Dictionary
TUTOR	100.00%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A guardian. (See TUTELA.).
TUTELA	48.73%
The office of guardian among the ROMANS. It affected not only minors, but also widows and grown up daughters up to the time of their marriage, with the exception of the Vestals. In the case of impuberes or pupilli, ordinary minors, the guardian (tutor) managed their property until the time of their majority, which with girls began at twelve, with boys at fourteen. At this age the guardianship determined, and girls became, like widows, possessed of independent power over their property, but still remained so far under guardianship, that they were unable to take legal proceedings without the consent of their guardians. Three kinds of tutores have been distinguished: (1) tutor testamentarius, who was named in the will. By a provision in the will women were sometimes allowed the choice of their guardian, who was then called tutor optivus (" chosen guardian "), to distinguish him from the tutor dativus (or " specified guardian "). If no guardian was named in the will, or the guardian named declined the office, or subsequently resigned it, the next of kin stopped in as (2) tutor legitimus. In the case of a widow, this was the son, if of age, or the husband's brother, and so on. In the case of a daughter, the brother, if of age, the uncle on the father's side, and so on. Among the patricians, if there were no kinsmen, the gentiles undertook the duties. (3) If there were neither a tutor testamentarius nor a tutor legitimus, then the praetor appointed a tutor Atilianus, so called because the lex Atilia (about 188 B.C.) had introduced this kind of guardian. Under the Empire these guardians were named by the consuls, from the time of Marcus Aurelius by a regular proetor tutelaris. Women having three children were exempted from all guardianship by Augustus. Then Claudius abolished guardianship on the part of the agnati in the case of all women. Diocletian extended this abolition to the case of minors. After the time of Diocletian, guardianship over women fell into disuse, and afterwards women were themselves allowed to act as guardians. A guardian found guilty of betraying his trust was punished by infamia (q.v.). (Cp. CURA.) Among the ATHENIANS the guardian (epitropos), if not named by the father in the will, was generally appointed by the archon from the nearest relations. The archon was also the proper authority in suits relating to guardianship, which, during the minority of the ward, could be brought forward in the form of a public prosecution; and, after the ward had attained his majority, in that of a private lawsuit.
AGATHARCHIDES	29.72%
A Greek grammarian of Cnidus, who lived at Alexandria in the 2nd century B.C. as tutor, and afterwards guardian, of a prince. He composed several historical works (one on the successors of Alexander), a well written performance, and a description of the Red Sea in five books. Of the former only a few fragments remain, of the last some considerable extracts from the first and fifth books.
ZENODOTUS	25.22%
The first considerable philological critic of the Alexandrian school. He came from Ephesus, and lived in the first half of the 3rd century B.C. at Alexandria as tutor to the sons of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and superintendent of the library founded by that king. He undertook the first critical edition of the Homeric poems, and thus laid the foundation for the works of Aristophanes of Byzantium, his most celebrated pupil, and of Aristarchus.
PHILETAS	24.30%
A Greek grammarian and poet, of the island of Cos. He lived in the second half of the 4th century, latterly as tutor to Ptolemy II (Philadelphus) in Alexandria. Besides epics he composed elegies on his beloved Battis, which were highly prized at Alexandria and Rome, and were imitated by Propertius [iv 1, 1]. We possess only scanty fragments of these elegies.
GORGLAS	23.66%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Greek rhetorician of the second half of the 1st century B.C. He was tutor to the younger Cicero, and was the author of a treatise on the figures of speech, which is in part preserved in a Latin paraphrase by Rutilius Lupus. (See RUTILIUS LUPUS.)
POLLUX	17.23%
Julius Pollux. A Greek rhetorician, a native of Naucratis in Egypt, in the latter half of the 2nd century A.D.., tutor of the emperor Commodus, from whom he received an appointment as a public teacher in Athens. His contemporaries, such as Lucian, ridiculed him for his small capacity. [Lucian is supposed to have attacked him in his Rhetorum Praeceptor, his Lexiphanes, and his De Saltatione, chap. 33.] We possess from his hand a dictionary in ten books dedicated to his pupil. This is arranged, not in the order of the alphabet, but according to subjects. In spite of all its confusion, and its want of critical acumen, it throws much light on the language, literature, and antiquities of Greece.
