A new classical dictionary of biography, mythology, and geography, partly based upon the Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology.

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NEW

CLASSICAL* DICTIONARY 3^/f OP GREEK AND ROMAN

BIOGRAPHY, MYTHOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY, PARTLY

BASED

UPON

THE

DICTIONARY- OF GREEK AND ROMAN BIOGRAPHY AND MYTHOLOGY.

BY WILLIAM SMITH,7 LL.D.,7 O

EDITOR OF THE DICTIONARIES OF GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES, AND OF GREEK AND ROMAN BIOGRAPHY AND MYTHOLOGY. ' ’ . > **«!/!* *•

‘

'

•iM*

\

PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

The volume here presented to the American public is one of a series of Diction¬ aries prepared under the editorial supervision of Dr. William Smith, aided by a number of learned men, and designed to present in an English dress the valuable historical and archaeological researches of the scholars of Germany.

For it is a

fact not to be denied, that classical learning has found its proper abode in the latter country, and that whatever of value on these subjects has appeared in England for many years past, has been, with a few honorable exceptions—rari nantes in gurgite vasto—derived immediately or remotely from German sources. For instance, an English “ Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge ” desires a “ History of Greek Literature; ” none but a German can be found competent to prepare it, and when death removes him in the midst of his noble efforts, a continuator can not be found on English soil, and the ablest history of Greek literature (as far as it goes) remains a fragment.

Turn over the pages of the most

elaborate and valuable English histories of Greece, and how few names are there quoted as authorities out of the limits of the land of antiquarian research. wall’s and Grote’s splendid superstructures rest on Teutonic foundations.

ThirlThe

text-books used even in the Universities, which claim a Bentley and a Porson among their illustrious dead, and where Gaisford still labors in a green old age, the Nestor of English scholarship, are mere reprints fr6m, or based on, German recensions.

The University press sends forth an Aristotle, an iEschylus, a

Sophocles, and what English alumnus of Oxford or Cambridge performs the critical revision—we read on the title-page the Teutonic names of Bekker, Dindorf, &c. As in every other department of classical learning English scholarship is indebted to German labors, so, until the appearance of the present series of dictionaries (mostly the result of German erudition), she had nothing to put in comparison with the valuable classical encyclopaedias of Germany but the miserable compendiums of Lempriefe and Dymock—compilations in which the errors were so glaring and so absurd, that when the American editor of the present work prepared a revised edition of Lempriere, pruning away many of its faults, correcting many of its misstatements, supplying many of its deficiencies, and introducing to his coun¬ trymen the latest results of German scholarship, his work was immediately reprinted, and found extensive circulation in England.

Though he had to work

single-handed, and amid many discouragements and disadvantages, yet his labors seemed to meet with favor abroad, and this approbation was distinctly manifested in the fact that his last revision of Lempriere was republished in its native land in several different forms and in abridgments.

What he sought to do unaided, and

in the intervals of laborious professional duties, has now been undertaken on a more extended scale by an association of scholars, both English and foreign.

The

increased attention paid to this department in Germany, the recent discoveries made by travellers in more thorough explorations, the vast amount of literary

PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

VI

material collected in separate works, or scattered through the published proceed¬ ings of learned societies, at length suggested to these scholars the propriety of exhibiting in one body the latest results of German learning.

An able and useful

guide was found at hand in the learned and copious “ Real-Encyclopadie der Alterthumswissenschaft von Aug. Pauly.”

Following in the footsteps of Pauly and his

fellow-laborers, and using freely the materials and the references of these writers, as well as other works of standard excellence not otherwise accessible to English students, Dr. William Smith, aided by some twenty-eight collaborateurs, English and German, prepared, 1st. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London, 1842, in one vol. 8vo., of 1121 pages; reprinted in a new edition, London, 1850. 2dly. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, in 3 vols. 8vo., of about 3600 pages; to be followed by, Sdly. A Dictionary of Ancient Geography, now in preparation. After the completion of the second of these works, Dr. W. Smith and his brother, the Rev. Philip Smith, from that work, from Pauly’s Encyclopadie, and other works, drew up a “Classical Dictionary for Schools” (of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology, and Geography), which should by its size and price be accessible to all students, and present in a brief and convenient form the latest and most reliable results in these departments.

