Dinostrătus, a celebrated geometrician in the age of Plato.
Diŏclea, festivals in the spring at Megara, in honour of Diocles, who died in the defence of a certain youth to whom he was tenderly attached. There was a contention on his tomb, and the youth who gave the sweetest kiss was publicly rewarded with a garland. Theocritus has described them in his Idylls, bk. 12, li. 27.——A town on the coast of Dalmatia. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 23.
Diocles, a general of Athens, &c. Polyænus, bk. 5.——A comic poet of Athens.——An historian, the first Grecian who ever wrote concerning the origin of the Romans, and the fabulous history of Romulus. Plutarch, Romulus.——One of the four brothers placed over the citadel of Corinth by Archelaus, &c. Polyænus, bk. 6.——A rich man of Messenia. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 2.——A general of Syracuse. Diodorus, bk. 13.
Diocletianopŏlis, a town of Thessaly, called so in honour of Diocletian.
Diocletiānus Caius Valerius Jovius, a celebrated Roman emperor, born of an obscure family in Dalmatia. He was first a common soldier, and by merit and success he gradually rose to the office of a general, and at the death of Numerian he was invested with the imperial purple. In this high station, he rewarded the virtue and fidelity of Maximian, who had shared with him all the subordinate offices in the army, by making him his colleague on the throne. He created two subordinate emperors, Constantius and Galerius, whom he called Cæsars, whilst he claimed for himself and his colleague the superior title of Augustus. Diocletian has been celebrated for his military virtues; and though he was naturally unpolished by education and study, yet he was the friend and patron of learning and true genius. He was bold and resolute, active and diligent, and well acquainted with the arts which endear a sovereign to his people, and make him respectable even in the eyes of his enemies. His cruelty, however, against the followers of christianity has been deservedly branded with the appellation of unbounded tyranny, and insolent wantonness. After he had reigned 21 years in the greatest prosperity, he publicly abdicated the crown at Nicomedia, on the 1st of May, A.D. 304, and retired to a private station at Salona. Maximian, his colleague, followed his example, but not from voluntary choice; and when he some time after endeavoured to rouse the ambition of Diocletian, and persuade him to reassume the imperial purple, he received for answer, that Diocletian took now more delight in cultivating his little garden, than he formerly enjoyed in a palace, when his power was extended over all the earth. He lived nine years after his abdication in the greatest security and enjoyment at Salona, and died in the 68th year of his age. Diocletian is the first sovereign who voluntarily resigned his power; a philosophical resolution, which, in a later age, was imitated by the emperor Charles V. of Germany.
Diŏdōrus, an historian, surnamed Siculus, because he was born at Argyra in Sicily. He wrote a history of Egypt, Persia, Syria, Media, Greece, Rome, and Carthage, which was divided into 40 books, of which only 15 are extant, with some few fragments. This valuable composition was the work of an accurate inquirer, and it is said that he visited all the places of which he has made mention in his history. It was the labour of 30 years, though the greater part may be considered as nothing more than a judicious compilation from Berosus, Timæus, Theopompus, Callisthenes, and others. The author, however, is too credulous in some of his narrations, and often wanders far from the truth. His style is neither elegant nor too laboured, but it contains great simplicity and unaffected correctness. He often dwells too long upon fabulous reports and trifling incidents, while events of the greatest importance to history are treated with brevity, and sometimes passed over in silence. His manner of reckoning, by the Olympiads and the Roman consuls, will be found very erroneous. The historian flourished about 44 years B.C. He spent much time at Rome to procure information, and authenticate his historical narrations. The best edition of his works is that of Wesseling, 2 vols., folio, Amsterdam, 1746.——A disciple of Euclid, in the age of Plato. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.——A comic poet.——A son of Echeanax, who, with his brothers Codrus and Anaxagoras, murdered Hegesias the tyrant of Ephesus, &c. Polyænus, bk. 6.——An Ephesian, who wrote an account of the life of Anaximander. Diogenes Laërtius.——An orator of Sardis, in the time of the Mithridatic war.——A stoic philosopher, preceptor to Cicero. He lived and died in the house of his pupil, whom he instructed in the various branches of Greek literature. Cicero, Brutus.——A general of Demetrius.——A writer, surnamed Periegetes, who wrote a description of the earth. Plutarch, Themistocles.——An African, &c. Plutarch.
