Sostratus
- a Greek proper name, esp.
- 1 A sculptor, Plin. 34, 8, 19, § 51 al.—
- 2 An architect of Cnidus, who built the tower of Pharos, Plin. 36, 12, 18, § 83.—
- 3 A surgeon, Cels. 4, 3, 14; 7 praef.
(Σώστρατος), a youth beloved by Hercules, to whom funeral sacrifices were offered in Achaia, and whose tomb was shown in the neighbourhood of the town of Dyme. (Paus. 7.17.4.) [L.S]
(Σώστρατος).
1. An Aeginetan, son of Laodamas, is alluded to by Herodotus as having made the greatest profits ever realized by a single commercial voyage, but unfortunately the period and other circumstances of this successful enterprise are wholly unknown to us. (Hdt. 4.152.)
2. A Syracusan. [Sosistratus, No. 2.]
3. Son of Amyntas, a noble Macedonian youth, in the service of Alexander the Great; was one of those implicated in the conspiracy of the pages against that monarch, for which he was put to death together with his friend and associate Hermolaus. [Hermolaus.]
4. A citizen of Chalcedon, who became a courtier of the Gaulish king Cavarus, and is accused of having corrupted the naturally good disposition of that chieftain by his flatteries. (Polyb. apud Athen. vi. p. 252c.)
5. A flute-player and parasite, who enjoyed a high place in the favour of Antiochus II. king of Syria. His sons were admitted by that monarch among his body-guards. (Athen. 1.19a. vi. p. 244f.)
6. Father of Deinarchus the Athenian orator, called, by some writers Socrates. [E.H.B]
literary.
1. A grammarian who lived in the time of Augustus. He was a native of Nysa, and a son of Aristodemus, who was an old man when Strabo was young (Strabo xiv. p.560).
2. A native of Phanagoreia (Steph. Byz. s. v. Μυκάλη).
We have no means of deciding whether it is to either of these, or to some different author, that the following works are to be ascribed : -- 1. A work on Etruscan history (Τυρρηνικά, Plut. Parall. Min. 100.28; Stob. Floril. 64.35). 2. A work on animals (Athen. vii. pp. 303, b., 312, e.; Ael. NA 5.27, 6.51). 3. A work on legendary history (Μυθικὴ ἀγωγή, Stob. l.c. 100.19). 4. A treatise on hunting (κυνηγητικά, Stob. l.c. 64.33). 5. A work on Thrace (Θρακικά, Stob. l.c. 7.66). 6. A treatise on rivers (Plut. de Fluv. 100.2; Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 227, ed. Westermann.) [C.P.M]
(Σώστρατος), the name of three members of the family of the Asclepiadae.
1. The third in descent from Aesculapius, the son of Hippolochus I., and the father of Dardanus, who may be supposed to have lived in the eleventh century B. C. (Jo. Tzetzes, Chil. vii. Hist. 155, in Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. xii. p. 680, ed. vet.)
2. The eighth in descent from Aesculapius, the son of Theodorus I., and the father of king Crisamis II., who lived perhaps in the eighth and seventh centuries B. C. (Id. ibid.)
3. The twelfth in descent from Aesculapius, the son of Theodorus II., and the father of Nebrus, who lived in the seventh century B. C. (Id. ibid. ; Poeti Epist. ad Artax. ap. Hippocr. Opera, vol. iii. p. 770.)
4. A surgeon of Alexandria, mentioned in terms of praise by Celsus (De Med. vii. praef. p. 137), who may be conjectured (from the names of his apparent contemporaries) to have lived in the third century B. C. (See also Cels. 7.4, 14, pp. 139, 151.) Sprengel says he was a celebrated lithotomist, but of this there is no evidence. Works
He appears to have given some attention to the subject of bandages (Galen, De Fasc. 100.102, 103, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 823; Nicetas, cc. 469, 482, 484), and is probably the same person who wrote some zoological works, which are quoted by several ancient authors, but are not now extant. Further Information
Aelian, De Nat. Anim. 5.27, 6.51; Schol. Nicand. Ther. vv. 565, 747, 760, 764; Schol. Theocr. Id. 1.115 * In this passage (as Dr. Rosenbaum, the editor of the new edition of Sprengel's History, remarks) for Σώπατρας we should read Σώστρατος.; Athen. Deipn. 7.66, 90, pp. 303, 312.) See also Galen, De Antid. 2.14. vol. xiv. p. 184; and Gariopontus, De Febr. 100.7. (Sprengel's Gesch. der Arzneik. ed. 1846. [W.A.G]
(Σώστρατος), artists. There are at least four, if not five, Grecian artists mentioned, of this name, who have been frequently confounded with one another, but whom Thiersch has distinguished with much skill and, for the most part, correctly. (Epochen d. bild. Kunst., pp. 278, 282, foll.)
1. A statuary in bronze, the sister's son of Pythagoras of Rhegium, and his disciple, flourished about Ol. 89, B. C. 424. (Plin. Nat. 34.8. s. 19.5.) None of his works are mentioned.