DONATUS	16.78%
A Roman scholar and rhetorician of about the middle of the 4th century [smallCaps>A.D., and tutor of Jerome. He was the author of a Latin grammar (Ars Grammatica) in three books. This was much commented on by Servius, Pompeius, and others. His Ars Minor,, or short catechism on the eight parts of speech, survived long after the Middle Ages as the chief manual for elementary instruction. These works survive in their original form. He also wrote a valuable commentary on Terence, which we possess in an imperfect shape, the notes on the Heauton Timorumenos being lost, and not in its original form. [He was also the author of a lost commentary on Vergil, which is often alluded to contemptuously by Servius.]
EUMENIUS	15.95%
One of the Roman writers of panegyrics on the emperors. He was born about 250 A.D. at Augustodunum (Autun) in Gaul; was tutor to Constantius Chlorus, and for a long time accompanied him on his campaigns. Later on, he settled in his native city, where he gave instruction in rhetoric. In 296 he delivered an oration on behalf of the restoration of schools (Pro Restaurandis Scholis). Besides this, three other speeches are attributed to him. These are panegyrics on Constantius Chlorus and Constantine, spoken at Treves in 296, 310, and 311 A.D. His tact and cleverness distinguish him from the other panegyrical writers of that age.
THEMISTIUS	15.39%
A Greek rhetorician of Paphlagonia, who lived in the second half of the 4th century A.D., as teacher of philosophy and oratory at Constantinople. He was much honoured by his contemporaries for his noble disposition and his learning and eloquence, which gained for him the name of Euphrades, or eloquent speaker. He was honoured with various marks of distinction by the emperors. Constantius made him a senator; Julian described him as the first philosopher of his age; Theodosius selected him as tutor to his son Arcadius, and in 384 nominated him to the prefecture. He died about 388. Thirty-four of his speeches have been preserved, one of them in a Latin translation only. They are partly philosophical and political, but principally eulogistic orations, either in compliment to or in memory of various emperors, composed in a clear, pleasant style, and valuable for the information they contain respecting contemporary history. Besides these, we possess four paraphrases by him of parts of Aristotle.
HEPHAESTION	15.33%
A Greek soldier, a native of Alexandria, who flourished about the middle of the 2nd Century A.D., and was tutor to the emperor Verus before his accession. He wrote a work on prosody, in forty-eight books, which he first abridged into eleven books, then into three, and finally into one. The final abridgment, called a manual (Encheiridion) has come down to us. It gives no more than a bare sketch of prosody, without any attempt at theoretical explanation of the facts; but it is, nevertheless, of immense value. It is the only complete treatise on Greek prosody which has survived from antiquity, and it quotes verses from the lost poets. Attached to it is a treatise on the different forms of poetry and composition, in two incomplete versions. The manual has a preface (Prolegomena) by Longinus, and two collections of scholia.
ARISTARCHUS	11.62%
A scholar, born in Samothrace, and a pupil of Aristophanes of Byzantium. He lived at Alexandria in the first half of the 2nd century B.C. as tutor to the royal princes, and keeper of the library. In the tyrannical reign of his pupil Ptolemy VII (Physcon) he fled to Cyprus, and there died of dropsy about B.C. 153, aged 72. He is the most famous of the Alexandrian Critic, and devoted his attention mainly to the Greek poets, especially Homer, to whom he rendered essential service by his critical edition of the text, which remains in substance the groundwork of our present recension. This edition had notes on the margin, indicating the verses which Aristarchus thought spurious or doubtful, and anything else worthy of remark. The meaning of the notes, and the reasons for appending them, were explained in separate commentaries and excursuses, founded on a marvellously minute acquaintance with the language and contents of the Homeric poems, and the whole of Greek literature. He was the head of the school of Aristarcheans, who continued working on classical texts in his spirit till after the beginning of the Empire. Of his numerous grammatical and exegetical works only fragments remain. An idea of his Homeric studies, and of their character, can best be gathered from the Venetian scholia to the Iliad, which are largely founded on extracts from the Aristarcheans Didymus and Aristonicus.
