, propriety and decorum were to be the guides in everything, and
the external actions of men were the best indications of their inward
feelings, their secret inclinations, and their character. It was the
duty of the stoic to study himself; in the evening he was enjoined to
review with critical accuracy the events of the day, and to regulate
his future conduct with more care, and always to find an impartial
witness within his own breast. Such were the leading characters of
the stoic philosophy, whose followers were so illustrious, so perfect,
and so numerous, and whose effects were productive of such exemplary
virtues in the annals of the human mind. Zeno in his maxims used to
say, that with virtue man could live happy under the most pressing
calamities. He said that nature had given us two ears, and only
one mouth, to tell us that we ought to listen more than speak. He
compared those whose actions were dissonant with their professions,
to the coin of Alexandria, which appeared beautiful to the eye,
though made of the basest metals. He acknowledged only one God,
the soul of the universe, which he conceived to be the body, and
therefore he believed that those two together united, the soul and
the body, formed one perfect animal, which was the god of the stoics.
Amongst the most illustrious followers of his doctrine, and as the
most respectable writers, may be mentioned _Epictetus_, _Seneca_,
the emperor _Antoninus_, &c. _Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 1, ch. 12;
_De Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 14; bk. 2, chs. 8 & 24; bk. 3, ch. 24;
_For Marcellus_; _Orator_, ch. 32, &c.; _de Finibus Bonorum et
Malorum._――_Seneca._――_Epictetus._――_Arrian._――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 26.――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――An Epicurean
philosopher of Sidon, who numbered among his pupils Cicero, Pomponius
Atticus, Cotta, Pompey, &c. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1,
chs. 21 & 34.――――A rhetorician, father to Polemon, who was made king
of Pontus.――――The son of Polemon, who was king of Armenia, was also
called Zeno. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 56.
――――A native of Lepreos, son of Calliteles, crowned at the Olympic
games, and honoured with a statue in the grove of Jupiter, and at
Olympia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 15.――――A general of Antiochus.――――A
philosopher of Tarsus, B.C. 207.――――The name of Zeno was common to
some of the Roman emperors on the throne of Constantinople, in the
fifth and sixth centuries.
=Zenobia=, a queen of Iberia, wife to Rhadamistus. She accompanied
her husband when he was banished from his kingdom by the Armenians;
but as she was unable to follow him on account of her pregnancy,
she entreated him to murder her. Rhadamistus long hesitated, but
fearful of her falling into the hands of his enemy, he obeyed,
and threw her body into the Araxes. Her clothes kept her up on the
surface of the water, where she was found by some shepherds, and
as the wound was not mortal, her life was preserved, and she was
carried to Tiridates, who acknowledged her as queen. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 51.――――Septimia, a celebrated princess of
Palmyra, who married Odenatus, whom Gallienus acknowledged as his
partner on the Roman throne. After the death of her husband, which,
according to some authors, she is said to have hastened, Zenobia
reigned in the east as regent of her infant children, who were
honoured with the title of Cæsars. She assumed the name of Augusta,
and she appeared in imperial robes, and ordered herself to be
styled the queen of the east. The troubles which at that time
agitated the western parts of the empire, prevented the emperor
from checking the insolence and ambition of this princess, who
boasted to be sprung from the Ptolemies of Egypt. Aurelian was
no sooner invested with the imperial purple than he marched into
the east, determined to punish the pride of Zenobia. He well knew
her valour, and he was not ignorant that in her wars against the
Persians she had distinguished herself no less than Odenatus.
She was the mistress of the east; Egypt acknowledged her power,
and all the provinces of Asia Minor were subject to her command.
When Aurelian approached the plains of Syria, the Palmyrean queen
appeared at the head of 700,000 men. She bore the labours of the
field like the meanest of her soldiers, and walked on foot fearless
of danger. Two battles were fought; the courage of the queen
gained the superiority, but an imprudent evolution of the Palmyrean
cavalry ruined her cause; and while they pursued with spirit the
flying enemy, the Roman infantry suddenly fell upon the main body
of Zenobia’s army, and the defeat was inevitable. The queen fled
to Palmyra, determined to support a siege. Aurelian followed her,
and after he had almost exhausted his stores, he proposed terms
of accommodation, which were rejected with disdain by the warlike
princess. Her hopes of victory, however, soon vanished, and though
she harassed the Romans night and day by continual sallies from her
walls, and the working of her military engines, she despaired of
success when she heard that the armies which were marching to her
relief from Armenia, Persia, and the east, had partly been defeated
and partly bribed from her allegiance. She fled from Palmyra in the
night, but Aurelian, who was apprised of her escape, pursued her,
and she was caught as she was crossing the river Euphrates. She was
brought into the presence of Aurelian, and though the soldiers were
clamorous for her death, she was reserved to adorn the triumph of
the conqueror. She was treated with great humanity, and Aurelian
gave her large possessions near Tibur, where she was permitted
to live the rest of her days in peace, with all the grandeur and
majesty which became a queen of the east, and a warlike princess.
