the wife of Aidoneus, they were both taken prisoners | abounded in apophthegms, little consistent with the idea and detained. (Pausan., 1, 17.-Compare Apollodo- we might otherwise have entertained of their nature, rus, 2, 7.-Diod. Sic., 4, 36.) It appears from Stra- from our knowledge of the buffooneries whence his bo (324) and other authorities, that this town after-comedy sprung, and the writings of Aristophanes, his ward took the name of Cichyrus, but on what occasion partially extant successor. But Epicharmus was a we are not informed. Mr. Hughes, who has explored philosopher and a Pythagorean. (Diog. Laert., 8, with great attention this part of Epirus, reports, "that 78.) In the midst of merriment, he failed not to inthe ruins of Ephyra are to be seen at no great dis- culcate, in pithy gnoma, the otherwise distasteful lestance from the Acherusian lake, near a deserted con- sons of morality to the gay and thoughtless, and, shelvent dedicated to St. John. Though the walls lie for tered by comic license, to utter offensive political the most part in a confused mass of ruins, they may truths, which, promulgated under any other circumbe distinctly traced in a circular figure: those parts stances, might have subjected the sage to the venwhich remain perfect exhibiting a specimen of masonry geance of a despotic government We find Epicharapparently more rude even than Tiryns itself, though mus still composing comedies B.C. 485 (Suidas, s. v. the blocks used are not of so large dimensions." "Eríx.); and again during the reign of Hiero, B.C. (Travels, vol. 2, p. 312.-Cramer's Ancient Greece, 477. (Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, B.C. 477.) He died vol. 1, p. 113, seqq.) at the age of ninety or ninety-seven years. Epicharmus is said by some authorities to have added the letters 5, 7, 4, w, to the Greek alphabet. (Theatre of the Greeks, 2d ed., p. 162, seqq.-Matthia, G. G., vol. 1, p. 13, Blomfield's transl.-Compare, however, Thiersch's G. G., Sandford's transl., vol. 1, p. 25, seqq.) EPICHARMUS, the first Greek comic writer of whom we have any certain account. He was a Syracusan, either by birth or emigration. (Theocritus, Epig., 17.) Some make him a native of Crastus, some of Cos (Suidas-Eudocia, p. 166); but all agree that he passed his life at Syracuse. It was about B.C. 500, Olymp. 70, 1, thirty-five years after Thespis began to EPICTETUS, an eminent Stoic philosopher, born in exhibit, eleven years after the commencement of Phry- a servile condition at Hierapolis in Phrygia. The year nichus, and just before the appearance of Æschylus as of his birth is not known, nor are we able to make a tragedian, that Epicharmus produced the first come- any very close approximation to it. He must have dy properly so called. Before him this department of been born, however, before the end of Nero's reign, the drama was, as we have every reason to believe, 68 A.D., else he could not have been more than twennothing but a series of licentious songs and sarcastic ty-one when Domitian published that edict against episodes, without plot, connexion, or consistency. He philosophers, in 89 A.D., in consequence of which gave to each exhibition one single and unbroken fable, Epictetus retired from Rome. At the age of twentyand converted the loose interlocutions into regular dia- one he was not likely to have attained sufficient notologue. (Aristot., Poet., 5, 5.) The subjects of his riety to bring him within the operation of such an comedies, as we may infer from the extant titles of edict. Epictetus, then, was born most probably during thirty-five of them, were partly parodies of mythologi- one of the last eight years of Nero's reign. The cal subjects, and, as such, not very different from the names and condition of his parents are unknown: dialogue of the satyric drama, and partly political, and neither do we know how he came to be brought to in this respect may have furnished a model for the Rome. But in this city he was for some time a slave dialogue of the Athenian comedy. Tragedy had, some to Epaphroditus, a freedman of Nero's, who had been years before the era of Epicharmus, begun to assume one of his body-guard. An anecdote related by Oriits staid and dignified character. The wocs of heroes gen, which illustrates the fortitude of Epictetus, would and the majesty of the gods had, under Phrynicus, be- also show, if it were true, that Epaphroditus was a come its favourite theme. The Sicilian poet seems most cruel master. Epictetus, when his master was to have been struck with the idea of exciting the mirth twisting his leg one day, smiled and quietly said, of his audience by the exhibition of some ludicrous "You will break it ;" and when he did break it, only matter dressed up in all the grave solemnity of