AUSONIUS	9.27%
The most remarkable Latin poet of the 4th century A.D.; born about 310 at Burdigala (Bordeaux). He was son of the private physician of Valentinian I, and afterwards prefect of Illyria. Educated thoroughly in grammar, rhetoric, and law, he practised as an advocate in his native city, where he afterwards became professor of grammar and rhetoric. He was then invited by Valentinian to undertake the education of his son Gratian, who, after he had ascended the throne, conferred upon him the consulship and other distinctions. After the assassination of Gratian he retired to his estate near Burdigala, where he continued to reside, in full literary activity, till 390. He became a Christian, probably on accepting the office of tutor to the prince. Besides composing a turgid address of thanks to Gratian, delivered at Treves, Ausonius wrote a series of poems, including verses in memory of deceased relatives (Parentalia), verses commemorating his colleagues (Commemoratio Professorum Burdigalensium), Epitaphia, Eclogoe, Epistuloe, Epigrammata, and a number of miscellaneous pieces, one of which (Mosella), is the narrative of a tour from Bingen on the Rhine to Berncastel (Tabernoe) on the Moselle and then up the Moselle past Neumagen (Noviomagum) to Treves. Its subject has secured the poem some renown. Ausonius is not a real poet; but he tries to make up for lack of genius by dexterity in metre and the manipulation of words, and by ornaments of learning and rhetoric. The consequence is, that his style is generally neither Simple nor natural.
LIBRARIES	7.19%
In the earlier times libraries, among the Greeks, were only possessed by private individuals, such as Euripides, Aristotle, and Theophrastus. Tradition attributed the establishment of a public library at Athens to Pisistratus in the 6th century B.C. This was said to have been carried off by Xerxes, and afterwards restored by the Syrian Seleucus Nicanor. The greatest library known in antiquity was that founded by the first Ptolemy at Alexandria, which is said to have contained 400,000 volumes. Next to this, the most important was that of the kings of Pergamon, said to have contained 200,000 volumes. This library was presented by Marcus Antonius to Cleopatra, when the best part of the library at the Museum of Alexandria was burnt down at the taking of the town by Caesar. There was a second library at Alexandria in the Serapeum. The first libraries which were formed at Rome were Greek, as, for instance, those of Aemilius Paullus, Sulla, and Lucullus, who had brought them to Rome as booty after their wars in Macedonia, Athens, and Asia Minor. From the middle of the last century of the Republic it became the fashion in wealthy families to form libraries; in country houses, especially, they were regarded as indispensable. Caesar had formed the plan of founding a public library in Rome, and of setting Varro to make a collection of Greek and Latin books. The first public library of Greek and Latin books was actually set up in the time of Augustus by Asinius Pollio in the atrium of Libertas. Augustus himself founded two more, the Octavian library in the portico of Octavia, and the Palatine in the temple of the Palatine Apollo. The most celebrated of those founded by the later emperors was the bybliotheca Ulpia of Trajan. In the later imperial period there were twenty-eight public libraries in Rome. There were some very considerable private collections, for instance, that of Serenus Sammonicus, the tutor of Gordian, which consisted of 62,000 volumes. 1,700 rolls have been found in a library discovered during the excavations at Herculaneum.