2. Of Chios, the instructor of Pantias, and therefore the sixth in that series of seven artists, of whom Aristocles of Sicyon was the first, and Pantias the last. (Paus. 6.9.1; comp. Aristocles). There is some difficulty in fixing the times of these artists; but, on the whole, the most probable date for Sostratus is that assigned to him by Müller, namely, about Ol. 95, B. C. 400. Pausanias (l.c.) only mentions his name, saying nothing of any of his works; but Polybius (4.78) informs us that Sostratus, in conjunction with Hecatodorus, made a bronze statue of Athena, which was dedicated at Aliphera in Arcadia. The name of Hecatodorus does not occur elsewhere; but Pausanias (8.26.4. s. 7) mentions this same statue as the work of Hypatodorus, an artist who flourished between Ol. 90 and Ol. 102, and whose name might easily be corrupted into Hecatodorus. Pausanias does not mention Sostratus in connection with Hypatodorus; and Polybius does not identify him with the teacher of Pantias; but, from a comparison of the two passages with the one first quoted from Pausanias, the inference is at least probable that they refer to the same artist.
3. A statuary in bronze, whom Pliny mentions as a contemporary of Lysippus, at Ol. 114, B. C. 323, the date of Alexander's death. (H. N. 34.8. s. 19). Even if we make all allowance for Pliny's practice of grouping together, at some marked historical epoch, artists who were only partially contemporary, we can hardly suppose this Sostratus to have been the same person as the preceding. But, on the other hand, considering how frequently different branches of art were cultivated by the same person, there is much probability in Thiersch's conjecture, that he was identical with the following.
4. The son of Dexiphanes, of Cnidus, was one of the great architects who flourished during and after the life of Alexander the Great. He built for Ptolemy I., the son of Lagus, at the expense of 800 talents, the celebrated Pharos of Alexandria, in connection with which we have one of the numerous examples recorded of the contrivances to which artists have resorted to obtain their share of the posthumous fame which their patrons desired to monopolize. It is related that Sostratus, not being allowed by Ptolemy to inscribe his own name upon his work, resorted to the artifice of secretly carving his name in deep letters in a stone of the building, which he then covered with a softer material, on which he inscribed the name of the king. In this case, however, the story appears to be an invention; for Pliny expressly mentions it as an instance of the magnanimity of Ptolemy, that he permitted the name of the architect to be inscribed upon the building. (Plin. Nat. 36.12. s. 18; Strab. xvii. p.791; Suid. and Steph. Byz. s. v. Φάρος; Lucian. de Conscrib. Hist. 62, vol. ii. p. 69). The architect also embellished his native city, Cnidus, with a work which was one of the wonders of ancient architecture, namely, a portico, or colonnade, supporting a terrace, which served as a promenade, and which Pliny (l.c.) calls pensilis ambulatio. This phrase, taken in connection with Lucian's mention of the work in the plural number (στοάς), suggests the idea that the edifice of Sostratus was a continuous series of porticoes surrounding an enclosed space, perhaps the Agora of the city. Pliny further informs us that Sostratus was the first who erected a building of this kind. (Plin. l.c. ; Lucian. Amor. 11, vol. ii. p. 408 ; Orelli, ad Philon. Byz. de Sept. Mirac. l, p. 73 ; Hirt, Gesch. d. Baukunst, vol. ii. p. 160; R. Rochette chette, Lettre à M. Schorn, p. 406, 2d ed.)
5. An engraver of precious stones, whose name appears on several very beautiful cameos and intaglios, which are enumerated by Raoul-Rochette (Lettre à M. Schorn, pp. 155, 156, 2d ed.). The form ΞΩΤΡΑΤΟΞ, which occurs on some of these stones, is evidently the same name; but we are not quite prepared to assert, with Raoul-Rochette, that "the reading, which is not Greek, could only proceed from the inadvertence of the artist." It may be so, but it may also be that Σώτρατος was a softened pronunciation of the name.
The explanation suggested by Winckelmann, in his account of the gems of Baron Stosch, -- that the form Σώτρατος occurs only on gems of later workmanship, the engraver of which, it is presumed, wished to pass them off as works of Sostratus, but was careless in the execution of his forgery -- appears, according to the testimony of R. Rochette, to be negatived by the existence of works which are evidently of genuine antiquity, and which bear the name in that form.
6. To the above artists, whom various writers notice, must still be added one more, a medallist, whose name appears in full on some coins of Tarentum, and to whom, therefore, Raoul-Rochette appears very likely to be correct in ascribing other medals of Tarentum, and of Thurium, which are inscribed with the abbreviations ΣΩ and ΣΩΣ, although from the frequency of names beginning with this syllable, especially among the Greeks of Southern Italy, it is impossible to be quite sure that he is right. (R. Rochette, Lettre à M. Schorn, p. 97.) [P.S]
(Σώστρατος). The son of Dexiphanes, of Cnidus. He was one of the great architects who flourished during and after the life of Alexander the Great. He built for Ptolemy I. of Egypt the great Pharos or light-house at Alexandria, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and also erected at Cnidus a portico supporting a terrace (Pliny H. N. xxxvi. 83).
- father of Pantias: Paus. 6.9.3
- loved by Herakles: Paus. 7.17.8
- his tomb: Paus. 7.17.8
- Olympic victor: Paus. 7.17.14
- surnamed Acrochersites, Olympic victor: Paus. 6.4.1
- his commercial success: Hdt. 4.152