Dioetas, a general of Achaia, &c. Polyænus, bk. 2.
Dīŏgēnes, a celebrated Cynic philosopher of Sinope, banished from his country for coining false money. From Sinope, he retired to Athens, where he became the disciple of Antisthenes, who was at the head of the Cynics. Antisthenes, at first, refused to admit him into his house, and even struck him with a stick. Diogenes calmly bore the rebuke, and said, “Strike me, Antisthenes, but never shall you find a stick sufficiently hard to remove me from your presence, whilst there is anything to be learnt, any information to be gained, from your conversation and acquaintance.” Such firmness recommended him to Antisthenes, and he became his most devoted pupil. He dressed himself in the garment which distinguished the Cynics, and walked about the streets with a tub on his head, which served him as a house and a place of repose. Such singularity, joined to the greatest contempt for riches, soon gained him reputation, and Alexander the Great condescended to visit the philosopher in his tub. He asked Diogenes if there was anything in which he could gratify or oblige him. “Get out of my sunshine,” was the only answer which the philosopher gave. Such an independence of mind so pleased the monarch, that he turned to his courtiers, and said, “Were I not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes.” He was once sold as a slave, but his magnanimity so pleased his master, that he made him the preceptor of his children, and the guardian of his estates. After a life spent in the greatest misery and indigence, he died B.C. 324, in the 96th year of his age. He ordered his body to be carelessly thrown into a ditch, and some dust to be sprinkled over it. His orders were, however, disobeyed in this particular, and his friends honoured his remains with a magnificent funeral at Corinth. The inhabitants of Sinope raised statues to his memory; and the marble figure of a dog was placed on a high column erected on his tomb. His biographer has transmitted to posterity a number of his sayings, remarkable for their simplicity and moral tendency. The life of Diogenes, however, shrinks from the eye of a strict examination; he boasted of his poverty, and was so arrogant, that many have observed that the virtues of Diogenes arose from pride and vanity, not from wisdom and sound philosophy. His morals were corrupted, and he gave way to his most vicious indulgencies, and his unbounded wantonness has given occasion to some to observe, that the bottom of his tub would not bear too close an examination. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.—Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 36, &c.——A stoic of Babylon, disciple of Chrysippus. He went to Athens, and was sent as ambassador to Rome, with Carneades and Critolaus, 155 years before Christ. He died in the 88th year of his age, after a life of the most exemplary virtue. Some suppose that he was strangled by order of Antiochus king of Syria, for speaking disrespectfully of his family in one of his treatises. Quintilian, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Athenæus, bk. 5, ch. 11.—Cicero, de Officiis, bk. 3, ch. 51.——A native of Apollonia, celebrated for his knowledge of philosophy and physic. He was pupil to Anaxagoras. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.——Laërtius, an epicurean philosopher, born in Cilicia. He wrote the lives of the philosophers in 10 books, still extant. This work contains an accurate account of the ancient philosophers, and is replete with all their anecdotes and particular opinions. It is compiled, however, without any plan, method, or precision, though much neatness and conciseness are observable through the whole. In this multifarious biography the author does not seem particularly partial to any sect, except perhaps it be that of Potamon of Alexandria. Diogenes died A.D. 222. The best editions of his works are that of Meibomius, 2 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1692, and that of Lipscomb, 8vo, 1759.——A Macedonian, who betrayed Salamis to Aratus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 8.——There was a philosopher of that name who attended Alexander in his Asiatic expedition, for the purpose of marking out and delineating his march, &c.
Diogĕnia, a daughter of Celeus. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 38.——A daughter of the Cephisus, who married Erechtheus. Apollodorus.
Diogĕnus, a man who conspired with Dymnus against Alexander. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 7.