Her children were patronized by the emperor, and married to persons
of the first distinction at Rome. Zenobia has been admired not only
for her military abilities, but also for her literary talents. She
was acquainted with every branch of useful learning, and spoke with
fluency the language of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Latins.
She composed an abridgment of the history of the oriental nations,
and of Egypt, which was greatly commended by the ancients. She
received no less honour from the patronage she afforded to the
celebrated Longinus, who was one of her favourites, and who taught
her the Greek tongue. She has also been praised for her great
chastity, and her constancy, though she betrayed too often her
propensities to cruelty and intoxication when in the midst of her
officers. She fell into the hands of Aurelian about the 273rd year
of the christian era. _Aurelius Victor._――_Zosimus_, &c.――――A town
of Syria on the Euphrates.
=Zenobii insulæ=, small islands at the mouth of the Arabian gulf.
=Zenodōrus=, a sculptor in the age of Nero. He made a statue of Mercury,
as also a colossus for the emperor, which was 110 or 120 feet high,
and which was consecrated to the sun. The head of this colossus was
some time after broken by Vespasian, who placed there the head of
an Apollo surrounded with seven beams, each of which was seven feet
and a half long. From this famous colossus the modern coliseum, whose
ruins are now so much admired at Rome, took its name. _Pliny_, bk. 54,
ch. 7.
=Zenodotia=, a town of Mesopotamia, near Nicephorium. _Plutarch_,
_Crassus_.
=Zenodōtus=, a native of Trœzene, who wrote a history of Umbria.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.――――A grammarian of Alexandria,
in the age of Ptolemy Soter, by whom he was appointed to take care of
the celebrated library of Alexandria. He died B.C. 245.
=Zenothemis=, a Greek writer. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 17, ch. 30.
=Zephyrium=, a promontory of Magna Græcia towards the Ionian sea,
whence, according to some, the Locrians are called _Epizephyrii_.
――――A town of Cilicia. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 20.――――A cape of Crete,
now _San Zuane_.――――Of Pontus, &c.
=Zephy̆rum=, a promontory in the island of Cyprus, where Venus had
a temple built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, whence she was called
_Zephyria_. It was in this temple that Arsione made an offering of
her hair to the goddess of beauty.
=Zephy̆rus=, one of the winds, son of Astreus and Aurora, the same as
the _Favonius_ of the Latins. He married a nymph called Chloris, or
Flora, by whom he had a son called Carpos. Zephyr was said to produce
flowers and fruits by the sweetness of his breath. He had a temple
at Athens, where he was represented as a young man of delicate form,
with two wings on his shoulders, and with his head covered with all
sorts of flowers. He was ♦supposed to be the same as the west wind.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 377.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 135;
bk. 2, li. 417; bk. 4, li. 223, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 64; bk. 15, li. 700.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 16, li. 34, &c.
♦ ‘suppossd’ replaced with ‘supposed’
=Zerynthus=, a town of Samothrace, with a cave sacred to Hecate. The
epithet of _Zerynthius_ is applied to Apollo, and also to Venus.
_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 9, li. 19.――_Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 41.
=Zethes=, =Zetes=, or =Zetus=, a son of Boreas king of Thrace and
Orithyia, who accompanied, with his brother Cailas, the Argonauts
to Colchis. In Bithynia, the two brothers, who are represented
with wings, delivered Phineus from the continual persecution of
the Harpies, and drove these monsters as far as the islands called
Strophades, where at last they were stopped by Iris, who promised
them that Phineus should no longer be tormented by them. They
were both killed, as some say, by Hercules during the Argonautic
expedition, and were changed into those winds which generally
blow eight or ten days before the dog-star appears, and are called
Prodromi by the Greeks. Their sister Cleopatra married Phineus king
of Bithynia. _Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9;
bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Hyginus_, fable 14.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 716.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Valerius Flaccus._
=Zetta=, a town of Africa, near Thapsus, now _Zerbi_. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
――_Hirtius_, _African War_, ch. 68.
=Zetus=, or =Zethus=, a son of Jupiter and Antiope, brother to Amphion.