the observed, "Did I not tell you that you would do so?" newly-invented art. Discarding, therefore, the low drol- (Orig. c. Cels., 7, p. 368.) We are not told how or leries and scurrilous invectives of the ancient kwudia, when Epictetus managed to effect his.freedom; but he opened a novel and less invidious source of amuse- he could not have been still a slave when he left Rome ment, by composing a set of burlesque dramas upon the in consequence of an edict against philosophers. This usual tragic subjects. (Athenæus, 15, p. 698, ed. event, the only one in his life the date of which we Schweigh., vol. 5, p. 555.) They succeeded, and the can assign, took place, as has been said, in the year turn thus given to comedy long continued; so that 89 A.D., being the eighth year of Domitian's reign. when it once more returned to personality and satire, Epictetus then retired to Nicopolis in Epirus, and it is as it afterward did, tragedy and tragic poets were the a question whether he ever returned to Rope The constant objects of its parody and ridicule. The great chief ground for believing that he did is a statement changes thus effected by Epicharmus justly entitled of Spartian (Vit. Hadr., 16), that Epictetus lived on him to be called the Inventor of Comedy (Theocritus, terms of intimacy with the Emperor Hadrian; while Epig., 17), though it is probable that Phormis or Phor- it is agreed, on the other hand, that there is no good mus preceded him by a few Olympiads. (Aristot., evidence of any of his discourses having been delivered Poet., 3, 5.-Athenæus, 14, p. 652, a.) But his mer- at Rome, but that they contain frequent mention of its rest not here: he was distinguished for elegance Nicopolis. This argument, however, is hardly suffiof composition as well as originality of conception. cient to overthrow the express testimony of Spartian. Demetrius Phalereus (compare Vossius, de Poet. Gr., We do not know when he died. Suidas says that he 6, p. 31) says, that Epicharmus excelled in the choice lived till the reign of Marcus Aurelius; but, though some and collocation of epithets on which account the support for this opinion is sought to be obtained from name of 'Enixápulos was given to his kind of style, Themistius (Or., 5, ad Jovian. Imp.), yet the authorimaking it proverbial for elegance and beauty. Aris-ty of Aulus Gellius is strong on the other side, who, totle (Rhet., 3, 9) lays one fault to his charge as a writer, the employment of false antitheses. So many were his dramatic excellences, that Plato terms him the first of comic writers (Theatetus, p. 33), and in a later age and foreign country, Plautus chose him as his model. (Horat., Epist., 2, 2, 58.) The plays of Epicharmus, to judge from the fragments still left us, writing during the reign of the first Antonine, speaks of Epictetus, in two places, as being dead. (Noct. Att., 2, 18.-lb., 17, 19.) Epictetus led a life of exemplary contentment, simplicity, and virtue, practising in all particulars the morality which he taught. He lived for a long while in a small hut, with no other furniture than a bed and lamp, and without an attend years. Epicurus is said by Diogenes Laertius (10, 9, to have had so many pupils that even whole cities could not contain them. Hearers came to him from distant places; very many from Lampsacus; and while men often deserted other schools to join that of Epicurus, there were only two instances, at most, of Epicurus being deserted for any other teacher. Epicurus and his pupils lived together in the garden of which we have spoken, in a state of friendship, which, as it is usually represented, could not be surpassed; abstaining from putting their property together and enjoying it in common, for the quaint yet significant rea son that such a plan implied mutual distrust. The friendship subsisting between Epicurus and his pupils is commemorated by Cicero (de Fin., 1, 20). In this manner, though it was the delight of the enemies of Epicurus to represent it differently, and though Timocrates, who had once been his pupil, and had abandoned him, spread such stories as that Epicurus used to vomit twice a day after a surfeit, and that many immodest women were inmates of the garden. (Vid. Leontium.) An inscription over the gate of the garden told him who might be disposed to enter, that barley-cakes and water would be the fare provided for him (Senec., Ep., 31); and such was the chastity of Epicurus, that one of his principal opponents, Chrysippus, endeavoured to account for it, so as to deny him any merit, by saying that he was without passions. (Stob., Serm., ant; until he benevolently adopted a child whom al friend had been compelled by poverty to expose, and hired a nurse for its sake.