The plan and detail of the work are

stated at length in the preface of the English editor, subjoined to this, on p. xiii.xv., to which the reader is referred.

When the printing of this work commenced,

the publishers of the American edition immediately made an jfrrangement with the English publishers, and purchased at a considerable cost the sheets in advance, to be revised and edited for «irculation in this country ; and the two books were to appear nearly simultaneously.

The present work is the revised edition of the

English one, and will be found, the editor believes, greatly improved, as well as much more complete.

It is not, however designed to, and, in the editor’s opinion,

will not supersede his own “ Classical Dictionary” published in 1841, since the articles are purposely brief, and results only are stated, without that fullness of detail which is desirable to the more advanced scholar and the educated man of leisure ; but it is intended for the use of those whose means will not allow a more expensive, or their scanty time the use of a more copious work; in other words, it is meant to take the place, by reason of its convenient size and low price, of Lempriere’s old dictionary, which, with all its absurd errors and defects, still has a lingering existence in certain parts of our country on account of its cheapness. On this head the English editor speaks strongly; in point of literary or scientific value, Lempriere’s dictionary is dead—“ requiescat in pace”—and to put it into a boy’s hands now as a guide in classical matters would be as wise and as useful as giving him some mystic treatise of the Middle Ages on alchemy to serve as a text¬ book in chemistry.

The present work contains all the names of any value to a

schoolboy occurring in Lempriere, and a great many not in that work, while the information is derived from the fountain-head, and not from the diluted stream of French encyclopedias. As regards the plan pursued in revising the work, the editor has been guided by the wants of the class for whom it is specially designed; he has therefore inserted

PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

VII

more fully than in the original the names occurring in the authors most frequently read by younger students, as Caesar, Sallust, Virgil, Cicero, Ovid, Xenophon, Herodotus, Homer, &c., and has endeavored to give briefly such information as a boy meeting with any of these names in his author would seek in a classical dictionary. For this purpose he has used freely the most recent and most reliable authorities; he has added brief notices from Dr. Smith’s Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, and from his own Classical Dictionary, of course, abridging to suit the character of - the work ; he has also, among other works less frequently consulted, and single books on special topics unnecessary to be enumerated, derived materials from Ersch and Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyclopadie (A-F, H-Italien, O-Phokylides), 97 vols. 4to, from Kitto’s and Winer’s Bible Cyclopaedia, from the indexes and notes to the best editions of the classic authors, especially the valuable index to Groskurd’s translation of Strabo, and the Onomasticon Ciceronianum and Platonicum of Orelli, from Gruber’s Mythologisches Lexicon, 3 vols. 8vo, from Man¬ ner’s, Ukert’s, and especially Forbiger’s Alte Geographie, from Cramer’s Ancient Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor, from numerous recent books of travel in classic and sacred lands, from G rote’s and Thirlwall’s Greece, and Niebuhr’s Rome and Lec¬ tures ; but particularly would he acknowledge, in the most explicit terms, his obli¬ gations to Pauly’s Real-Encyclopadie der Alterthumswissenschaft (A-Thymna), and to Kraft and Muller’s improved edition of Funke’s Real-Schullexicon (of which, unfortunately, only the first volume, A-K, has appeared): from these two works he has derived many of his own articles, and has been enabled to correct many of those in the English work taken from the same sources.

In this connection, the

editor regrets to find that Dr. W. Smith and some of his coadjutors have studi¬ ously avoided, in all their dictionaries hitherto published, making any direct acknowledgment of their indebtedness to the former of these two works.

Although

the plan and much of the detail of the works in question are taken from Pauly’s, there is no indication of the existence of such a book in the preface to the Diction¬ ary of Antiquities, or to the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, and this omission has led a distinguished German scholar, in a notice of the latter work in the Leipziger Repertorium for February, 1846, to complain of this conduct as unscholarlike and reprehensible: he says, “ Under this head the editor (Dr. W. Smith) ought not to have omitted stating of how great service to him and several of his coadjutors the 1 Encyclopedia of Classical Antiquity,’ begun by Aug. Pauly and continued after his (Pauly’s) death by Chr. Walz and W. Teuffel, has been, and especially since we can show that the above-named production of German scholars has been actually adopted as the basis of the English Dictionary, although the plan of the latter is considerably altered.” . . . . “ In regard to its (Smith’s Dictionary of Biography and Mythology) relation to the Stuttgard (Pauly’s) Ency¬ clopaedia, we have still further to remark, that the articles which have been bor¬ rowed from it, namely, by Dr. Schmitz and the editor, have been revised, and in some respects considerably enlarged.” * * “ Hier hatte der Herausgeber nicht verschweigen sollen, von wie grossem Nutzen ihm und mehreren seiner mitarbeiter die von Aug. Pauly begonnene und nach dessen Tode von Ch. Walz and W. Teuffel forgesetzte c Real-Encyclopadie der Classischen Alterthumswis-

PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

yin

The present edition is called an enlarged and corrected one, and the editor thinks; he may justly claim to have improved as well as enlarged the work: his own addi¬ tions are inclosed in brackets, and amount to more than 1400 independent articles, -while the additions to articles already in the work, but either too briefly or incor¬ rectly stated, or omitting some important matter, are not a few.

The editor has

bestowed considerable care on the department of bibliography, and under this head many additions will be found.

Dr. Smith has been content in most cases to copy

the statements in the Dictionary of Biography.and Mythology, without noticing many valuable books which have appeared since the publication of that workMany corrections of names, or erroneous statements too short to be marked in the text, will also be found on a comparison of the two editions; we have kept a list of these, and subjoin some of the more important of them here, that the public may see that the revision of the work has been pretty thorough.

Many mere verbal

alterations and corrections of oversight or carelessness in reading the proofs might also be adduced. Ab® is said to be in Phocis, on the boundaries of Eubcea ! iEsAcus !

Thetis is used for Tethys, and the error is very frequently repeated, in most

cases copied from the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, in the present instance adopted by Dr. Schmitz from Pauly, s. v. Alexandria :

oftener ia, rarely ea, a statement just the reverse of the fact, and for cor¬

rection, vide the article in the Dictionary. Ancjeus : the Greek quotation is wrong: the line as given by us from the scholiast is a

hexameter verse, as it is also given by Thirl wall in the Philological Museum, vol. i., page 107, quoted by Dr. Schmitz for his authority, though he copies the altered Greek from Pauly. Anius : Dryope is copied erroneously from the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology,

and the account of the daughters of Anius is taken incorrectly from Kraft and Mullei, though right in the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology. Antonia 1 is called husband of L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, and Antonia 2, the husband

of Drusus ; where the editor, copying from the German of Kraft and Muller, has taken Gemahlin (wife) for Gemahl (husband) ; and so again under Cretheus, by way probably of compensation, Kraft and Muller’s Gemahl (husband) i&

translated wife, and Cretheus is made li wife of TyroP Aphroditopolis, No. 3, 1, from Kraft and Muller, Aphroditopo/is Nomos for -lites. Apis (the city) is said to be 10 stadia -west of Paraetonium for 100, which erroneous

statement, probably a typographical slip in the German work, is copied from Kraft and Muller. Assus : ruins near Beram, a typographical error from Kraft and Muller for Beram or Beirara. Arcadia (p. 70), the greatest river of Peloponnesus is said to be the Achelous ! ! Argonaut® (p. 76) : “ And when Pollux was slain by Amycus,” copied from an article

senschaft,’ gewesen ist, und zwar um so weniger, da wir diese Arbeit deutscher Gelehrten geradezu als die Grundlage des englischen Dictionary bezeichnen diirfen, obschon der Plan derselben vielfach anders angelegt ist.” * * * “ Ueber das Verhaltniss zu der Stuttgarter Encyklopadie ist noch zu bemerken, das die Artikel, welche daher entlehnt sind, namentlich von Schmitz und dem Herausgeber, aufs Neue durchgesehen und zum Theil schatzbar erweitert sind.”

PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR. in the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology hy Dr. L. Schmitz, who has compiled the account from Grotefend’s in Pauly, and falls into Grotefend’s unaccountable blun¬ der of making Amycus slay Pollux, though Apollodorus, whose narrative both profess to follow, says plainly enough the reverse (Ho?.vdevK7)£ tie, inoaxofievog tzvktcvoclv 7rpdf avrovr rrXrj^ag Karel rdv avxeva aneKreive, i., 9, 20, § 2), and yet Dr. Schmitz, at the end of his article, quotes Schcenemann, de Geogr. Argonaut.; Ukert, Geographic der Griech. und Romer; Mul¬ ler, Orchomenos, &c., but says not a word about Pauly’s Encyclopedic or Grotefend. Other instances of similarity to Pauly’s work are frequent in the articles of this contri¬ butor, but this is not the place to point them out. Aulis : a strange fatality seems to hang over this

unfortunate place: the editors,

infected with the American spirit of annexation, transfer it, port and all, from the main land to the island of Euboea ! ! Bebryces,

after Craft and Muller, for Bebryces, or, at least, Bebryces; and in the

account of their king, the editor, copying hastily from Pauly, has mistaken the German Ihren for Hirer.

Pauly has “ Ihren Konig Amycus erschlug Pollux,” the termination of

the accusative indicating sufficiently the object; but Dr. Smith, in following the same order in English, has made quite a difference in the result : “whose king, Amycus, slew Pollux P Cjesar, No. 5: L. Caesar is called the uncle, and afterward nephew, of M. Antony in

the same article.

Chares (at the end), the colossus, overthrown B.C. 224, and removed A.D. 672; of course it could not have remained on the ground 923 years, as stated. Chion : thirteen letters for seventeen. Cocalus: it is said that he received Daedalus, and afterward killed him, when Minos

came in pursuit of him.

It was Minos that was killed; the error is taken from Dr.

Schmitz, in the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology. Cratos : “ Uranus and Ge” for “ Pallas and Styx;” taken from Dr. Schmitz, in the Dic¬

tionary of Biography and Mythology. Cyme, in iEolis : it is said to have been Hesiod’s birth-place ! though, under Hesiod, it

is correctly stated that “ we learn from his own poem that he was born in the village of Ascra, in Baeotia.” Erinnyes :

reference is made to Eumenid# / for a feminine plural; and so again,,

under Phaethon, his sisters are called Heliad# ! the same error occurs under Tisiphone (Eumenidtf /) and under Valens (the islands Staechad# / for des): in part from the Diction¬ ary of Biography and Mythology. Halesus : he is said to have been slain by “ Evander” for “Pallas,” copied from Dr.

Schmitz in the larger dictionary. Halmyris :

we have 'Ahpvpig,

Halosydne :

sc. lipriv for Tdpvrj.

Thetys (or Thetis), as usual, for Tethys; from Dr. Schmitz, in the Diction¬

ary of Biography and Mythology. Helios : Phaetusa, and, under Heliades, Phaeton, for “ thV Hercules (p.

310): he is said to have taken Pylos and slain Periclymenus, a son of

Neleus ; elsewhere, all the sons of Neleus, except Nestor. Ithome: “last” Messenian war for “first.” Leander: “Herois” is made the genitive of “Hero.” Leontiades :

Spartan ” exiles

for “

Theban.”

Leucippus : his birth-place is inferred to be Elis ! ! because he was of the “ Eleatic ”

school,

instead of “ Elea,” in Italy ! copied from the Dictionary of Biography and

Mythology. Maximus, No. 2: Dionysius is styled Halicarnassus /

x

PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR. Mycenje : the treasury of Atreus, in Mycenae, is called the treasury of Athens! and the

.same error is repeated under Pelasgi (near the end). Myronides : Megara is used for Megam. Nereus : just as Proteus, in the story of Ulysses, for Menelaus. Nitride : vofios has the feminine adjective Nirpiung! agreeing with it. Oasis : al ’Oaalrai is used for oi ’Oaa. Ogyris : 2000 stadia = 20 geographical miles for 200. Padus : Mount Vesula for -Ins! Panda : the Siraces for Siraci, as used by Tacitus. Pasitigris : it is said to be now Karoon, which name is given to the Eulaeus, s. v. Paulinus (p. 531): “ Nero’s” for “ Otho’s.” Peloponnesus : in the enumeration of its provinces, Argolis is strangely omitted. Phocis :

Daphnus is placed on the Euboean Sea, between the Locri Ozolce !! and

Opuntii. Phocis : The Crissmn plain is placed in the southeast, on the borders of Locri Ozolse !

