Pamphilus
- I A disciple of Plato, whom Epicurus heard, Cic. N. D. 1, 26, 72.—
- II A celebrated painter, a native of Amphipolis, the instructor of Apelles, Plin. 35, 10, 36, § 75; 35, 11, 40, § 123.—
- III A rhetorician, Cic. de Or. 3, 21, 81; Quint. 3, 6, 33.
(Πάμφιλος), literary.
1. A disciple of Plato, who is only remembered by the circumstance that Epicurus, when a young man, heard him at Samos. Epicurus used to speak of him with great contempt, partly, according to Cicero, that he might not be thought to owe anything to his instruction; for it was the great boast of Epicurus, that he was the sole author of his own philosophy. (Diog. Laert 10.14; Suid. s. v. Ἐπίκουρος ; Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1.26.)
2. A rhetorician, and writer on the art of rhetoric, mentioned by Aristotle in conjunction with Callippus. (Rhet. 2.23.21.) It is impossible to determine whether he is the same as the rhetorician of this name mentioned by Cicero (De Orat. 3.21, where several commentators have fallen into the extraordinary blunder of supposing that Pamphilus the painter is referred to); or as the one mentioned by Quintilian (3.6.34); or whether all three were different persons.
3. A philosopher, of Amphipolis, or Sicyon, or Nicopolis, surnamed Φιλοπράγματος, wrote the following works: εἰκόνες κατὰ στοιχεῖον, τέχνη γραμματική, περὶ γραφικῆς καὶ ζωγράφων ἐνδόξων, γεωργικὰ βιβλία γ#. (Suid. s.v. who confounds him with the teacher of Epicurus.) We have no other mention of any of these works, except the last, of which there are considerable fragments in the Geoponica of Bassus. As two out of the four works in the above list are upon art, and as Suidas calls Pamphilus an Amphipolitan or Sicyonian, it has been conjectured that this Pamphilus was the great painter, who was a native of Amphipolis and the head of the Sicyonian school. Several of the great artists, and especially about the time of Pamphilus, wrote works on art, as, for example, Apelles and Melanthius; and it seems especially probable that Pamphilus, who was famed for the scientific character of his teaching, would do the same. The argument is good so far as it goes, but the best conclusion to draw from it seems to be, not that the whole article in Suidas is to be referred to the painter, but that the lexicographer has here, as frequently elsewhere, confounded different persons; namely, the painter, to whom we may ascribe the "Likenesses in Alphabetical Order," and the work on "Painting and Celebrated Painters," and a philosopher, or rather grammarian of Nicopolis, author of the other two works.
The latter, again, is perhaps the same person who wrote a work on plants (περὶ βοτανῶν) in alphabetical order, and who is frequently mentioned and ridiculed by Galen. He is sometimes enumerated among the physicians, but Galen expressly says that he was a grammnarian, and had never seen the plants about which he wrote. (Galen, περὶ τῆς τῶν ἁπλῶν φαρμάκων δυνάμεως, pp. 67, &c.) His book found a place in the work of the younger Dioscorides, and considerable fragments of it are found in the Geoponica. A work of Pamphilus Περὶ φυσικῶν also cited in the Geoponica (13.15). To this grammarian, who busied himself also with physical science, the epithet φιλοπράγματος, which Suidas tells us was given to Pamphilus of Nicopolis, might very well be applied, and the work on agriculture, which Suidas ascribes to the latter, may be, perhaps, the same as that on plants, which is cited by Galen. A further point of resemblance is, that the fragments of Pamphilus's work on agriculture in the Geoponica contain several examples of that superstition with which Galen charges the author of the work on plants. Whether they are to be identified or not, the latter writer must have lived about the first century of our era, since his work was copied by Dioscorides.