-Epictetus was a teacher of the Stoic philosophy, and the chief of those who lived during the period of the Roman empire. His lessons were principally, if not solely, directed to practical morality. His favourite maxim, and that into which he resolved all practical morality, was "bear and forbear," ȧvéxov kaì úлéxov. He appears to have differed from the Stoics on the subject of suicide. (Arrian, Epict., 1, 8.) We are told by Arrian, in his Preface to the "Discourses," that he was a powerful and exciting lecturer; and, according to Origen (c. Cels., 7, ad init.), his style was superior to that of Plato. It is a proof of the estimation in which Epictetus was held, that, on his death, his lamp was pur-garden, too, they lived in the most frugal and virtuous chased by some more eager than wise aspirant after philosophy for three thousand drachmas, or over five hundred dollars of our currency. (Lucian, adv. Indoct. libr. ement., vol. 8, p. 15, ed Bip.) Though it is said by Suidas that Epictetus wrote much, there is good reason to believe that he himself wrote nothing. His Discourses were taken down by his pupil Arrian, and published after his death in six books, of which four remain. The same Arrian compiled the Enchiridion, and wrote a life of Epictetus, which is lost. Some fragments have been preserved, however, by Stobæus. Simplicius has also left a commentary on his doctrine, in the Eclectic manner. The best edition of the remains of Epictetus is that of Schweig-117.) Epicurus did not marry, in order that he might haeuser, 6 vols. 8vo, Lips., 1799. The same editor has published the Enchiridion, together with the Tablet of Cebes, in a separate volume (Lips., 1797, 8vo). There is an English version of the Enchiridion or Manual by Mrs. Carter. (Fabric., Bibl. Græc., ed. Harles, vol. 5, p. 64.-Enfield, Hist. Philos., vol. 2, p. 121.-Encycl. Us. Knowl., vol. 9, p. 471.) be able to prosecute philosophy without interruption. His most attached friends and pupils were Hermachus of Mytilene, whom he appointed by will to succeed him as master of the school; Metrodorus, who wrote several books in defence of his system, and Polyænus. Epicurus's three brothers, Neocles, Chæredemus, and Aristobulus, also followed his philosophy, as also one EPICURUS, a celebrated philosopher, born in the year of his servants, Mys, whom at his death he made free. 341 B.C., seven years after the death of Plato. He❘ Besides the garden in Athens, from which the followers was a native of the Island of Samos, whither his father of Epicurus, in succeeding time, came to be named had gone from Athens, in the year 352 B.C., among the philosophers of the garden (Juv., Sat., 13, 122.2000 colonists then sent out by the Athenians. (Stra- Id., 14, 319), Epicurus possessed a house in Melite, a bo, 638.) Yet he was an Athenian by right, belong- village near Athens, to which he used often to retire ing to the borough Gargettus, and to the tribe Egeis. with his friends. On his death he left this house, toHis father Neocles is said to have been a schoolmas-gether with the garden, to Hermachus, as head of the ter, and his mother Charistrata to have practised arts of magic, in which it was afterward made a charge against Epicurus, that, when he was young, he assisted her. (Diog. Laert., 10, 4.) Having passed his early years in Samos and Teos, he went to Athens at the age of eighteen. We are told that he had begun to study philosophy when only fourteen, having been incited thereto by a desire, which the teachers to whom he had applied had failed to satisfy, of understanding Hesiod's description of chaos; and that he began with the writings of Democritus. In Samos he is said to have received lessons from Pamphilus, a follower of Plato. (Suid-Cic., N. D., 1, 26.)-On the occasion of this his first visit to Athens, Epicurus stayed there for a very short time. He left it in consequence of the measures taken by Perdiccas after the death of Alexander the Great, and went to Colophon to join his father. In his 32d year, 310 B.C., he went to Mytilene, where he set up a school. Staying only one year at this latter place, he next proceeded to Lampsacus, where he taught for four years. He returned to Athens in the year 306 B.C., and now founded the school, which ever after was named from him the Epicurean. He purchased a garden for 80 minæ (about 1400 dollars), wherein he might live with his disciples and deliver his lectures, and henceforth remained in Athens, with the exception only of two or three visits to his friends in Asia Minor, until his death, B.C. 270. The disease which brought him to his death was the stone. He was in his seventy-second year when he died, and he had then been settled in Athens as a teacher for 36 school, to be left by him again to whosoever might be his successor.