and anti-historical for ante-historical. Picenum : along the northern ! coast of the Adriatic for western. Pirithous : Theseus is said to have placed Helen at li JEthra /” under the care of

« Phcedra /” Poseidon (p. 610): Pasiphae is made u daughter /” of Minos. Sassula : Tiber for Tibw.* / Scopas, No. 1 : he is put to death B.C. 296, though alive in B.C. 204 ; copied from the

larger dictionary. Silanus, No. 6: the dates refer to B.C. for A.D. Tavium : now Boghaz-Kieni for Kieui is a typographical error copied from Pauly. Theophrastus (p. 763) is said to have presided in the Academy! (for Lyceum), 35 years. Terentia, the wife of Cicero, is called Tullia, and this error is copied from the Diction¬

ary of Biography and Mythology.

In some instances references are made to articles which are omitted ; these the editor has been careful to supply, while in other cases important names have been passed over altogether: a few of these are given in the English work in the addenda, and many others not there supplied might be quoted, but any one running over the additions marked with brackets can judge of the extent of this improve¬ ment in the American edition for himself.

The editor ought to add on this point,

that, before receiving the page of addenda, he had already inserted in their proper places the only important articles there given.

The biographical and mythological

notices in the present work, which have been chiefly taken from the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, have been compared with the corresponding ones in that work, and several errors are found to have been made in the process of abridgment, e. g., Feronia (p. 263) is said to have had her chief sanctuary at Terracina, near Mount

Soracte !!

Now Terracina is in Latium, southeast of Rome, while Mount Soracte was in

Etruria, some distance north of Rome : the larger dictionary says, “ Besides the sanctua¬ ries at Terracina and near Mount Soracte, she had others at,” &c. Other errors from the same cause will be found (in the English work, corrected in this) under Octavius No. 8, Masinissa, Orestes, Tissaphernes, &c.

Another great blemish in the English work is the utter carelessness exhibited in

xi

PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

the accentuation of the Greek names.

If it be desirable to have the Greek

accented at all, it should be done correctly.

The editor has carefully revised this

portion of the work also, and hopes no gross error will be found uncorrected.

In

the historical and mythological names the errors are copied from the Dictionary °f Biography and Mythology, which exhibits the same carelessness in this respect, and these errors are not of that nature that they might result merely from haste, -or a disinclination to turn to the pages of a lexicon or an author to find the place of the accent, but such as the slightest acquaintance with the principles of Greek accentuation would indicate to the eye at once ; e. y., dissyllables with long penult and short final syllable having the acute on the penult; the circumflex placed on the antepenult; the acute placed on the penult of feminine adjectives in tg and ag; or final syllable long by nature, with circumflex on the penult, &c.; as instances almost at random, Boufotfrif, KAsav%, Knjrtas, ’Apr]Was, rsvsraios, TXauxog, KaXXlfisSuv, TtffAijvos, ’’IXos, Mi5as, Kp^vai, MoipoxX^s, ©aXarra, IlsX'iafcs, &c. &c.

In

the English edition the Greek names of the Greek divinities are commonly given, but with considerable inconsistency; e. g., Ge is usually employed, though it does not occur in the work as a separate article at all, Gaea being the form in the alpha¬ betical order, and this is frequently used instead of Ge; Pluto or Aidoneus some¬ times instead of Hades, Bacchus interchangeably with Dionysius; while, on the other hand, Aesculapius and Hercules, Ulysses and Pollux, Ajax, and other heroes, ^are uniformly written after the Latin form of the name; these the editor has allowed to stand, and so, too, he has retained the Greek names of the divinities, Fut has placed by the side of this form the more usual one inclosed in parentheses, or has placed the parentheses around the former.

The change, familiar enough to

the Germans and those well acquainted with German literature, seems yet, among us, too great and radical a one to be made at once.