4. An Alexandrian grammarian, of the school of Aristarchus, and the author of a lexicon, which is supposed by some scholars to have formed the foundation of the lexicon of Hesychius. Works
The list of his works, as given by Suidas, is rather obscure, but the following is probably the correct punctuation of the passage: ἔγραψε λειμῶνα (ἔστι δὲ ποικίλων περιοχή), περὶ γλωσσῶν ήτοι λέξεων βιβλίαε#...εἰς τὰ Νικάνδρου ἀνεξήγητα καὶ τὰ καλούμενα ὐφικά, τέχνην κριτικὴν, καὶ ἄλλα πλεῖστα γραμματικά. The λείμων was no doubt one of those miscellaneous collections of facts and discussions to which the ancient grammarians were fond of giving such fanciful titles. The correctness of the title ἀνεξήγητα is questionable, as there is no other mention of such a work by Nicander. The next title is ὀπικά in most of the MSS., and has been variously corrected into ὀφικά, ὀφιακά, and ὀφιονικά ; one critic, Reinesius, even conjectures Ὀρφικά, which is a groundless fancy. [Nicander.] Of the τέχνη κριτική we have no other mention. With respect to Pamphilus's chief work, the lexicon, we learn from Suidas that it was in 95 books (other readings give 75, 205, and 405), and that it extended from ε to ω, the preceding part, from a to δ, having been compiled by Zopyrion. It is quoted under various titles, such as περὶ γλωσσῶν, περὶ όνομάτων, περὶ γλωσσῶν καὶ ὀνομάτων. It was arranged in alphabetical order, and particular attention was paid in it to words peculiar to the respective dialects. The controversy respecting its relation to the work of Hesychius is too extensive and doubtful to be entered on here. Further Information
A full discussion of the controversy about the relationship of his work tot ath of Hescychius, with further information respecting the lexicon of Pamphilus, will be found in the works of Ranke and Welcker, already quoted under Hesychius, to which should be added the article Pamphilus, also by Ranke, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopädie. (See also Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 374, 631.) He appears to have lived in the first century of our era. He may be presumed to be the Pamphilus quoted in the Scholia on Homer. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 518.
5. An epigrammatic poet, who had a place in the Garland of Meleager, and two of whose epigrams are contained in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck. Anal. vol. i. p. 258; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. i. p. 190.) Whether or not he is identical with either of the preceding writers, we have no means of determining.
6 Of Sicily, a sophist or grammarian, or poet, who is mentioned by Athenaeus for his strange conceit of always speaking in verse at table. (Ath. i. p. 4d.; Suid. s. v. Πάμφιλος οὗτος ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 313.)
7. Presbyter of Caesareia, in Palestine, saint and martyr, and also celebrated for his friendship with Eusebius, who, as a memorial of this intimacy, assumed the surname of Παμφίλου. [Eusebius.]
He was probably born at Berytus, of an honourable and wealthy family. Having received his early education in his native city, he proceeded to Alexandria, where he attended the instrnctions structions of Pierius, the head of the catechetical school. Afterwards, but at what time we are not informed, he became a presbyter under Agapius the bishop of Caesareia in Palestine. In the fifth year of the persecution under Diocletian, towards the end of the year A. D. 307, he was thrown into prison by Urbanus, the governor of Palestine, for refusing to sacrifice to the heathen deities. Eusebius attended upon him most affectionately during his imprisonment, which lasted till the l6th of February, 309, when he suffered martyrdom by the command of Firmilianus, the successor of Urbanus.
