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.