-In physics Epicurus trod pretty closely in the footsteps of Democritus; so much so, indeed, that he was accused of taking his atomic cosmology from that philosopher without acknowledgment. He made very few, and these unimportant, alterations. (Cic., de Fin., 1, 6.) According to Epicurus, as also to Democritus and Leucippus before him, the universe consists of two parts, matter and space, or vacuum in which matter exists and moves; and all matter, of every kind and form, is reducible to certain indivisible particles or atoms, which are eternal. These atoms, moving, according to a natural tendency, straight downward, and also obliquely, have thereby come to form the different bodies which are found in the world, and which differ in kind and shape, according as the atoms are differently placed in respect to one another. It is clear that, in this system, a creator is dispensed with; and indeed Epicurus, here again following Democritus, set about to prove, in an à priori way, that this creator could not exist, inasmuch as nothing could arise out of nothing, any more than it could utterly perish and become nothing. The atoms have existed always, and always will exist; and all the various physical phenomena are brought about, from time to time, by their various motions.-It remains to speak of the Epícurean system of ethics. Setting out from the two facts that man is susceptible of pleasure and pain, and that he seeks the one and avoids the other, Epicurus propounded, that it is a man's duty to endeavour to increase to the utmost his pleasures, and diminish to Horace. Under the emperors, Pliny the Younger, and the utmost his pains; choosing that which tends to [tended that they were to be worshipped on account of pleasure rather than that which tends to pain, and the excellence of their nature, not because they could that which tends to a greater pleasure or to a lesser do men either good or harm. (Cic., N. D., 1, 41.— pain rather than that which tends respectively to a Senec., de Benef., 4, 19.)-Our chief sources of informalesser pleasure or a greater pain. He used the terms tion respecting the doctrines of Epicurus are, the 10th pleasure and pain in the most comprehensive way, as book of Diogenes Laertius, and the poem of Lucretius including pleasure and pain of both mind and body;" De Rerum Natura." Information is also furnished and he esteemed the pleasures and pains of the mind by the writings of Cicero, especially the "De Finias incomparably greater than those of the body. Ma-bus" and the "De Natura Deorum;" by those of Senking, then, good and evil, or virtue and vice, depend eca, and by the treatise of Plutarch entitled "Against on a tendency to increase pleasure and diminish pain, Colotes." Epicurus, according to Diogenes Laertius, or the opposite, he arrived, as he easily might do, at was a more voluminous writer than any other philosthe several virtues to be inculcated and vices to be opher, having written as many as 300 volumes, in all denounced. And when he got thus far, even his ad- of which he is said to have studiously avoided making versaries had nothing to say against him. It is strange quotations. All that now remains of his works are the that they should have continued to revile the principle, Letters contained in the 10th book of Diogenes Laerno matter by what name it might be called, when they tius, and parts of two books of his treatise on Nature saw that it was a principle which led to truth.-The (Epì puoεws), which were discovered at Herculaneperiod in which Epicurus opened his school was pecu- um. The last were published at Leipzig in 1818, beliarly favourable. In the room of the simplicity of the ing edited by Orelli. A critical edition of the first Socratic doctrine, nothing now remained but the sub- two letters was given by Schneider, at Leipzig, 1813. tlety and affectation of Stoicism, the unnatural severity-The Epicurean school was carried on, after Hermaof the Cynics, or the debasing doctrine of indulgence chus, by Polystratus and many others, concerning taught and practised by the followers of Aristippus. whom nothing is known; and the doctrines which The luxurious refinement which now prevailed in Epicurus had taught underwent few modifications. Athens, while it rendered every rigid scheme of phi-When introduced among the Romans, these doctrines, losophy, as well as all grossness of manners, unpopular, though very much opposed at first, were yet adopted inclined the younger citizens to listen to a preceptor by many distinguished men, as Lucretius, Atticus, who smoothed the stern and wrinkled brow of philosophy, and, under the notion of conducting his followers to enjoyment in the bower of tranquillity, led them unawares into the path of moderation and virtue. Hence the popularity of his school. It cannot be denied, however, that, from