SENECA	5.35%
Lucius Anncaeus, the philosopher, son of (1), born at Corduba, about 5 B.C. In early youth he came to Rome, where, besides studying rhetoric, he devoted himself particularly to philosophy. While still young he entered active life as an orator, and in the service of the government. In 1 A.D. he was banished to Corsica by Claudius, at the instigation of Messalina, on the ostensible charge of being a participator and an accomplice in the debaucheries of Julia, the daughter of Germanicus. Not till eight years later did Claudius recall him at the request of Agrippina the younger, the emperor's niece and wife, and appoint him tutor to the youthful Nero, Agrippina's son by a former husband. After the young prince had ascended the throne in 54 A.D., Seneca still remained in the circle of those most closely attached to him, especially during the first five years of the reign, and exercised a beneficial influence over his former pupil, who manifested his thanks by making him valuable presents, and conferring upon him the consulship for 57. In 62 the intrigues of his opponents caused him to withdraw completely from the court and from public life. The conspiracy of Piso in 65 finally afforded Nero the early desired pretext for removing him. As the mode of his death was left to himself, he had his veins opened, and as death did not ensue with sufficient rapidity, he finally had himself put in a vapour-bath. During his lifetime he had often been reproached for finding more pleasure than a philosopher should in the good things of life. How little value he really set upon them was shown by the readiness with which he parted from them and the composure with which he met his end. Next to Cicero, he is the most famous philosophical writer of Rome, and one of the most gifted and original of Roman authors in general. As a philosopher, he was essentially a follower of the Stoics; but he directed his attention less to abstract speculation than to practical wisdom, which undoubtedly, as in his own instance, verges closely on mere prudence in the conduct of life. His writings are in a popular style, but they are characterized by copious knowledge and wide acquaintance with the human heart, and are remarkable for their richness in aphorisms that are at once profound in thought and terse in expression. The moral tone of his writings caused Christian tradition to represent him as a friend of the Apostle Paul, and even to invent a correspondence between them. [Cp. Lightfoot's Philippians, 1868, pp. 260-331] In versatility of genius, ease of production, and elegance of form, Seneca may be compared with Ovid. In style he accommodated himself completely to the taste of the times, which strained after rhetorical effect, though he fully recognised its degeneracy. Among his numerous prose writings are the following: (1) three letters of condolence (De Consolatione)--to his mother Helvia, to Polybius (the favourite of Claudius), and to Marcia (the daughter of Cremutius Cordus. The two first were composed in Corsica. (2) A series of discourses on philosophy and morals, the most important being those on Mercy (De Clementia), in two books, addressed to Nero; on Anger (De Ira), in three books; on Giving and Receiving Favours (De Beneficus), in seven books. (3) A collection in twenty books of 124 letters to his young friend Lucilius, mostly on questions of philosophy. (4) Investigations in Natural Science (Quaestiones Naturales,) in seven books, dedicated to the same Lucilius, the the first and only text-book on physics in Roman literature. In addition to these he wrote a biting satire on the death of the emperor Claudius (Ludus de Morte Claudii) entitled the Pumpkinification (Apocolocyntosis), instead of deification (apotheosis), in which prose and verse are mingled after the manner of Varro's Menippean Satires. We have express testimony that Seneca was also a poet [Tacitus, Ann., xix 52]. Besides certain epigrams, the following tragedies are ascribed to him: Hercules Furens, Thyestes, Phoedra, (Edipus Troades, Medea, Agamemnon, Herecules OEtoeus, three fragments upon the Theban myth united under the title of Thebais or Phoenissoe, and the fabula proetextata (q.v.) entitled Octavia. These are the only tragedies in all Roman literature that have come down to us. It may be taken as proved, that the last of these dramas, which treats of the tragic end of Octavia, the daughter of Claudius and wife of Nero, and in which Seneca himself appears, cannot be attributed to him, but belongs to a later date, though there are no decisive reasons for doubting the genuineness of the remainder. Their matter and form are borrowed from the Greek; [but their general character probably resembles that of the tragedies written in the Augustan age by Pollio and by Varius, rather than that of the ancient dramatists, such as Ennius and Pacuvius]. In their pointed expression they exhibit the same talent for style as his prose works, the same copiousness, philosophical bent, and rhetorical manner (the last frequently carried beyond the limits of taste). They seem to have been designed more as declamatory exercises than for actual performance on the stage.