Time may effect this, but at

present, as a matter of expediency, “ subjudice lis est.” To impart additional value to the work, and render it still more complete as a •classical guide and book of reference, the editor has appended from the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology the “ Chronological Tables of Greek and Roman History” subjoined to that work, and wdiich have been drawn up with great care from the Fasti Hellenici and Romani of Clinton, the Griechische and Romische Zeittafeln of Fischer and Soetbeer, and the Annales Veterum Regnorum et Populorum of Zumpt, and in addition to these, the “ Tables of Weights, Measures, and Money,” from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

With these

various improvements and additions, the editor now presents the book to the American public, and ventures to recommend it as a reliable guide to those, for whom it is designed, in the various departments w'hich on its title-page it professes to comprise. In conclusion, the editor would be guilty of great injustice were he not to acknowledge in the warmest terms the obligations which he is under to his learned and accurate friend Professor Drisler, whose very efficient co-operation has been secured in the revisal and correction of the entire work.

Every article has been

read over and examined in common, and a frank interchange of opinions has been made wherever any point occurred of sufficient importance to warrant this.

And

it is on this account that he ventures to recommend the present volume with more confidence to the young student, than if it had been the result merely of his own individual exertions. Columbia College,

December, 1850.

/if /

9

PREFACE. The great progress which classical studies have made in Europe, and more espe¬ cially in Germany, during the present century, has superseded most of the works usually employed in the elucidation of the Greek and Roman writers. It had long been felt by our best scholars and teachers that something better was required thau we yet possessed in the English language for illustrating the Antiquities, Litera¬ ture, Mythology, and Geography of the ancient writers, and for enabling a diligent student to read them in the most profitable manner. It was with a view of sup¬ plying this acknowledged want that the series of classical dictionaries was under¬ taken ; and the very favorable manner in which these works have been received by the scholars and teachers of this country demands from the editor his most grateful acknowledgments. The approbation with which he has been favored has encouraged him to proceed in the design which he had formed from the beginning, of preparing a series of works which might be useful not only to the scholar and the more advanced student, but also to those who were entering on their classical studies. The dictionaries of “ Greek and Roman Antiquities ” and of “ Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,” which are already completed, and the “ Dic¬ tionary of Greek and Roman Geography,” on which the editor is now engaged, are intended to meet the wants of the more advanced scholar; but these works are on too extended a scale, and enter too much into details, to be suitable for the use of junior students. Eor the latter class of persons a work is required of the same kind as Lempriere’s well-known dictionary, containing in a single volume the most important names, biographical, mythological, and geographical, occurring in the Greek and Roman writers usually read in our public schools. It is invidious for an author to speak of the defects of his predecessors; but it may safely be said that Lempriere’s work, which originally contained the most serious mistakes, has long since become obsolete, and that since the time it was comp^ed we have attained to more correct knowledge on a vast number of subjects comprised in that work. The present dictionary is designed, as already remarked, chiefly to elucidate the Greek and Roman writers usually read in schools; but, at the same time, it has not been considered expedient to omit any proper names connected with classical antiquity, of which it is expected that some knowledge ought to be possessed by every person who aspires to a liberal education. Accordingly, while more space has been given to the prominent Greek and Roman writers, and to the more dis¬ tinguished characters of Greek and Roman history, other names have not been omitted altogether, but only treated with greater brevity. The chief difficulty which every author has to contend with in a work like the present is the vastness of his subject and the copiousness of his materials. It has therefore been neces¬ sary in all cases to study the greatest possible brevity, to avoid all discussions, and to be satisfied with giving simply the results at which the best modern scholars

PREFACE.

xiv

have arrived.

The writer is fully aware that in adopting this plan he has fre¬

quently stated dogmatically conclusions which may be open to much dispute; but he has thought it better to run this risk, rather than to encumber and bewilder the junior student with conflicting opinions.

With the view likewise of economizing

space, few references have been given to ancient and modern writers.

In fact, such

references are rarely of service to the persons for whom such a work as the pre¬ sent is intended, and serve more for parade than for any useful purpose; and it has been the less necessary to give them in this work, as it is supposed that thepersons who really require them will be in possession of the larger dictionaries. The present work may be divided into the three distinct parts, Biography, Myth¬ ology, and Geography, on each of which a few words may be necessary. The biographical portion may again be divided into the three departments of History, Literature, and Art.

The historical articles include all the names of any

importance which occur in the Greek and Roman writers, from the earliest times down to the extinction of the Western Empire, in the year 476 of our era.

Very

few names are inserted which are not included in this period, but still there are some persons who lived after the fall of the Western Empire who could not with propriety be omitted in a classical dictionary.