The life of Pamphilus seems to have been entirely devoted to the cause of biblical literature, and of a free theology, but more especially the former: he was an ardent admirer and follower of Origen. Jerome tells us that he was always ready to show his friendship for studious men, and to supply their wants; and that he multiplied copies of the Holy Scriptures to such an extent that he was able not only to lend, but to give them away. He formed, at Caesareia, a most valuable public library, chiefly of ecclesiastical authors, a catalogue of which was contained in the lost work of Eusebius on the life of Pamphilus. Not only did the writings of Origen occupy an important place in this library, but the greater part of them were transcribed by Pamphilus with his own hand, as we learn from Jerome, who used these very copies. Perhaps the most valuable of the contents of this library were the Tetrapla and Hexapla of Origen, from which Pamphilus, in conjunction with Eusebius, formed a new recension of the Septuagint, numerous copies of which were put into circulation. Among the other treasures of this library was a copy of the so-called Hebrew text of the gospel of St. Matthew, as used by the Nazarenes. There is still extant one MS., if not two, which some suppose to have been transcribed by Pamphilus for his library (Montfaucon, Bibl. Coisl. p. 251; Proleg. ad Orig. Hexapl. pp. 14, 76.). The library is supposed to have been destroyed at the taking of Caesareia by the Arabs, in the seventh century. Another eminent service which Pamphilus rendered to the Christians of Caesareia, was the foundation of a theological school, in which the exposition of the Scriptures formed the chief study. Works
The statement of Jerome that Pamphilus, though so ardent in the study and transcription of the old writers, composed nothing of his own, except a few letters, is certainly incorrect. Apology for Origen
Photius expressly states that the Apology for Origen was commenced by Pamphilus in prison, where he composed five books of it in conjunction with Eusebius, and that the sixth book was added by Eusebius after the martyrdom of Pamphilus. Of these six books the first only is extant, in the incorrect Latin version of Rufinus. The work was in the form of a letter to the Christian confessors condemned to the mines in Palestine. Editions
Rufinus' Latin version is printed in Delarue's edition of Origen, Gallandi's Bibliotheca Patrum, and Routh's Reliquiae Sacrae. Expositio capitum Actuum Apostolicorum
There is another work ascribed to Pamphilus by some writers, under the title of Expositio capitum Actuum Apostolicorum, but it is quite impossible to decide whether this was really written by Pamphilus or by Euthalius. Sources for his life
Eusebius wrote a life of Pamphilus in three books, but it is entirely lost, excepting a few fragments, and even these are doubtful. All that we now know of him is derived from scattered passages in the works of Eusebius, Jerome, Photius, and others. Further Information
Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.32, 7.32, de Mart. Palaest. 11; Hieron. de Vir. Illu/st. 75, ad v. Rufin. I. vol. iv. p. 357, II. vol. iv. p. 419; Phot. Bibl. 118; Acta S. Pamphili Marlyris ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 712; Lardner, Tillemont, Schröckh, and the other church historians. [P.S]
(Πάμφιλος), artists.
1. Of Amphipolis (Suid. s. v. Ἀπελλῆς ; Macedo natione, Plin.), one of the most distinguished of the Greek painters, flourished about Ol 97-107, B. C. 390-350. He was the disciple of Eupompus, the founder of the Sicyonian school of painting [Eupompus], for the establishment of which, however, Pamphillus seems to have done much more than even Eupompus himself. (Plin. H.N. 35.10. s. 36.7, 11. s. 40; Plut. Arat. 13). Of his own works we have most scanty accounts; but as a teacher of his art he was surpassed by none of the ancient masters. According to Pliny, he was the first artist who possessed a thorough acquaintance with all branches of knowledge, especially arithmetic and geometry, without which he used to say that the art could not be perfected. All science, therefore, which could in any way contribute to form the perfect artist, was included in his course of instruction, which extended over ten years, and for which the fee was no less than a talent. Among those who paid this price for his tuition were Apelles and Melanthius. (Plin. Nat. 35.10. s. 36.8). Not only was the school of Pamphilus remarkable for the importance which the master attached to general learning, but also for the minute attention which he paid to accuracy in drawing. On this subject Pliny says that this artist's influence established the rule, first at Sicyon, and afterwards through all Greece, that freeborn boys were taught before any thing else (in art, of course) the graphic art (graphicen, drawing with the graphics ,) that is, painting on box-wood, and this art was received into the first rank of the studies of the free-born (Plin. l.c.). Two things are clear from this passage. First, it proves the high and just view which Pamphilus took of the place which art ought to occupy in a liberal education: that, just as all learning is necessary to make an accomplished artist, so is some practical knowledge of art needful to form an accomplished mans: and, secondly, the words graphicen, hoc est, picturam in buxo, while they are not to be restricted to mere drawing, are yet evidently intended to describe a kind of drawing or painting, in which the first requisites were accuracy and clearness of outline. (See Dict. of Ant. s. v. Painting, p. 692, note; Böttiger, Ideen zur Archäologie der Malerci, pp. 145, foll.; and Fuseli's First Lecture.)