the time when this philosopher EPIDAMNUS, a city of Illyricum, on the coast, north appeared to the present day, an uninterrupted course of Apollonia. Its foundation is universally ascribed of censure has fallen upon his memory; so that the to the Corcyreans, who, in compliment to Corinth, name of his sect has almost become a proverbial ex- their metropolis, invited a citizen of that town to head pression for everything corrupt in principle and infa- their new colony. (Thucyd., 1, 24.) But we are not mous in character. The charges brought against Epi-informed what circumstances led to the change in its curus are, that he superseded all religious principles by name from Epidamnus to that of Dyrrachium, by dismissing the gods from the care of the world; that which it is more commonly known to the Latin writers. if he acknowledged their existence, it was only in con- Some have thought that Epidamnus and Dyrrachium formity to popular prejudice, since, according to his were two different towns, the latter of which was the system, nothing exists in nature but material atoms; emporium of the former. Others affirmed, that the that he discovered great insolence and vanity in the Romans, considering the word Epidamnus to be of evil disrespect with which he treated the memory of for- omen, called it Dyrrachium from the ruggedness of its mer philosophers, and the characters and persons of situation. (Appian, B. C., 2, 39.-Pomp. Mel., 2, 3. his contemporaries; and that both he and his disciples | —Plin., H. N., 3, 23.) It is pretty evident, however, were addicted to the grossest sensuality. These ac- that the word Avþþúxiov is of Greek, and not of Latin cusations, too, have been not only the voice of common origin, for we find it used by the poet Euphorion of Chalrumour, but more or less confirmed by men distinguish- cis in a verse preserved by Stephanus of Byzantium, s. ed for their wisdom and virtue-Zeno, Cicero, Plutarch, v. Avþþúxiov. The fact seems to be, that the founders Galen, and a long train of Christian fathers. With of Epidamnus gave the name of Dyrrachium or Dyrrespect to the first charge, it certainly admits of no ref- rhachium to the high and craggy peninsula on which utation. The doctrine of Epicurus concerning nature they built their town. Strabo (316) certainly applies militated directly against the agency of a Supreme Be- this appellation to the Chersonese, as does the poet ing in the formation and government of the world; and Alexander cited by Stephanus, s. v. Avppúxiov, and his misconceptions with respect to mechanical motion, this, in time, may have usurped the place of the former and the nature of divine happiness, led him to divest name. It is probable, also, that the town called Dyrthe Deity of some of his primary attributes. It does rachium did not exactly occupy the site of the ancient not, however, appear that he entirely denied the exist- Epidamnus; indeed, this is plainly asserted by Pauence of superior powers. Cicero charges him with sanias (5, 10). Eusebius refers the foundation of Epiinconsistency in having written books concerning piety damnus to the second year of the 38th Olympiad, or and the reverence due to the gods, and in maintaining about 625 B.C. Periander was then tyrant of Corinth, that the gods ought to be worshipped, while he assert- and nearly at the same period Cyrene was founded by ed that they had no concern in human affairs. That Battus. Placed at the entrance of the Hadriatic, in a there was an inconsistency in this is obvious. But situation most advantageous for commerce, which was Epicurus professed, that the universal prevalence of the also favoured by its relations with Corcyra and Corinth, ideas of gods was sufficient to prove that they exist- Epidamnus early attained to a considerable degree of ed; and, thinking it necessary to derive these ideas, opulence and power. It possessed a treasury at Olymlike all other ideas, from sensations, he imagined that the gods were beings of human form, hovering about in the air, and made known to men by the customary emanations. He believed that these gods were eternal, and supremely happy, living in a state of quiet, and meddling not with the affairs of the world. He con pia (Pausan., 6, 19), and its citizens vied with those of the most celebrated states of Greece in wealth and accomplishments. (Herodot., 6, 127.) And though the jealousy of the neighbouring barbarians had often prompted them to disturb the peace of the rising colony, it successfully withstood all their attacks until dissension and faction, that bane of the Grecian states, | Ionian colony from Attica (ap. Strab., l. c.). On the entailed upon the city their attendant evils, and so im- arrival of the Heraclide and Dorians, Epidaurus subpaired its strength