The two brothers were born on mount Cithæron, where Antiope had fled
to avoid the resentment of her father Nycteus. When they had attained
the years of manhood, they collected a number of their friends to
avenge the injuries which their mother had suffered from Lycus, the
successor of Nycteus on the throne of Thebes, and from his wife Dirce.
Lycus was put to death, and his wife tied to the tail of a wild bull,
that dragged her over rocks and precipices till she died. The crown
of Thebes was seized by the two brothers, not only as the reward of
this victory, but as their inheritance, and Zethus surrounded the
capital of his dominions with a strong wall, while his brother amused
himself with playing on his lyre. Music and verses were disagreeable
to Zethus, and, according to some, he prevailed upon his brother
no longer to pursue so unproductive a study. _Hyginus_, fable 7.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, chs. 5 & 10.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 18, li. 41.
=Zeugis=, a portion of Africa, in which Carthage was. The other
division was called _Byzacium_. _Isidorus_, bk. 14, ch. 5.――_Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Zeugma=, a town of Mesopotamia, on the western bank of the Euphrates,
where was a well-known passage across the river. It was the eastern
boundary of the Roman empire, and in Pliny’s age a chain of iron was
said to extend across it. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 24.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.
――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 12.――――A
town of Dacia.
=Zeus=, a name of Jupiter among the Greeks, expressive of his being the
father of mankind, and by whom all things live. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Zeuxidămus=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ. He was
father of Archidamus and grandson of Theopompus, and was succeeded by
his son Archidamus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Zeuxidas=, a pretor of the Achæan league, deposed because he had
promised to his countrymen an alliance with the Romans.
=Zeuxippe=, a daughter of Eridanus, mother of Butes, one of the
Argonauts, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A daughter of
Laomedon. She married Sicyon, who after his father-in-law’s death
became king of that city of Peloponnesus, which from him has been
called Sicyon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Zeuxis=, a celebrated painter, born at Heraclea, which some suppose to
be the Heraclea of Sicily. He flourished about 468 years before the
christian era, and was the disciple of Apollodorus, and contemporary
with Parrhasius. In the art of painting he surpassed not only all
his contemporaries, but also his master, and became so sensible,
and at the same time so proud, of the value of his pieces, that he
refused to sell them, observing that no sum of money, however great,
was sufficient to buy them. His most celebrated paintings were his
Jupiter sitting on a throne, surrounded by the gods; his Hercules
strangling the serpents in the presence of his affrighted parents;
his modest Penelope; and his Helen, which was afterwards placed in
the temple of Juno Lacinia, in Italy. This last piece he had painted
at the request of the people of Crotona, and that he might not be
without a model, they sent him the most beautiful of their virgins.
Zeuxis examined their naked beauties, and retained five, from whose
elegance and graces united, he conceived in his mind the form of
the most perfect woman in the universe, which his pencil at last
executed with wonderful success. His contest with Parrhasius is well
known [_See:_ Parrhasius]; but though he represented nature in such
perfection, and copied all her beauties with such exactness, he
often found himself deceived. He painted grapes, and formed an idea
of the goodness of his piece from the birds which came to eat the
fruit on the canvas. But he soon acknowledged that the whole was
an ill-executed piece, as the figure of the man who carried the
grapes was not done with sufficient expression to terrify the birds.
According to some, Zeuxis died from laughing at a comical picture
which he had made of an old woman. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_, &c.――_Quintilian._
=Zeuxo=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod._
=Zilia=, or =Zelis=, a town in Mauritania, at the mouth of a river of
the same name. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Zimara=, a town of Armenia Minor, 12 miles from the sources of the
Euphrates. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 24.
=Zingis=, a promontory of Æthiopia, near the entrance of the Red sea,
now cape _Orfui_.
=Ziobĕris=, a river of Hyrcania, whose rapid course is described by
_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Zipætes=, a king of Bithynia, who died in his 70th year, B.C. 279.
=Zitha=, a town of Mesopotamia.
=Ziza=, a town of Arabia.
=Zōĭlus=, a sophist and grammarian of Amphipolis, B.C. 259. He rendered
himself known by his severe criticisms on the works of Isocrates
and Plato, and the poems of Homer, for which he received the name
of _Homeromastic_, or the chastiser of Homer. He presented his
criticisms to Ptolemy Philadelphus, but they were rejected with
indignation, though the author declared that he starved for want of
bread. Some say that Zoilus was cruelly stoned to death, or exposed
on a cross by order of Ptolemy, while others support that he was
burnt alive at Smyrna. The name of _Zoilus_ is generally applied
to austere critics. The works of this unfortunate grammarian are
lost. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 11, ch. 10.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._――_Ovid_, _Remedia Amoris_, li. 266.――――An officer
in the army of Alexander.