WILLS	3.78%
ARISTOTLE	3.13%
One of the two greatest philosophers of antiquity, born B.C. 384 at Stageira, a Greek colony in Thrace. He was the son of Nicomachus, who died while acting as physician in ordinary to Amyntas II at Pella in Macedonia. In B.C. 367, after the death of his parents and the completion of his seventeenth year, Axistotle betook himself to Athens, became a pupil of Plato, and remained twenty years, latterly working as a teacher of rhetoric. About his relations with Plato unfavourable rumours were current, which may have had their origin in his subsequent opposition to the Platonic doctrine of ideas. That he arrived pretty early at opposite opinions, and gave emphatic expression to them, is quite credible. This may have been the occasion of Plato's comparing him (so it is said) to a colt that kicks his mother; yet Plato is also said to have called him "the intellect" of his school, and " the reader," on account of his habit of incessant study. Comparing him with Xenocrates, he remarked, that the one wanted a spur, the other a bridle. On the other hand, Aristotle, in one of his writings, combating his former master's theory of ideas, lays down the maxim that friendship, especially among philosophers, must not be allowed to violate the sanctity of truth; and in a fragment of an elegy he calls Plato the first man who showed in word and deed how a man is to become good and happy. After Plato had handed over his school to his sister's son Speusippus, Aristotle quitted Athens, B.C. 347, and repaired to his friend Hermeias, despot of Atarneus in Mysia. When that prince had fallen a prey to Persian intrigues he withdrew, B.C. 345, with his wife Pythias, his friend's sister, to Mitylene in Lesbos; and two years later accepted an invitation to Macedonia to be tutor to Alexander, then thirteen years old. He lived at the court eight years, though his tenure of office seems to have lasted barely half that time. Both Philip and his son esteemed him highly, and most liberally seconded his studies in natural science, for which he inherited his father's predilection. Alexander continued till his death to respect and love him, though the affair of Callisthenes (q.v.) occasioned some coolness between them. When the king undertook his expedition in Asia, Aristotle betook himself once more to Athens, and taught for thirteen years in the Gymnasium called the Lyceum. In the mornings he conversed with his maturer pupils on the higher problems of philosophy, walking up and down the shady avenues, from which practice the school received the name of Peripatetics. In the evenings he delivered courses of lectures on philosophy and rhetoric to a larger audience. After Alexander's death, when all adherents of the Macedonian supremacy were persecuted at Athens, a certain Demophilus brought against him a charge of impiety, where upon Aristotle, "to save the Athenians from sinning a second time against philosophy" so he is reported to have said, alluding to the fate of Socrates retired to Chalcis in Eubcaea. There he died late in the summer of the next year, B.C. 322. Of the very numerous writings of Aristotle, some were composed in a popular, others in a scientific form. A considerable number of the latter kind have come down to us, but of the former, which were written in the form of dialogues, only a few fragments. The strictly scientific works may be classed according to their contents, as they treat of Logic, Metaphysics, Natural Science or Ethics. (1) Those on LOGIC were comprehended by the later Aristotelians under the name of Organon ("instrument"), because they treat of Method, the instrument of research. They in clude the Categories, on the fundamental forms of ideas : the De Interpretatifte, on the doctrine of the judgment and on the proposition, important as an authority on philosophical terminology; the Analytica Priora and Posteriora, each in two books, the former on the syllogism, the latter on demonstration, definition, and distribution; the Topica in eight books, on dialectic inferences (those of probability); on Sophisms, the fallacies of sophists, and their solution. (2) The METAPHYSICS as they were called by late writers, in fourteen books, consist of one connected treatise and several shorter essays on what Aristotle himself calls " first philosophy," the doctrine of Being in itself and the ultimate grounds of Being; a work left unfinished by Aristotle and supplemented by foreign ingredients. The works on NATURAL SCIENCE are headed by the Physics in eight books, treating of the most general bases and relations of nature as a whole. This is followed up by four books on the Heavens or Universe, two on Beginning to be and Perishing, and the Meteorologica in four books, on the phenomena of the air. A short treaties On the Cosmos is spurious: that on the Directions and Names of Winds is a fragment of a larger work on the signs of storms; and the Problems (physical) is a collection gradually formed out of Aristotelian extracts. Of mathematical import are the Mechanical Problems (on the lever and balance) and the book about Indivisible Lines. Natural history is handled in the ten books of Animal History, and in four books on the Parts, five on the Generation, and one on the mode of Progression of Animals. The work on The Motion of Animals is probably spurious, certainly so the one on Plants in two