Modern writers have taken great pains to ascertain how Pamphilus made arithmetic and geometry to contribute so essentially to the art of painting. Speaking generally, the words evidently describe the whole of the laws of proportion, as definitely determined by numbers and geometrical figures, which form the foundation of all correct drawing and composition. This subject is very fully illustrated in Flaxman's fourth Lecture, where he remarks that the laws given by Vitruvius (3.1) were taken from the writings of the Greek artists, perhaps from those of Pamphilus himself: and in another passage he observes, "Geometry enabled the artist scientifically to ascertain forms for the configuration of bodies; to determine the motion of the figure in leaping, running, striking, or falling, by curves and angles, whilst arithmetic gave the multiplication of measures in proportions." (Lect. ix. p. 217, Westmacott's edition.)
These being the principles of the school of Pamphilus, we can easily understand the fact stated by Quintilian (12.10) that he and his pupil Melanthius excelled all other painters in what he calls ratio, by which we must understand proportion in its widest sense, including composition (Pliny uses the word disposition. See Melanthius).
Of his pictures Pliny only mentions four: a Cognatio, by which we must probably understand a family group; a battle at Phlius; a victory of the Athenians; and Ulysses on his raft. It is probable, though by no. means certain, that we ought to add to the list a picture of the Heracleidae as suppliants at Athens, on the authority of the following passage in the Plutus of Aristophanes (382, 385):--
Ὁπῶ τινʼ ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος καθεδούμενον, ἱκετηρίαν ἔχοντα μετὰ τῶν παιδίων καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς, κοὐ διοίσοντʼ ἄντικρυς τῶν Ἡρακλειδῶν οὐδʼ ὁτιοῦν τῶν Παμφίλου.
Some of the Scholiasts thought that the Pamphilus here mentioned was a tragic poet, and Callistratus and Euphronius are quoted as authorities for this statement: but, as a Scholiast remarks, there was no tragic poet of this name mentioned in the Didascaliae. Most of them, however, understand the allusion to be to a well-known picture of the celebrated Pamphilus; though one of them ascribes the picture to Apollodorus, observing that Pamphils was younger than Aristophanes. Notv, bearing in mind that these illusions of the comic poets are generally to the novelties of the day, we may fairly conjecture that Pamphilus, then a young artist, had just visited Athens for the first time, and had executed this picture of the Heracleidae for the Athenians. The date of the second edition of the Plutus was B. C. 388.
Taking, then, this date as about the commencement of the career of Pamphilus, we must, on the other hand, place him as low as B. C. 352, when his disciple Apelles began to flourish. And these dates agree with all the other indications of his time. Thus, he is mentioned by Quintilian (l.c.) among the artists who flourished in the period commencing with the reign of Philip II.; Pliny places him immediately before Echion and Therimachus, who flourished in the 107th Olympiad, B. C. 352; and the battle of Phlius, which he painted, must have been fought between Ol. 102 and 104, B. C. 372 and 364 (Müller, Proleg. zu Mythol. p. 400). What victory of the Athenians formed the subject of the other picture mentioned by Pliny, is not known: it may be the naval victory of Chabrias, at Naxos, in B. C. 376.
Among the pupils of Pamphilus, besides Apelles and Melanthius, was Pausias, whom he instructed in encaustic painting.
2. A sculptor, who was the pupil of Praxiteles, and who therefore flourished probably about Ol. 112, B. C. 332. Pliny mentions his Jupiter hospitalis in the collection of Asinius Pollio. (H. N. 36.5. s. 4.10.)