that it was forced to seek from the mitted to their arms, and received a colony from ArCorcyreans that aid against foreign as well as domes-gos under Deiphontes. (Pausan., 2, 34.) It afterward tic enemies which its necessities required. The re- contributed, as Herodotus informs us (1, 146, and 7, fusal of Corcyra compelled the Epidamnians to apply 99), to the foundation of several Dorian cities in Asia to Corinth, which gladly sought this opportunity of in- Minor. The constitution of Epidaurus was originally creasing its influence at the expense of that of Corcyra. monarchical; in the time of Periander of Corinth, his A Corinthian force, together with a fresh supply of col- father-in-law, Procles, was tyrant of Epidaurus. (Heonists, was accordingly despatched by land to the aid rod., 3, 53.) Afterward the government was aristoof Epidamnus, and contributed greatly to restore or- cratical; the chief magistrates being called Artynæ or der and tranquillity. The Corcyreans, however, who Artyni, as at Argos (Thucyd., 5, 47), and being the were on no friendly terms with the Corinthians, could presidents of a council of one hundred and eighty. not brook this interference in the affairs of their colony; The common people were termed Konipedes (Kovithey also equipped a fleet, which, on its arrival at Epi-odes) or dusty-feet, in allusion to their agricultural damnus, summoned that town to receive back those pursuits. (Plut., Quæst. Gr., 1.) Epidaurus was the citizens who had been banished, and to send away the mother-city of Ægina and Cos, the former of which Corinthian reinforcement. On the rejection of this was once dependant upon it; afterward, however, the proposal by the Epidamnians, the Corcyreans, in con- Egineta emancipated themselves from this state of junction with the neighbouring Illyrians, besieged the vassalage, and, by means of their navy, did much intown, and, after some days, compelled it to surrender. jury to the Epidaurian territory. (Herod., 5, 83.) The These are the events which Thucydides has related at Epidaurians sent ten ships to Salamis, and 800 heavylength, from their intimate connexion with the origin armed soldiers to Platea. (Herodot., 8, 1, and 9, 102.) of the Peloponnesian war. We know but little of the They were the allies of Sparta during the Peloponne fortunes of Epidamnus from this period to its conquest sian war (Thucyd., 1, 105, and 2, 56), and successfully by the Romans. Aristotle, in his Politics (5, 1), no- resisted the Argives, who besieged their city after the tices a change which took place in its constitution, battle of Amphipolis. (Thucyd., 5, 53, seqq.) Dufrom the government of magistrates called phylarchs to ring the Boeotian war they were still in alliance with that of a senate. The character of its inhabitants, Lacedæmon (Xen., Hist. Gr., 4, 2, 16.—Id., 7, 2, 2), which was once virtuous and just, was also impaired but in the time of Aratus we find them united with by luxury and vice, if we may credit Plautus, who the Achæan league. (Polyb., 2, 5.) Epidaurus was still portrays them in his Menæchmi. (Act. 2, Sc. 1.) a flourishing city when Paulus Emilius made the tour That Venus was particularly worshipped here we learn of Greece (Liv., 45, 28.-Polyb., 30, 15, 1); and Pau from Catullus (36, 11).-Dyrrachium became the sanias informs us, that many of its buildings were in scene of the contest between Cæsar and Pompey.good preservation when he visited Argolis, more than The latter general, having been compelled to withdraw three centuries later.-Epidaurus was famed for having from Italy by his enterprising adversary, retired to been, in the mythological legends of Greece, the natal Dyrrachium on the opposite coast of Illyria, and hav-place of Esculapius; and it derived its greatest ceing collected all his forces round that city, deter-lebrity from a neighbouring temple to that god, which mined to make a stand against the enemy. Cæsar was the resort of all who needed his assistance. The soon followed him thither, having formed the bold design of blockading his adversary in his intrenched camp close to the town. This led to a series of operations, which are detailed at length by Cæsar himself; the success of which continued doubtful until Pompey at length forced his enemy to retire, and was thus enabled to transfer the seat of war into Thessaly. (Cæs., B. C., 3, 41, seqq.-Appian, B. C., 2, 40.) In addition to the strength of its situation, Dyrrachium was of importance to the Romans from its vicinity to Brundisium. Cicero landed there on his banishment from Italy, and speaks of the kindness he experienced from the inhabitants. (Ep. ad Fam., 14, 1.) We learn, indeed, from Ælian (V. H., 13, 16), that the laws of this city were particularly favourable to strangers. Dio Cassius observes, that Dyrrachium sided with Antony during the last civil wars of the republic; and thence it was that Augustus, after his victory, rewarded his soldiers with estates in its territory. The Byzantine historians speak of it as being still a considerable place in their time. (Ann. Comnen., 1, 41. -Cedren., Basil. Imp., p. 703.