Niceteria, a festival at Athens, in memory of the victory which Minerva obtained over Neptune, in their dispute about giving a name to the capital of the country.
Nicia, a city. See: [Nicæa].——A river falling into the Po at Brixellum. It is now called Lenza, and separates the duchy of Modena from Parma.
Nicias, an Athenian general, celebrated for his valour and for his misfortunes. He early conciliated the good will of the people by his liberality, and he established his military character by taking the island of Cythera from the power of Lacedæmon. When Athens determined to make war against Sicily, Nicias was appointed, with Alcibiades and Lamachus, to conduct the expedition, which he reprobated as impolitic, and as the future cause of calamities to the Athenian power. In Sicily he behaved with great firmness, but he often blamed the quick and inconsiderate measures of his colleagues. The success of the Athenians remained long doubtful. Alcibiades was recalled by his enemies to take his trial, and Nicias was left at the head of affairs. Syracuse was surrounded by a wall, and though the operations were carried on slowly, yet the city would have surrendered, had not the sudden appearance of Gylippus, the Corinthian ally of the Sicilians, cheered up the courage of the besieged at the most critical moment. Gylippus proposed terms of accommodation to the Athenians, which were refused; some battles were fought, in which the Sicilians obtained the advantage, and Nicias at last, tired of his ill success, and grown desponding, demanded of the Athenians a reinforcement or a successor. Demosthenes, upon this, was sent with a powerful fleet, but the advice of Nicias was despised, and the admiral, by his eagerness to come to a decisive engagement, ruined his fleet and the interest of Athens. The fear of his enemies at home prevented Nicias from leaving Sicily; and when, at last, a continued series of ill success obliged him to comply, he found himself surrounded on every side by the enemy, without hope of escaping. He gave himself up to the conquerors with all his army, but the assurances of safety which he had received soon proved vain and false, and he was no sooner in the hands of the enemy than he was shamefully put to death with Demosthenes. His troops were sent to quarries, where the plague and hard labour diminished their numbers and aggravated their misfortunes. Some suppose that the death of Nicias was not violent. He perished about 413 years before Christ, and the Athenians lamented in him a great and valiant but unfortunate general. Plutarch, Lives.—Cicero.—Cornelius Nepos, Alcibiades.—Thucydides, bk. 4, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 15.——A grammarian of Rome, intimate with Cicero. Cicero, Letters.——A man of Nicæa, who wrote a history of philosophers.——A physician of Pyrrhus king of Epirus, who made an offer to the Romans of poisoning his master for a sum of money. The Roman general disdained his offers, and acquainted Pyrrhus with his treachery. He is oftener called Cineas.——A painter of Athens in the age of Alexander. He was chiefly happy in his pictures of women. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 2, ch. 31.
Nicippe, a daughter of Pelops, who married Sthenelus.——A daughter of Thespius. Apollodorus.
Nicippus, a tyrant of Cos, one of whose sheep brought forth a lion, which was considered as portending his future greatness, and his elevation to the sovereignty. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 1, ch. 29.
Nico, one of the Tarentine chiefs who conspired against the life of Annibal. Livy, bk. 30.——A celebrated architect and geometrician. He was father to the celebrated Galen the prince of physicians.——One of the slaves of Craterus.——The name of an ass which Augustus met before the battle of Actium, a circumstance which he considered as a favourable omen.——The name of an elephant remarkable for his fidelity to king Pyrrhus.
Nicochăres, a Greek comic poet in the age of Aristophanes.
Nicŏcles, a familiar friend of Phocion, condemned to death. Plutarch.——A king of Salamis, celebrated for his contest with a king of Phœnicia, to prove which of the two was most effeminate.——A king of Paphos, who reigned under the protection of Ptolemy king of Egypt. He revolted from his friend to the king of Persia, upon which Ptolemy ordered one of his servants to put him to death, to strike terror into the other dependent princes. The servant, unwilling to murder the monarch, advised him to kill himself. Nicocles obeyed, and all his family followed his example, 310 years before the christian era.——An ancient Greek poet, who called physicians a happy race of men, because light published their good deeds to the world, and the earth hid all their faults and imperfections.——A king of Cyprus, who succeeded his father Evagoras on the throne, 374 years before Christ. It was with him that the philosopher Isocrates corresponded.——A tyrant of Sicyon, deposed by means of Aratus the Achæan. Plutarch, Aratus.
Nicocrătes, a tyrant of Cyrene.——An author at Athens.——A king of Salamis in Cyprus, who made himself known by the valuable collection of books which he had. Athenæus, bk. 1.
Nicocreon, a tyrant of Salamis in the age of Alexander the Great. He ordered the philosopher Anaxarchus to be pounded to pieces in a mortar.