Apollodōrus, a famous grammarian and mythologist of Athens, son of Asclepias and disciple to Panætius the Rhodian philosopher. He flourished about 115 years before the christian era, and wrote a history of Athens, besides other works. But of all his compositions, nothing is extant but his Bibliotheca, a valuable work, divided into three books. It is an abridged history of the gods, and of the ancient heroes, of whose actions and genealogy it gives a true and faithful account. The best edition is that of Heyne, Göttingen, in 8vo, 4 vols., 1782. Athenæus.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 37.—Diodorus, bks. 4 & 13.——A tragic poet of Cilicia, who wrote tragedies entitled Ulysses, Thyestes, &c.——A comic poet of Gela in Sicily, in the age of Menander, who wrote 47 plays.——An architect of Damascus, who directed the building of Trajan’s bridge across the Danube. He was put to death by Adrian, to whom, when in a private station, he had spoken in too bold a manner.——A writer who composed a history of Parthia.——A disciple of Epicurus, the most learned of his school, and deservedly surnamed the illustrious. He wrote about 40 volumes on different subjects. Diogenes Laërtius.——A painter of Athens, to whom Zeuxis was a pupil. Two of his paintings were admired at Pergamus, in the age of Pliny; a priest in a suppliant posture, and Ajax struck with Minerva’s thunders. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 9.——A statuary in the age of Alexander. He was of such an irascible disposition, that he destroyed his own pieces upon the least provocation. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8.——A rhetorician of Pergamus, preceptor and friend to Augustus, who wrote a book on rhetoric. Strabo, bk. 13.——A tragic poet of Tarsus.——A Lemnian who wrote on husbandry.——A physician of Tarentum.——Another of Cytium.
Apollonia, a festival at Ægialea in honour of Apollo and Diana. It arose from this circumstance: these two deities came to Ægialea, after the conquest of the serpent Python; but they were frightened away, and fled to Crete. Ægialea was soon visited with an epidemical distemper, and the inhabitants, by the advice of their prophets, sent seven chosen boys, with the same number of girls, to entreat them to return to Ægialea. Apollo and Diana granted their petition, in honour of which a temple was raised to πειθω, the goddess of persuasion; and ever after a number of youths, of both sexes, were chosen to march in solemn procession, as if anxious to bring back Apollo and Diana. Pausanias, Corinth.——A town of Mygdonia,——of Crete,——of Sicily,——on the coast of Asia Minor.——Another on the coast of Thrace, part of which was built on a small island of Pontus, where Apollo had a temple.——A town of Macedonia, on the coasts of the Adriatic.——A city of Thrace.——Another on mount Parnassus.
Apolloniădes, a tyrant of Sicily, compelled to lay down his power by Timoleon.
Apollonias, the wife of Attalus king of Phrygia, to whom she bore four children.
Apollonĭdes, a writer of Nicæa.——A physician of Cos at the court of Artaxerxes, who became enamoured of Amytis, the monarch’s sister, and was some time after put to death for slighting her after the reception of her favours.
Apollonius, a Stoic philosopher of Chalcis, sent for by Antoninus Pius, to instruct his adopted son Marcus Antoninus. When he came to Rome, he refused to go to the palace, observing that the master ought not to wait upon his pupil, but the pupil upon him. The emperor hearing this, said, laughing, “It was then easier for Apollonius to come from Chalcis to Rome, than from Rome to the palace.”——A geometrician of Perge in Pamphylia, whose works are now lost. He lived about 240 years before the christian era, and composed a commentary on Euclid, whose pupils he attended at Alexandria. He wrote treatises on conic sections, eight of which are now extant; and he first endeavoured to explain the causes of the apparent stopping and retrograde motion of the planets, by cycles and epicycles, or circles within circles. The best edition of Apollonius is Dr. Halley’s, Oxford, folio, 1710.——A poet of Naucratis in Egypt, generally called Apollonius of Rhodes, because he lived for some time there. He was pupil, when young, to Callimachus and Panætius, and succeeded to Eratosthenes as third librarian of the famous library of Alexandria, under Ptolemy Evergetes. He was ungrateful to his master Callimachus, who wrote a poem against him, in which he denominated him Ibis. Of all his works, nothing remains but his poem on the expedition of the Argonauts, in four books. The best editions of Apollonius are those printed at Oxford, in 4to, by Shaw, 1777, 2 vols.; and in 1 vol., 8vo, 1779; and that of Brunck, Strasbourg, 12mo, 1780. Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.——A Greek orator, surnamed Molo, was a native of Alabanda in Caria. He opened a school of rhetoric at Rhodes and Rome, and had Julius Cæsar and Cicero among his pupils. He discouraged the attendance of those whom he supposed incapable of distinguishing themselves as orators, and he recommended to them pursuits more congenial to their abilities. He wrote a history, in which he did not candidly treat the people of Judæa, according to the complaint of Josephus, against Apion.—Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, chs. 28, 75, 126, & 130; Letters to his Friends, bk. 3, ltr. 16; De Inventione, bk. 1, ch. 81.—Quintilian, bk. 3, ch. 1; bk. 12, ch. 6.—Suetonius, Cæsar, ch. 4.—Plutarch, Cæsar.——A Greek historian about the age of Augustus, who wrote upon the philosophy of Zeno and of his followers. Strabo, bk. 14.——A Stoic philosopher, who attended Cato of Utica in his last moments. Plutarch, Cato.——An officer set over Egypt by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 8.——A wrestler. Pausanias, bk. 5.——A physician of Pergamus, who wrote on agriculture. Varro.——A grammarian of Alexandria.——A writer in the age of Antoninus Pius.——Thyaneus, a Pythagorean philosopher, well skilled in the secret arts of magic. Being one day haranguing the populace at Ephesus, he suddenly exclaimed, “Strike the tyrant, strike him; the blow is given, he is wounded, and fallen!” At that very moment the emperor Domitian had been stabbed at Rome. The magician acquired much reputation when this circumstance was known. He was courted by kings and princes, and commanded unusual attention by his numberless artifices. His friend and companion, called Damis, wrote his life, which 200 years after engaged the attention of Philostratus. In his history the biographer relates so many curious and extraordinary anecdotes of the hero, that many have justly deemed it a romance; yet for all this, Hierocles had the presumption to compare the impostures of Apollonius with the miracles of Jesus Christ.——A sophist of Alexandria, distinguished for his Lexicon Græcum Iliadis et Odysseæ, a book that was beautifully edited by Villoison, in 4to, 2 vols., Paris, 1773. Apollonius was one of the pupils of Didymus, and flourished in the beginning of the first century.——A physician.——A son of Sotades at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus.——Syrus, a Platonic philosopher.——Herophilus, wrote concerning ointments.——A sculptor of Rhodes.
Apollŏphănes, a Stoic, who greatly flattered king Antigonus, and maintained that there existed but one virtue, prudence. Diogenes Laërtius.——A physician in the court of Antiochus. Polybius, bk. 5.——A comic poet. Ælian, De Natura Animalium, bk. 6.
Apomyīos, a surname of Jupiter.
Aponiana, an island near Lilybæum. Hirtius, African War, ch. 2.
Marcus Aponius, a governor of Mœsia, rewarded with a triumphal statue by Otho, for defeating 9000 barbarians. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 79.