-Niceph., Callist., 17, 3.) But it is now scarcely more than a village, which is rendered unhealthy by its proximity to some marshes. Its modern name is Durazzo. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 1, p. 49, seqq.) EPIDAURIA, a festival at Athens in honour of Es-Esculapius are to be seen on the spot now called Geculapius. temple of Esculapius was situate at the upper end of rao, probably a corruption of Hieron. Near the temEPIDAURUS, I. a city of Argolis, on the shores of the ple was a remarkably beautiful theatre, built by PolySaronic Gulf, opposite the island of Egina. Its ter- clitus. (Pausan., 2, 27, 5.) This is now in better ritory extended along the coast for the space of fifteen preservation than any other theatre in Greece, except stadia, while towards the land it was encircled by lofty that at Trametzus, near Ioannina, and was capable of mountains, which contributed to its security. (Stra- containing 12,000 spectators. (Leake's Morea, vol. bo, 374.) The more ancient appellation of this city 2, p. 423.—Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 3, p. 270.) was Epicarus; its founders having been Carians, as II. A town of Laconia, surnamed Limera, on the Aristotle reported, who were afterward joined by an castern coast, about 200 stadia from Epidelium. It had been founded by the Argives, to whom, indeed, EPIMENIDES, a Cretan, contemporary with Solon, according to Herodotus, the whole of this coast, as far born in the year 659 B.C., at Phæstus, in the island of as the Malean promontory, once belonged. Apollo- Crete, according to some accounts, or at Consus dorus (ap. Strab., 368) pretended, that Limera was according to others. Many marvellous tales are reonly a contraction for Limenera, by which allusion was lated of him. It is said, that going, by his father's made to the convenience of the harbour. The town order, in search of a sheep, he laid himself down in a was situate on an eminence near the sea, and con- cave, where he fell asleep, and slept for fifty years. tained, among other buildings, a celebrated temple of He then made his appearance among his fellow-citiEsculapius. The ruins of Epidaurus Limera are to zens with long hair and a flowing beard, and with a be seen a little to the north of the modern Monem-knowledge of medicine and natural history which then basia. (Itin. of Morea, p. 235.) Its site is now known appeared more than human. Another idle story told by the name of Palaio Embasia. (Cramer's Ancient of this Cretan is, that he had a power of sending his Greece, vol. 3, p. 201.)—III. A maritime city of Illy-soul out of his body and recalling it at pleasure. It is ria, south of the river Naro. Mannert identifies it with the Arbona of Polybius (2, 11.-Mannert, Geogr., vol. 7, p. 350). added, that he had familiar intercourse with the gods, and possessed the power of prophecy. The event of his life for which he is best known, was his visit to EPIDIUM, I. one of the Ebudæ Insulæ, supposed by Athens at the request of the i...abitants, in order to Mannert to be the same with the modern Ila. (Geogr., pave the way for the legislation of Solon by purificavol. 2, p. 231.)—II. A promontory of Caledonia, cor- tions and propitiatory sacrifices. These rites were responding to the southern extremity of the peninsula calculated, according to the spirit of the age, to allay of Cantyre. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 2, p. 204.) the feuds and party dissensions which prevailed there; EPIGONI ('ETIуovoi, descendants), the sons of the and, although what he enjoined was mostly of a reli Grecian heroes who were killed in the first Theban gious nature (for instance, the sacrifice of a human vicwar. (Vid. Polynices.) The war of the Epigoni is tim, the consecration of a temple to the Eumenides, famous in ancient history. It was undertaken ten years and of two altars to Hybris and Anaideia, the two evil after the first. The sons of those who had perished powers which were exerting their influence on the in the first war resolved to avenge the death of their Athenians), there can be little doubt but that his object fathers. The god, when consulted, promised them vic- was political, and that Solon's constitution would hardly tory, if led by Alemæon, the son of Amphiaraus. Alc- have been accepted, had it not been recommended and mæon accordingly took the command. Another ac- sanctioned by some person, who, like Epimenides, count, however, given by Pausanias (9, 9, 2), makes claimed from men little less than the veneration due to Thersander, son of Polynices, to have been at the head a superior being. The Athenians wished to reward of the expedition. The other leaders were Amphilo- Epimenides with wealth and public honours, but he chus, brother of Alemæon; Egialeus, son of Adras- refused to accept any remuneration, and only demandtus; Diomedes, of Tydeus; Promachus, of Parthe- ed a branch of the sacred olive-tree, and a decree of nopaus; Sthenelus, of Capaneus; and Eurypylus, of perpetual friendship between Athens and his native Mecisteus. The Argives were assisted by the Mes-city.