[785] An astrologer of Rhodes, patronized by Augustus and Tiberius. He wrote a work on Stones, and a History of Egypt. Tacitus, in his Annals, B. vi., speaks highly of his skill in astrology.
[786] A geographer of Antioch, and an opponent of the views of Eratosthenes. Cicero declares that he himself was unable to understand a thousandth part of his work.
[787] A Peripatetic philosopher and geographer, of Messina in Sicily. He studied under Aristotle and wrote several works, the principal of which was an account of the history, geography, and moral and religious condition of Greece. A few fragments only are extant.
[788] Of Syracuse, the most famous mathematician of antiquity, born B.C. 287. A few only of his works have come down to us, published at Oxford in 1792, by Torelli.
[789] Born either at Astypalæa or Ægina. He was chief pilot of the fleet of Alexander during the descent of the Indus and the voyage to the Persian Gulf. He wrote a work called the “Alexandropædia,” or Education of Alexander. In his description of what he saw in India, many fables and falsehoods are said to have been interwoven, so much so that the work (which is now lost) is said to have resembled a fable more than a history.
[790] Of Cyrene, born B.C. 276. He was invited from Athens by Ptolemy Euergetes, to become keeper of the library at Alexandria. He was a man of most extensive erudition, as an astronomer, geographer, philosopher, historian and grammarian. All of his writings have perished, with the exception of a few fragments on geographical subjects.
[791] Of Massilia, now Marseilles, a celebrated navigator who flourished about the time of Alexander the Great. In his voyages he visited Britain and Thule, of which he probably gave some account in his work “On the Ocean.” He has been wrongfully accused of falsehood by Strabo. Another work written by him was his “Periplus,” or ‘Circumnavigation’ from Gades to the Tanais, probably, in this instance, the Elbe.
[792] Of Halicarnassus, the father of Grecian history; born B.C. 484. Besides his great work which has come down to us, he is supposed to have written a history of Arabia.
[793] Probably the most learned of the Greek philosophers. His works were exceedingly numerous, and those which have survived to us treat of natural history, metaphysics, physical science, ethics, logic, and general literature.
[794] A native of Cnidus in Caria, and private physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, having been made prisoner by him at the battle of Cunaxa. He wrote a History of Persia in 23 books, which, with the exception of a small abridgement by Photius and a few fragments, is now lost. He also wrote a book on India. He was much censured, probably without sufficient reason, for the credulity displayed in his works.