3. The engraver of a gem representing Achilles playing on the lyre (Bracci, Tab. 90; Stosch, Pierres Gravées, p. 157.) [P.S]
(Πάμφιλος), a physician and grammarian at Rome, where he acquired a large fortune, probably in the second or first century B. C. (Galen, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. 6.3, vol. xii. p. 839; Aetius, 2.4.16. p. 375.) He wrote a work on plants (St. Epiphan. Adv. Hacres. i. init.), in which they were arranged in alphabetical order, and which Galen criticizes very severely, saying that Pamphilus described plants which he had evidently never seen, and that he mixed up a quantity of absurd and superstitious matter. (De Simplic. Medicam. Temper. ac Facult. vi. praef., 7.10.31, vol. xi. pp. 792, 793, 796, 797, 798, 12.31.) Several of his medical formulae are quoted by Galen. (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. 6.3, vol. xii. p. 842, 7.3, vol. xiii. p. 68.) He is probably the same person as the grammarian of Alexandria mentioned by Suidas. (See Lambec. Biblioth. Vindobon. vol. ii. p. 141, sq. ed. Kollar.) [W.A.G]
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…luteum negotium esse, non dignum quod in suo argento Verres haberet. ait ille idem sibi videri. ita Pamphilus scyphos optimos aufert. et mehercule ego antea, tametsi hoc nescio quid nugatorium sciebam esse, ista intellegere ,…
Cicero, in Verrem
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…quem virum, dii inmortales, et sunt qui putent audisse ; ipse non vult credo, plus nemini. Pamphilum quendam Platonis auditorem ait a se Sami auditum ibi enim adulescens habitabat cum patre et fratribus, quod in eam…
M. Tullius Cicero, de Natura Deorum
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…quam sis fortis, vehementius esse quiddam suspicor quod te cogat cedere et prope modum infringat. etsi alteram quartanam Pamphilus tuus mihi dixit decessisse et alteram leviorem accedere. Terentia vero, quae quidem eodem tempore ad portam Brundisinam venit…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…, poscit scyphos. tum illos coepisse praetori dicere putasse se, id quod audissent, alicuius preti scyphos esse Pamphili ; luteum negotium esse, non dignum quod in suo argento Verres haberet. ait ille idem sibi videri .…
Cicero, in Verrem
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…re Coracem istum veterem patiamur nos quidem pullos suos excludere in nido, qui evolent clamatores odiosi ac molesti, Pamphilumque nescio quem sinamus in infulis tantam rem tamquam puerilis delicias aliquas depingere ; nosque ipsi hac tam exigua disputatione hesterni…
Cicero, de Oratore
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…argento cupiditatem aut manus abstinere potuisse verum ut Lilybaeum, unde digressa est oratio, revertamur, Diocles est, Pamphili gener, illius a quo hydria ablata est, Popilius cognomine. ab hoc abaci vasa omnia, ut exposita…
Cicero, in Verrem
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…quorum poscebatur argentum nisi ut id Hieroni et Tlepolemo displiceret. verum mehercule hoc, iudices, dicam. memini Pamphilum Lilybitanum, amicum et hospitem meum, nobilem hominem, mihi narrare, cum iste ab sese hydriam Boethi manu…
Cicero, in Verrem
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…eo cum venio, praetor quiescebat ; fratres illi Cibyratae inambulabant. qui me ubi viderunt, Vbi sunt, Pamphile, inquiunt, scyphi ostendo tristis ; laudant. incipio queri me nihil habiturum quod alicuius esset preti si etiam…
Cicero, in Verrem
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…Minime ; nam postquam attendi Magis, et vi coepi cogere ut rediret, sancte adiurat Non posse apud vos Pamphilo se absente perdurare. Aliud fortasse alii viti est ego sum animo leni natus Non possum adversari meis. Hem…
Terence, Hecyra
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…oculis eam, quod nossem, videram. Perliberalis visa est. Dic verum. Ita me Di ament, Pamphile. Dic mihi, harum rerum numquid dixti iam patri Nihil. Neque opus est Adeo muttito placet non fieri…
Terence, Hecyra
(Πάμφιλος). (1) A Greek painter of Amphipolis in Macedonia, who lived in the first half of the fourth century B.C., chiefly at Sicyon, as head of the school there founded by his master Eupompus. He is the originator of the scientific teaching of art: he traced back all practice of art to scientific principles. He maintained that painting could not be brought to perfection without arithmetic and geometry. In spite of the fact that his fee for instruction was one talen ($1180), the number of his pupils was considerable, the greatest among them being Apelles. Through his influence instruction in drawing was introduced among the subjects of Greek education (Pliny , H. N. xxxv. 74, 76). The only work of this artist now known to us by name is his picture of the “Suppliant Heraclidae,” to which Aristophanes alludes in the Plutus, 385.
(2) A disciple of Plato whose lectures Epicurus attended as a young man (Cic. N. D. i. 26, 70).
(3) An Alexandrian grammarian who wrote a lexical treatise in ninety-five books, epitomized by Vestinus and Diogenianus in five books, and supposed to have been the basis of the lexicon of Hesychius (q.v.) See Weber, Philol. Suppl. iii. 467 foll.