-We probably owe most of the wonderful tales, senians, Arcadians, Corinthians, and Megarians. The relative to Epimenides, to the Cretans, who were, to Thebans obtained aid from the neighbouring states. a proverb, famous for their powers of invention. All The invaders ravaged the villages about Thebes. A battle ensued, in which Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, slew Ægialeus, and fell himself by the spear of Alcmæon. The Thebans then fled; and, by the advice of Tiresias, they secretly left their city, which was entered and plundered by the Argives, and Thersander was placed on the throne.-With the exception of the events of the Trojan war and the return of the Greeks, nothing was so closely connected with the Iliad and Odyssey as the war of the Argives against Thebes, since many of the principal heroes of Greece, particularly Diomede and Sthenelus, were themselves among the conquerors of Thebes, and their fathers before them, a bolder and wilder race, had fought on the same spot, in a contest which, although unattended with victory, was still far from inglorious. Hence, also, reputed Homeric poems on the subject of this war were extant, which perhaps really bore a great affinity to the Homeric time and school. For we do not find, as in the other poems of the cycle, the name of one, or those of several later poets, placed in connexion with these compositions, but they are either attributed to Homer, as the earlier Greeks in general appear to have done; or if the authorship of Homer is doubted, they are usually attributed to no author at all. Thus the second part of the Thebais, which related to the exploits of the Epigoni, was, according to Pausanias (9, 9, 2), ascribed by some to Homer. The true reading in Pausanias, in the passage just referred to, is undoubtedly Καλλίνος, and neither Καλαῖνος (more correctly Káλaivoc), as the common text has it, nor KaλAipaxos, as Ruhnken conjectures (ad Callim., vol. 1, EPIPHANEA, I. a town of Cilicia Campestris, southp. 439, ed. Ernest.). This ancient elegiac poet, there- east of Anazarbus, and situate on the small river Carfore, about the twentieth Olympiad, quoted the Thebaid sus, near the range of Mount Amanus. It is now as Homeric. The Epigoni was still commonly as-Surfendkar. (Plin., 5, 27.)—II. A city of Syria, on cribed to Homer in the time of Herodotus (4, 32.Müller, Hist. Lit. Gr., p. 70, seq.). that is credible concerning him is, that he was a man of superior talents, who pretended to have intercourse with the gods; and, to support his pretensions, lived in retirement upon the spontaneous productions of the earth, and practised various arts of imposture. Perhaps, in his hours of pretended inspiration, he had the art of appearing totally insensible and entranced, which would easily be mistaken, by ignorant spectators, for a power of dismissing and recalling his spirit. Epimenides is said to have lived, after his return to Crete, to the age of 157 years. Divine honours were paid him after his death by the superstitious Cretans. He has no other claims to be mentioned among philosophers, except that he composed a theogony, and other poems concerning religious mysteries. He wrote also a poem on the Argonautic expedition, and other works, which are entirely lost. His treatise on oracles and responses, mentioned by St. Jerome, is said to have been the work from which St. Paul quotes in the epistle to Titus (1, 12.-Consult Heinrich. Epimenides aus Kreta, Leipz., 1801.-Encycl. Us. Knowl., vol. 9, p. 476.-Diog. Laert., 1, 109.-Val. Max., 8, 13. --Plin., 7, 52.-Aristot., Rhet., 3, 9.-Enfield's History of Philosophy, vol. 1, p. 132, seqq.), EPIMETHEUS, a son of Iapetus and Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He inconsiderately married Pandora, by whom he had Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion. The legend connected with his name will be found under the article Pandora. EPIMETHIS, a patronymic of Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus. (Ovid, Met., 1, 390.) the Orontes, below Apamea. Its Oriental and true name was Hamath, and it was reckoned by the people of the |