A curious mistake of the engraver is observable in the word ΠΡΗΝΕΥΣ, in which the I is omitted; it should have been ΠΡΙΗΝΕΥΣ, the name of his birth-place. This bust was found at Tivoli, with that of Periander, No. 29.]
12. Thucydides. Greek Historian.
[Born at Athens, B.C. 471. Died (place uncertain) B.C. 395. Aged 76.]
This great historian, holding military command in Thrace, suffered Amphipolis to be surprised and taken by the Spartan general, Brasidas; and for this misfortune was banished by his countrymen during the space of twenty years. It would have been a greater misfortune for the world had Thucydides proved a warier soldier; for it was during his exile, that he collected with infinite care the materials of his immortal history. That history chronicles, in eight books, the events of twenty out of the twenty-seven years of the Peloponnesian War:—a record of most interesting facts. Where political and moral observations occur, they reveal great knowledge of human character and motives. The style is pregnant, precise, and severely simple. Demosthenes is said to have copied the entire history many times with his own hand as a lesson of composition. The principal actors in the war were the historian’s books of reference. As an historical monument the work is matchless. It has been always believed that Thucydides came to a violent end, but it is not known whether he died at Athens, or in Thrace.
13. Socrates. Philosopher.
[Born near Athens, B.C. 468. Died at Athens, B.C. 399. Aged 69.]
One of the greatest names in ethics, philosophy, and religion before the Christian era. It was the belief of Socrates that he was specially charged by the Deity to awaken moral consciousness in men. He had no school, neither did he, like the sophists of his time, deliver public lectures. But he stood in the market-places, or entered the work-shops, or visited the schools, in order to teach the people his ideas respecting the scope and value of human speculation and action. Aristophanes, the comic poet, ridiculed and misrepresented the philosopher, who proceeded, nevertheless, with undaunted perseverance. After the banishment from Athens of the “Thirty Tyrants,” Socrates was impeached for corrupting the youth, and despising the tutelary deities of the state. He was condemned, and, preferring death to acknowledging, by a supplication for pardon, that he deserved punishment, he swallowed poison. Whilst the cruel draught was performing its work, he developed the grounds of his immovable conviction of the immortality of the soul, and with his very last breath pointed to a future state, as the true recovery from impurity and disease. He left no writings behind him. We derive our knowledge of his doctrines and character, mainly from his illustrious disciples, Xenophon and Plato. He effected a grand revolution in philosophy, for he first connected with Supreme intelligence, the attributes of goodness, justice and wisdom, and the idea of direct interposition in human affairs, and recalled Reason from vain disquisitions, to the questions which come home to the business and bosoms of men. In person, Socrates was said to resemble the god Silenus. His looks were as repulsive as his life was irreproachable and perfect. His peculiar method of teaching, since called the Socratic, was, by a series of artfully contrived questions, to draw out from the mind of his colloquist the truths which lay unconsciously embosomed there, or to entangle proud and false reasoning in self-confutation.
[A countenance so little expressive of wisdom and goodness, that it might be mistaken for that of a Silenus, whom he also equalled in the almost deformed rotundity of his figure. But this bust, which is from that in the Louvre, and an exceedingly fine work, has been proved to be a portrait of him by its close resemblance to the other busts of the same subject, and to that in particular in the Farnese Collection which bears his name, and the motto which Plato gives him (Criton). Busts and cameos of Socrates are numerous. No. 13A is from the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitoline Museum; it is inferior to the first described.]
13A. Socrates. Philosopher.
14. Hippocrates. Physician.