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.
Zoippus, a son-in-law of Hiero of Sicily.
Zona, a town of Africa. Dio Cassius, bk. 48.——Of Thrace, on the Ægean sea, where the woods are said to have followed the strains of Orpheus. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Herodotus.
Zonăras, one of the Byzantine historians, whose Greek Annals were edited, 2 vols., folio, Paris, 1686.
Zopy̆rio, one of Alexander’s officers left in Greece when the conqueror was in Asia, &c. Curtius, bk. 10, ch. 1.
Zopy̆rion, a governor of Pontus, who made war against Scythia, &c. Justin, bk. 2, ch. 3.
Zopy̆rus, a Persian, son of Megabyzus, who, to show his attachment to Darius the son of Hystaspes, while he besieged Babylon, cut off his ears and nose, and fled to the enemy, telling them that he had received such a treatment from his royal master because he had advised him to raise the siege, as the city was impregnable. This was credited by the Babylonians, and Zopyrus was appointed commander of all their forces. When he had totally gained their confidence, he betrayed the city into the hands of Darius, for which he was liberally rewarded. The regard of Darius for Zopyrus could never be more strongly expressed than in what he used often to say, that he had rather have Zopyrus not mutilated than 20 Babylons. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 154, &c.—Plutarch, Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata, ch. 3.—Justin, bk. 1, ch. 10.——An orator of Clazomenæ. Quintilian, bk. 3, ch. 6.——A physician in the age of Mithridates. He gave the monarch a description of an antidote which would prevail against all sorts of poisons. The experiment was tried upon criminals, and succeeded.——A physician in the age of Plutarch.——An officer of Argos, who cut off the head of Pyrrhus. Plutarch.——A man appointed master of Alcibiades, by Pericles. Plutarch.——A physiognomist. Cicero, de Fato, ch. 5.——A rhetorician of Colophon. Diogenes Laërtius.
Zoroanda, a part of Taurus between Mesopotamia and Armenia, near which the Tigris flows. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 27.
Zoroaster, a king of Bactria, supposed to have lived in the age of Ninus king of Assyria, some time before the Trojan war. According to Justin, he first invented magic, or the doctrines of the Magi, and rendered himself known by his deep and acute researches in philosophy, the origin of the world, and the study of astronomy. He was respected by his subjects and contemporaries for his abilities as a monarch, a lawgiver, and a philosopher, and though many of his doctrines are puerile and ridiculous, yet his followers are still found in numbers in the wilds of Persia, and the extensive provinces of India. Like Pythagoras, Zoroaster admitted no visible object of devotion except fire, which he considered as the most proper emblem of a supreme being; which doctrines seem to have been preserved by Numa, in the worship and ceremonies which he instituted in honour of Vesta. According to some of the moderns, the doctrines, the laws, and regulations of this celebrated Bactrian are still extant, and they have been lately introduced in Europe in a French translation by Marcus Anquetil. The age of Zoroaster is so little known that many speak of two, three, four, and even six lawgivers of that name. Some authors, who support that two persons only of this name flourished, describe the first as an astronomer living in Babylon, 2459 years B.C., whilst the era of the other, who is supposed to have been a native of Persia, and the restorer of the religion of the Magi, is fixed 589, and by some 519 years B.C. Justin, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Augustine, City of God, bk. 21, ch. 14.—Orosius, bk. 1.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 10; bk. 30, ch. 1.
Zosĭmus, an officer in the reign of Theodosius the younger, about the year 410 of the christian era. He wrote the history of the Roman emperors in Greek, from the age of Augustus to the beginning of the fifth century, of which only the five first books, and the beginning of the sixth, are extant. In the first of those he is very succinct in his account from the time of Augustus to the reign of Diocletian, but in the succeeding he becomes more diffuse and interesting. His composition is written with elegance, but not much fidelity, and the author showed his malevolence against the christians in his history of Constantine, and some of his successors. The best editions of Zosimus are that of Celarius, 8vo. Jenæ, 1728, and that of Reiemier, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1784.