Zopyrus
- A celebrated physiognomist, Cic. Fat. 5, 10; id. Tusc. 4, 37, 80.—
- II A Persian noble, who mutilated himself and thereby helped to conquer Babylon, Just. 1, 10, 15.—
- III A rhetorician, Quint. 3, 6, 3.—Hence, perh.,
- 1 Zōpyrion, Lucil. ap. Non. p. 210, 28.—
- 2 Zōpyriātim, adv., in the manner of Zopyrus, Lucil. ap. Non. p. 455, 17.
(Ζώπυρος), historical. 1. A distinguished Persian, son of Megabyzus, one of the seven chiefs who killed the false Smerdis, served under Dareius against Babylon, which had revolted at the commencement of his reign. After Dareius had besieged the city for twenty months in vain, Zopyrus resolved to gain the place for his master by the most extraordinary self-sacrifice. Accordingly, one day he appeared before Dareius, with his body mutilated in the most horrible manner; both his ears and nose were cut off, and his person otherwise disfigured. After explaining to Dareius his intentions and concerting measures with him, he fled to Babylon as a victim of the cruelty of the Persian king. The Babylonians, seeing one of the most distinguished Persians in such a horrible condition, readily gave him their confidence, and placed him at the head of their troops. He soon found means to betray the city to Dareius, who severely punished the inhabitants for their revolt. Dareius appointed Zopyrus satrap of Babylon for life, with the enjoyment of its entire revenues, and also bestowed upon him many other marks of his confidence and esteem. He was accustomed to say that he would rather have Zopyrus without wounds than possess twenty Babylons. (Hdt. 3.153-160.)
Ctesias places the revolt of Babylon in the reign of Xerxes. He relates that the Babylonians slew their satrap Zopyrus, and that Megabyzus, the son of Zopyrus, betrayed the city to Xerxes by means of the same stratagem which Herodotus ascribes to Zopyrus. [Megabyzus, No. 2.] But the account of Herodotus is preferable on many accounts. (See Grote, Hist. of Greece. vol. iv. p. 310, note.)
2. The son of Megabyzus, and the grandson of the preceding, revolted from the Persians, and fled to Athens. (Hdt. 3.160.)
3. The Thracian, a slave of Pericles, was appointed by the latter the Paedagogus of Aleibiades. (Pint. Aleib i. p. 122.)
4. The Physiognomist, attributed many vices to Socrates in an assembly of his disciples, who laughed at him and at his art in consequence; but Socrates admitted the truth of his remarks, and said that such were his natural propensities, but that they had been overcome by philosophy. (Cic. Tusc. 4.37, de Fato, 5; Alex. Aphrodis. de Fato, 100.6, p. 481, ed. Orelli.)
(Ζώπυρος), literary. 1. Of Tarentum, a Pythagorean philosopher. (Iambl. Vit. Pyth. extr.)
2. Of Clazomenae, a rhetorician, was a contemporary of Timon. (Quint. Inst. 3.6.3; D. L. 9.114.)
3. Of Byzantium, an historian (Plut. Parall. Min. 100.36), was probably the author of Μιλήτου κτίσις, the fourth book of which is cited by the Scholiast on Homer (Hom. Il. 10.274). He is perhaps the same person as the Zopyrus mentioned by Marcellinus (Vit. Thuc. § 32). Stobaeus quotes two verses from Zopyrus (Floril. 63.8), and likewise makes an extract from a work entitled Theseis, also by Zopyrus, but it is impossible to determine whether this Zopyrus was the same as the Byzantine, or whether Stobaeus quotes from the same or from two different persons. There are some other persons of the name. (See Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 511, ed. Westermanin.)
(Ζώπυρος).
1. A surgeon at Alexandria, the tutor of Apollonius Citiensis and Posidonius (Apoll. Cit. ap. Dietz, Schol. in Hippocr. el Gal. vol. i. p. 2) about the beginning of the first century B. C. He invented an antidote, which he recommended to Mithridates, king of Pontus, and wrote a letter to that king, begging to be allowed to test its efficacy on the person of a criminal (Galen, De Antid. 2.8, vol. xiv. p. 150). Another somewhat similar composition he prepared for one of the Ptolemies. (Cels. 5.23.2. p. 94.) Some of his medical formulae are quoted and mentioned by various ancient authors, viz. Caelius Aurelianus (De Morb. Chron. 2.14, 5.10. pp. 425, 592), Oribasius (Coll. Medic. 14.45, 50, 52, 56, 58, 61, 64, pp. 478, 481, 482, 483, 485, 487), Aetius (2.4. 57, 3.1. 31, 4.2. 74, pp. 417, 476, 732), Paulus Aegineta (7.11, p. 660), Marcellus Empiricus (De Medicam. 100.22, p. 342), and Nicolas Myrepsus (1.291, p. 420) : and Pliny (Plin. Nat. 24.87), and Dioscorides (3.99. vol. i. p. 446) mention that a certain pliant was called zopyron, perhaps after his name. Nicarchus satirizes in one of his epigrams (Anthol. Gr. 11.124), a physician named Zopyrus, who appears to have lived in Egypt, and who may possibly be the person mentioned by Apollonius Citiensis and Celsus : in which case Nicarchus must have lived earlier than is commonly supposed. [Nicarchus.]
2. An acquaintance of Scribonius Largus in the first century after Christ (Scr. Larg. De Compos. Medicam. 100.171, p. 222), a native either of Gordium in Phrygia (Gordiensis) or of Gortyna ill Crete (Gortynensis), may perhaps have been the same physician who is introduced by Plutarch as one of the speakers in his Symposiaca (3.6) and said to have belonged to the Epicurean school of philosophy.
A physician of this name is also mentioned in an old Latin inscription in Gruter's Inscript. p. 635.7. (See Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xiii. p. 455, ed. vet.; Sprengel's Gesch. der Arzneik. vol. i. ed. 1846. [W.A.G]
is mentioned by Pliny as one of the eminent silver chasers who flourished in the time of Pompey the Great. Two cups of his, representing the trial of Orestes by the Areopagus, were valued at twelve thousand sesterces. (Plin. Nat. 33.12. s. 55 : Zopyrus, qui Arcopagitas et judicium Oreslis in duobus scyphis [caelavit] H. S. XII. acstimatis.) [P.S]
(Ζώπυρος). (1) A distinguished Persian, son of Megabyzus. After Darius Hystaspis had besieged Babylon for twenty months in vain, Zopyrus resolved to gain the place for his master by the most extraordinary self-sacrifice. Accordingly, one day he appeared before Darius with his body mutilated in the most horrible manner; both his ears and nose were cut off, and his person otherwise disfigured. After explaining to Darius his intentions, he fled to Babylon as a victim of the cruelty of the Persian king. The Babylonians gave him their confidence, and placed him at the head of their troops. He soon found means to betray the city to Darius, who severely punished the inhabitants for their revolt. Darius appointed Zopyrus satrap of Babylon for life, with the enjoyment of its entire revenues (Herod.iii. 153-160).
(2) The Physiognomist, who attributed many vices to Socrates, which the latter admitted were his natural propensities, but said that they had been overcome by philosophy ( Tusc. Disp. iv. 37; De Fato, 5).
- son of Megabyzus, his pretended desertion to the Babylonians, and delivery of Babylon to Darius: Hdt. 3.153-159
- Darius' esteem for him: Hdt. 3.160
- rape of his daughter: Hdt. 4.43
- his migration from Persia to Athens: Hdt. 3.160