Scanned text contains errors.
ASCLEPIUS.
of that country. In b. c. 328, he led reinforcements from Syria to Alexander in eastern Asia, and there became involved in the conspiracy which was formed by Hermolaus against the life of the king. (Arrian, Anab. iv. 13, Ind. 18; Curtius, vii. 10, viii. 6.) He seems to be the same as the one whom Antigonus, in b. c. 317, made satrap of Persia (Diod. xix. 48) ; but he must be distinguished from an Asclepiodorus, a general of Cassan-der, mentioned by Diodorus. (xix. 60.)
2. The author of a small work on tactics (to.k- riKa Ke</>aAam), who is in some MSS. called Asclepiodotus. His work exists in several MSS. at Leyden, Paris, and Rome, but has not yet been published. [L, S.]
ASCLEPIODORUS. 1. An Athenian painter, a contemporary of Apelles, who considered him to excel himself in the symmetry and correctness of his drawing. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. § 21.) Plutarch (de Gloria Athen. 2) ranks him with Euphranor and Nicias.
2. A statuary, famed for statues of philosophers. (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 1,9. § 26.) [C. P. M.]
ASCLEPIODOTUS ('Aovc\7?ir«>'8oTos.) 1. The author of an epigram which seems to have been taken from the base of a statue of Memnon. (AnthoL Graec. Append. No. 16, ed. Tauchnitz.; comp. Brunck. Analect. i. p. 490; Letronne in the Transactions of the ft. Society of Literature^ vol. ii. 1, part i. 1832.)
2. Of Alexandria, the most distinguished among the disciples of Proclus, and the teacher of Damas-cius, was one of the most zealous champions of Paganism. He wrote a commentary on the Tim-aeus of Plato, which however is lost. (Olympiod. Meteorolog. 4; Suidas, s. v. 'AovcA^-TnoSoTos1; Da-mascius, Vii. Isid. ap. Phot. pp. 344, b. 345, b.)
3. An author who lived in the time of Diocletian, and seems to have written a life of this emperor. (Vopisc. Aurelian. 44.) He seems to be the same as the one who is mentioned as a general in the reign of Probus. (Vopisc. Prob. 22.)
4. A pupil of Posidonius, who, according to Seneca (Nat. Quaest. vi. 17), wrote a work called " Quaestionum Naturalium causae."
5. A commander of the Gallic mercenaries in the army of Perseus, king of Macedonia. (Liv. xlii. 51, xliv. 2.) [L. S.]
ASCLEPIODOTUS ('A<ncArj7rw5oTos), a physician, who was also well versed in mathematics and music, and who grew famous for reviving the use of white hellebore, which in his time had grown quite out of vogue. He lived probably about the end of the fifth century after Christ, as he was the pupil of Jacobus Psychrestus, and is mentioned by Damascius. (Damascius, ap. Phot. Cod. 242, p. 344, b., eel. Bekk. ; Suidas, s. v. Supavos; Freind's Hist, of Physic.} [W. A. G.]
ASCLEPIODOTUS, CA;SSIUS, a man of great wealth among the Bithynians, shewed the same respect to Soramis, when he was under Nero's displeasure, as he had when Soranus was in prosperity. He was accordingly deprived of his property and driven into exile, a. D. 67, but was restored by Galba. (Tac. Ann. xvi. 33; Dion Cass. Ixii *26 ^
ASCLEPIUS (*A<ncA777nos). 1. A fabulous personage, said to have been a disciple of Hermes, the Egyptian Thot, who was regarded as the father of all wisdom and knowledge. There existed in antiquity a Greek dialogue (Xoyos TeAem) be-
383
ASCLETARIO.
tween Asclepius and Hermes on God, man, and the universe; we now possess only a Latin translation of it, which in former times used to be attributed to Appuleius. It is entitled " Hermetis Trismegisti Asclepius, seu de Natura Deorum Dialogus," and is evidently the production of a very late time, that is, of the age in which a reconciliation was attempted between the polytheism of antiquity and Christianity through the medium of the views of the New Platonists. (Rosscha in Oudendorp's edition of Appuleius, iii. p. 517; Hil-debrand, de Vita et Scriptis Appuleii, p. 28, &c.) To the same Asclepius is also ascribed a work still extant, entitled ofios 'AovcA^Trfou irpos "/A/u/.ico^a /3a<riAea, which is printed together with a Latin, translation by A. Turnebus in his edition of the Poemander ascribed to Plermes Trismegistus (Paris, 1554, 4to.), and in F. Patricius's Nova de Univer-sis Philosophic^ Ferrara, 1591, fol. The Latin translation of the work is contained in vol. ii. of the works (Opera) of Marsilius Ficinus, Basel, 1561.
2. A Greek grammarian of uncertain date, who wrote commentaries upon the orations of Demosthenes and the history of Thucydides ; but both works are now lost. (Ulpian, ad Dem. Philip. I ; Schol. Bavar. ad Dem. de fals. leg. pp. 375, 378; Marcellin. Vit. Thucyd, 57; Schol. ad Thucyd. i. 56.)
3. Of Tralles, a Peripatetic philosopher and a disciple of Ammonius, the son of Hermias, He lived about A. d. 500, and wrote commentaries on the first six or seven books of Aristotle's Meta physics and on the dpiOfj-ririK'/} of Nicomachus of Gerasa. These commentaries are still extant in MS., but only a portion of them has yet been printed in Brandis, Scholia Graeca in Aridot. Metaphys. p. 518, &c.; comp. Fabr. Bill. Graec. iii. p. 258; St. Croix in the Mayasin. Encydop. Cinquieme Annie, vol. iii. p. 359. [L. S.]
ASCLEPIUS ('A(TfcA?77nos), a physician, who must have lived some time in or before the second century after Christ, as he is mentioned by Galen. (De Differ. Morb. c. 9. vol. vi. p. 869.) A person of the same name is quoted by the Scholiast on Hippocrates (Dietz, Schol. in Hippocr. et Gal. vol. ii. p. 458? n., 470, n.) as having written a com mentary on the Aphorisms, and probably also on most of the other works of Hippocrates, as he is said to have undertaken to explain his writings by comparing one part with another. (Ibid. ; Littre, Oeuvres d'"Hippocr. vol. i. p. 125.) Another phy sician of the same name is said by Fabricius to be mentioned by Ae'tius. [W. A. G.]
ASCLETARIO, an astrologer and mathematician in the time of Domitian. On one occasion he was brought before the emperor for some offence. Domitian tried to put the knowledge of the astrologer to the test, and asked him what kind of death he was to die, whereupon Ascletario answered, " I know that I shall soon be torn to pieces by the dogs." To prevent the realisation of this assertion, Domitian ordered him to be put to death immediately, and to be buried. When his body lay on the funeral pile, a vehement wind arose, which carried the body from the pile, and some dogs, which had been near, immediately began devouring the half-roasted body. Domitian, on being informed of this, is said to have been more moved and perplexed than he had ever been before. This tale, which is related in all its sim-