Such is the case with Justinian,

whose legislation has exerted such an important influence upon the nations of Western Europe; with Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, at whose court lived Cassiodorus and Boethius ; and with a few others.

The lives of the later Western

emperors and their contemporaries are given with greater brevity than the lives of such persons as lived in the more important epochs of Greek and Roman his¬ tory, since the students for whom the present work is intended will rarely require information respecting the later period of the empire.

The Romans, as a general

rule, have been given under the cognomens, and not under the gentile names; but in cases where a person is more usually mentioned under the name of his gens than under that of his cognomen, he will be found under the former.

Thus, for

example, the two celebrated conspirators against Caesar, Brutus and Cassius, are given under these names respectively, though uniformity would require either that Cassius should be inserted under his cognomen of Longinus, or Brutus under his gentile name of Junius.

But in this as in all other cases, it has been considered

more advisable to consult utility than to adhere to any prescribed rule, which would be attended with practical inconveniences. To the literary articles considerable space has been devoted.

Not only are all

Greek and Roman writers inserted whose works are extant, but also all such as exercised any important influence upon Greek and Roman literature, although their writings have not come down to us.

It has been thought quite unnecessary, how¬

ever, to give the vast number of writers mentioned only by Athenseus, Stobteus, the Lexicographers, and the Scholiasts; for, though such names ought to be found in a complete history of Greek and Roman literature, they would be clearly out of place in a work like the present.

In the case of all writers whose works are

extant, a brief account of their works, as well as of their lives, is given; and at the end of each article one or two of the best modern editions are specified.

As

the present work is designed for the elucidation of the classical writers, the Chris¬ tian writers are omitted, with the exception of the more distinguished fathers, who form a constituent part of the history of Greek and Roman literature.

The

PREFACE.

xv

Byzantine historians are, for the same reason, inserted; though in their case, as well as in the case of the Christian Fathers, it has been impossible to give a com¬ plete account either of their lives or of their writings. The lives of all the more important artists have been inserted, and an account has also been given of their extant works.

The history of ancient art has received

so little attention from the scholars of this country, that it has been deemed advi¬ sable to devote as much space to this important subject as the limits of the work would allow.

Accordingly, some artists are noticed on account of their celebrity

in the history of art, although their names are not even mentioned in the ancient writers.

This remark applies to Agasias, the sculptor of the Borghese gladiator,

which is still preserved in the Louvre at Paris ; to Agesander, one of the sculptors of the group of Laocoon; to Glycon, the sculptor of the Farnese Hercules, and to others.

On the contrary, many of the names of the artists in Pliny’s long list

are omitted, because they possess no importance in the history of art. In writing the mythological articles, care has been taken to avoid, as far as pos¬ sible, all indelicate allusions, as the work will probably be much in the hands of young persons.

It is of so much importance to discriminate between the Greek

and Roman mythology, that an account of the Greek divinities is given under their Greek names, and of the Roman divinities under their Latin names, a practice which is universally adopted by the Continental writers, which has received the sanction of some of our own scholars, and which is, moreover, of such great utility in guarding against endless confusions and mistakes as to require no apology for its introduction into this work. For the geographical articles the editor is alone responsible. and mythological articles are founded upon thosejj^the

“

The biographical

Dictionary of Greek and

Roman Biography and Mythology,” but the geographical articles are written entirely anew for the present work.

In addition to the original sources, the editor

has availed himself of the best modern treatises on the subject, and of the valua¬ ble works of travels in Greece, Italy, and the East, which have appeared within the last few years, both in England and in Germany.

It would have been impos¬

sible to give references to these treatises without interfering with the general plan of the present work, but this omission will be supplied in the forthcoming “ Dic¬ tionary of Greek and Roman Geography.”

It is hoped that in the geographical

portion of the work very few omissions will be discovered of names occurring in the chief classical writers; but the great number of names found only in Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and the Itineraries, have been purposely omitted, except in cases where such names have become of historical celebrity, or have given rise to important towns in modern times.

At the commencement of every geographical

article the Ethnic name and the modern name have been given, whenever they could be ascertained.

In conclusion, the editor has to express his obligations to

his brother, the Rev. Philip Smith, who has rendered him valuable assistance by writing the geographical articles relating to Asia and Africa. WILLIAM SMITH. London,

August 12th, 1850.

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