Nicostratus
(Νικόστρατος), a son of Menelaus by the slave Pieris. (Paus. 3.18. 7, 19.9.) Accordinog to others (Apollod. 3.11.1), he was a son of Menelaus by Helena. [L.S]
(Νικόστρατος), historical.
1. An Athenian general, the son of Diitrephes. We first hear of him in B. C. 427. The struggle between the oligarchical and democratical parties in Corcyra had commenced, when Nicostratus arrived from Naupactus with twelve ships and a body of 500 Messenians. Through his mediation a compact was entered into between the contending parties, and a defensive and offensive alliance with the Athenians was formed. As Nicostratus was about to depart the leaders of the commonalty persuaded him to leave five of his vessels, promising to man five for him instead. On board these they attempted to place their enemies, but the latter fled for refuge to the temple of the Dioscuri. Nicostratus strove to allay their fears, but to no purpose. About 400 of the party took refuge in the temple of Here, and were thence carried over to the island of Ptychia. A few days afterwards, before the Athenians had departed, the Peloponnesian fleet under Alcidas and Brasidas arrived. The democratical party were thrown into consternation. The Athenian squadron set out in good order to meet the enemy, and skilfully sustained the attack of thirty-three vessels of the Peloponnesian fleet; and Nicostratus was beginning to repeat the manoeuvres of Phormio, which had been attended with such success off Naupactus, when the remaining part of the fleet, having routed the Corcyraeans, advanced against the Athenians, who were compelled to retire. (Thuc. 3.75, &c.) In B. C. 424, Nicostratus was one of the colleagues of Nicias in the expedition in which Cythera was taken. (Thuc. 4.53, &c.) He was one of the Athenians who took the oaths to the year's truce concluded between Sparta and Athens (Thuc. 4.119); and later in the same year was the colleague of Nicias in the expedition to Chalcidice [Nicias]. (Thuc. 4.129, 130). In B. C. 418, Nicostratus and Laches led a body of 1000 heavy-armed soldiers and 300 cavalry to Argos, accompanied by Alcibiades as ambassador. The Atheniani troops, accompanied by the allies of Argos, proceeded to attack Orchomenos, which made no resistance. From Orchomenos, having been joined by the Argives, the combined forces proceeded against Tegea. Agis marched to protect the place, and in the battle which ensued near ,Mantineia Nicostratus and his colleague were both slain. (Thuc. 5.61_74).
2. An Athenian. known by the surname ὁ καλός, was slain in an engagement with the forces of Thrasybulus, in a descent which the latter made from Phyle (Xen. Hell. 2.4.6).
3. Two different persons of the name of Nicostratus are mentioned in the speech of Demosthenes againsst Eubulides; one, the son of Niciades, the other a foreigner, who was surreptitiously enrolled amongst the citizens through the agency of Eubulides. (Dem. ad v. Eubul, pp. 1305, 1317, ed. Reiske.)
4. An Athenian, against whom Demosthenes wrote a speech for Apollodorus, who charges him with a good deal of ingratitude and unneighbourly conduct. Nothing more is known of him than the incidents mentioned in the speech itself, which are not worth detailing here.
5. An Athenian, who died away from Attica, leaving some property; for one of the parties in a law-suit about which Isaeus rote the speech, Περὶ τοῦ Νικοστράτου κλήρου.
6. An Argive, who, according to Diodorus (16.44 ), was not only possessed of uncommon strength and courage, but was equally distinguished for his prudence and discretion both in the council and in the field. In battle he wore a lion's skin and carried a club in imitation of llercules. He conducted a body of 3000 Argives to the assistance of the Persian king, Ochus, for his expedition against Egypt; the king having specially requested that the Argives would send him at the head of such troops as they could furnish. Nicostratus seems to have taken a conspicuous part in the military operations of the king. (Diod. 16.48.) Plutarch (Apophth. p. 192. a., de Vit. Pud. p. 535) records a saving of his in reply to Archidamus, king of Sparta, who promised him a large sum of money and any Spartan woman whom he might choose as a wife to induce him to deliver up to him a fortress of which he had the command.
7. An officer in the service of Alexander the Great. He was one of those who joined with Sostratus in entering into a conspiracy to assassinate Alexander in revenge for an insult offered to Hermolaus. The conspiracy, happily, miscarried. (Curt. 8.6.9, &c.)
8. A native of Trichone, in Aetolia, who is spoken of more than once by Polybius as having, in conjunction with a man named Lattabus, in violation of treaties and in time of peace, made an outrageous attack upon the congress of the Pamlboeotians. (Plb. 4.3, 9.34.)
9. A Rhodian, who commanded a vessel in the naval battle with Philip off Chios, B. C. 201. In B. C. 168 he was one of the ambassadors sent by the Rhodians to L. Aemilius and to Perseus. (Plb. 16.5, 29.4.)
10. Praetor of the Achaean league in B. C. 197. He was present at the meeting held at Mycenae. at the invitation of Nabis, at which Flaminius and Attals were also present. On the part of the Achaeans he entered into a truce for four months with Nabis. (Liv. 32.39, 40.) Later in the same year, being at Sicyon with a body of troops, by a skilfully devised stratagem he inflicted a severe defeat on the forces of Philip, stationed at Corinth under the command of Androsthenes [Androsthenes], while they were ravaging the lands o Pellene, Sicyon, and Phlius. (Liv. 33.14, 15.)