books. Aristotle's treatise on this subject is lost. Turning to Psychology, we have the three books On the Soul and a number of smaller treatises (on the Senses and the Objects of Perception; on Memory and Recollection; on Sleep and Waking; on Dreams; on Divination by Sleep; on the Length and Shortness of Life; on Youth and Age, Life and Death; on Breathing; on Sound and Voice, etc.; that on Physiognomy is probably spurious). (4) Of the three general works on ETHICS, the Nicomachean Ethics in ten books, the Eudemian Ethics in seven, and the so-called Magna Moralia in two, the first alone, addressed to his son Nicomachus, and of marked excellence in matter and manner, is by Aristotle himself. The second is by his pupil Eudemus of Rhodes, and the third a mere abstract of the other two, especially of the second. The essay on Virtues and Vices is spurious. Closely connected with the Ethics is the Politics in eight books, a masterly work in spite of its incompleteness, treating of the aim and elements of a State, the various forms of Government, the ideal of a State and of Education. A valuable work on the Constitution of 158 states is lost, all but a few fragments.1 Of the two books on Aeconomics the first is spurious. Corresponding partly with the Logic, and partly with the Ethics, is the Rhetoric in three books,2 and the Poetics, a work of inestimable worth, not withstanding the ruinous condition in which its text has come clown to us. [The Rhetoric is a masterly treatise on oratory, regarded as an instrument for working upon the various passions and feelings of humanity.] Sundry other prose writings are preserved under Aristotle's name, e.g., that on Colours; the so-called Mirabiles Auscultationes, a collection of memoranda on all sorts of strange phenomena and occurrences, mostly bearing on natural science; on Melissus, Zeno, and Gorgias; six Letters which however are not regarded as genuine, any more than the 63 epigrams out of supposed mythological miscellany entitled Peplos. But we may safely assign to him he beautiful Scolion, or impromptu song, on his friend Hermeias, which takes the form of a Hymn to Virtue. A story dating from antiquity informs us that Aristotle bequeathed his own writings and his very considerable library to his pupil and successor in the office of teacher, Theophrastus, who again made them over to his pupil Mileus, of Scepsis in the Troad. After his death his relations are said to have buried them in a cellar, to guard them against the mania for collecting books which characterized the Pergamene princes. At last they were unearthed by Apellieon of Teos, a rich bibliophile, who brought them to Athens about 100 B.C., and tried to restore them from the wretched state into which they had fallen through the neglect of 130 years. Soon after, at the taking of Athens by the Romans, they fell into Sulla's hands, who brought them to Rome. Here the grammarian Tyrannion took copies of them, and on this basis the Peripatetic Andronicus of Rhodes prepared an edition of Aristotle's works. This would indeed partly account for the wretched condition in which some of them are preserved. At the same time it can be proved that the principal works were known during the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., 80 that the story affects only the author's original MSS., among which a number of works till then unpublished may have come to light. Though the writings preserved form rather less than half of the number which he actually wrote, there is quite enough to show the universality of Aristotle's intellect, which sought with equal ardour and acumen to explore and subdue the entire domain of research. He was the originator of many lines of study unknown before him,-Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric in its scientific aspect, Literary Criticism, Natural History, Physiology, Psychology; he was the first to attempt a History of Philosophy and of the forms of government then existing. His method, of which he must be considered the creator, is critical and empirical at once. In all cases he starts from facts, which he collects, sifts and groups as completely as he can, so as to get some general leading points of view, and with the help of these to arrive at a systematic arrangement of the subject, and a knowledge of its in most being, its cause. For to him the Cause is the essential part of knowledge, and the philosophy that searches into ultimate causes for the mere sake of knowing is the best and freest science. The form of Aristotle's works is by no means equal to their contents. Of the beautiful harmony between style and subject, that so charms us in Plato, there is not a trace in Aristotle; his manner of expression, though scientifically exact, lacks flavour, art, and elegance. But of exact scientific terminology he is the true founder. When the ancients celebrate the "golden stream" of his writing, the opinion can only refer to his lost popular works. Aristotle's personality is one of those which have affected the history of the world. His writings, Us those of Plato, were to the Christian centuries of antiquity a most stimulating incentive to scientific inquiry; in the Middle Ages they were for the Christian nations of the West and the Arabs the chief guide to philosophical method; and in the province of logic his authority remains unshaken to this day.