11. A native of Cilicia, and a man of distinguished family. The period when he lived may be gathered from the statement of Quinctilian (Inst. Orat. 2.8.14), that in his youth he had seen Nicostratus, who was then an old man. When a boy, Nicostratus was carried off by pirates, and taken to Aegeae, where he was purchased from them by some person. He was renowned for his strength and prowess, and at one of the Olympic festivals gained the prize on the same day in the wrestling match atndt the pancratium. (Paus. 5.21.11; Tacit. de Orat. 10.) [C.P.M]
literary.
1. The youngest of the three sons of Aristophanes, according to Apollodorus. He was himself a comic poet. By Athenaeus (xiii. p. 597d.) he is expressly called a poet of the middle comedy. But he belonged also in part to the new comedy. Harpocration (p. 266) speaks of his play called Ὀρνιθευτής, as belonging to that species of comedy; and some of the characters which he introduced in other dramas demonstrate the same. In his Βασιλεῖς he introduced a boasting soldier (Athen. 6.230d.); in his Τοκιστής, an avaricious money-lender (Athen. 15.685f.) and a vaunting cook (Athen. 14.664b.). Photius (Phot. Bibl. 190, p. 153, ed. Bekk.) has got a story that Nicostratus being inflamed with a mad passion for some one named Tettigidaea, leapt off the Leucadian rock.
The titles of nineteen of the plays of Nicostratus have come down to us. Three of these, the Ἀντυλλος (Ath. 3.108, 118 e.), the Οἰνοτίων (Athen. 4.169e. vii. p. 280d.; Suidas, s. v. Φιλέταιρος), and the Πάνδροσος (Athen. 13.587d. xv. p. 693a. b.) were also attributed to Philetaerus, who, according to some authorities (Schol. ad Plat. Apol. Socr. p. 331), was the third son of Aristophanes [Philetaerus]. The remaining plays of Nicostratus were: 7. Ἱεροφάντης. 8. Κλίνη 9. Ἅβρα. 10. Ἡσίοδος. 11. Διάβολος. 12. Ἀντερωσα. 13. Ἐκάτη. 14. Μάγειρος. 15. Ὦτις. 16. Πλοῦτος. 17. Σύρος. 18. Ἀπελαυνόμενος. 19. Ψευδοστιγματίας. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 472; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 346, &c.; Bode, Gesch. der Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. iii. part. ii. p. 410.)
2. A dramatic writer mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (4.18). He bore the nickname of Κλυταιμνήοτρα, and is probably a different person from the preceding. Meineke is inclined to believe him to have been the author of the Theseis, mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (2.59), though some MSS. there have the reading Πυθόστρατος.
3. A tragic actor, who lived before B. C. 420. He is confounded by Suidas (s. v.) with the son of Aristophanes. (Xen. Syump. 3.11; Plut. Moral. p. 348f., Append. Vatic. 1.65; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 347.)
4. A rhetorician, a native of Macedonia. He lived in the time of M. Antoninus. According to Suidas (s. v.) he was the author of the following works: Δεκαμυθία, Εἰκόνες, Πολυμυθ́ια, Δαλαττουργοί, and several other works, encomia on the emperor, and various others. Some of his μύθοι were in a dramatic form. Philostratus (de Vit. Sophist. 2.31 ) praises the elegance of his style. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 135.)
5. A native of Trapezus, who lived in the reign of Aurelian. He wrote an account of the exploits of Philippus, the successor of Gordianus among the Arabs; and also an account of Decius, Gallus, Valerianus, and the son of Gallienus, up to the time of the expedition of Valerianus against Sapor, the king of the Persians, A. D. 259. (Voss. de Hist. Graec. p. 288, ed. Westermann.)
6. A writer on music, mentioned in a fragment annexed to Censorinus, and attributed to him by many. (Voss. de Hist. Graec. p. 475.) [C. P. M.]
(Νικόστρατος), a physician, mentioned by Antiphianes the younger (ap. Ath. 13.51, p. 586; Harpocr. s. v. Ἀντίκυρα) as having left to a courtezan, at his death, a large quiartity of hellehore, whence she acquired the nick-name Anticyra. He is perhaps the same person whose medical formulae are frequently quoted by Andromachus (ap. Gal. Dè Compos. Medical. sec. Loc. 8.2, 9.6, vol. xiii. pp. 139, 308, and Aet. 3.1, 32, p. 478), and others, and who must, therefore, have lived in or before the first century after Christ. [W.A.G]
artist. [Nicomachus.]
(Νικόστρατος). One of the sons of Aristophanes, and ranked among the poets of the Middle Comedy. The titles of some of his own and his brothers' comedies are preserved in Athenaeus (pp. 108, 118, 230, 597). The names of his brothers were Araros and Philippus.
- Olympic victor: Paus. 5.21.10ff.
- institutes custom of throwing torches into pit in honour of the Maid: Paus. 2.22.3
- Apollod. 3.10.8
- son of Menelaus by slave girl: Paus. 2.18.6
- represented riding on horseback with his brother Megapenthes: Paus. 3.18.13
- with Megapenthes he expels Helen: Paus. 3.19.9
- a Heraean, Olympic victor: Paus. 6.3.11