Apollonius of Tyre was the hero of a tale which had an immense popularity in the middle ages and which furnished the plot of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The story, originally in Greek, first appeared in the third century after Christ. Research Apollonius of Tyre
Alcibiades was an Athenian general and statesman. He was born in 450 BC and died in 404 BC.
An Athenian of high family and of great abilities, but of no principle, he was the son of Cleinias, and a relative of Pericles, who also was his guardian. In youth he was remarkable for the beauty of his person, no less than for the dissoluteness of his manners. He came under the influence of Socrates, but little permanent effect was produced on his character by the precepts of the sage. He acquired great popularity by his liberality in providing for the amusements of the people, and after the death of Cleon attained a political ascendancy which left him no rival but Nicias. Thus he played an important part in the long-continued Peloponnesian war.
In 415 he advocated the expedition against Sicily, and was chosen one of the leaders, but before the expedition sailed he was charged with profaning and divulging the Eleusinian mysteries, and mutilating the busts of Hermes, which were set up in public all through Athens. Rather than stand his trial he went over to Sparta, divulged the plans of the Athenians, and assisted the Spartans to defeat them. Sentence of death and confiscation was pronounced against him at Athens, and he was cursed by the ministers of religion. He soon left Sparta and took refuge with the Persian satrap Tissaphernes, ingratiating himself by his affectation of Persian manners, as he had previously done at Sparta by a similar affectation of Spartan simplicity.
He now began to intrigue for his return to Athens, offering to bring Tissaphernes over to the Athenian alliance, and latterly he was recalled and his banishment cancelled. He, however, remained abroad for some years in command of the Athenian forces, gained several victories, and took Chalcedon and Byzantium. In 407 BC he returned to Athens, but in 406, the fleet which he commanded having suffered a severe defeat, he was deprived of his command. He once more went over to the Persians, taking refuge with the satrap Pharnabazus of Phrygia, and here he was assassinated in 404 BC.
*Alcuin
Alcuin (real name Ealhwine) was an English theologian and scholar. He was born in 755 and died in 804. He was the confidant, instructor, and adviser of Charles the Great (Charlemagne). . He was educated and latterly had the management of the school at York. Alcuin having gone to Rome, Charlemagne became acquainted with him at Parma, invited him in 782 to his court, and made use of his services in his endeavours to civilize his subjects. To secure the benefit of his instructions Charlemagne established at his court a school, called Schola Palatinci, or the Palace School. In the royal academy Alcuin was called Flaccus Albinus. Most of the schools in France were either founded or improved by him; thus he founded the school in the abbey of St Martin of Tours, in 796, after the plan of the school in York. Alcuin left the court in 801, and retired to the abbey of St Martin of Tours, but kept up a constant correspondence with Charles to his death in 804. He left works on theology, philosophy, rhetoric, also poems and letters, all of which have been published. Research Alcibiades
Anaxagoras was an Ionian philosopher. He was born in 488 BC at Clazomense and died in 428 BC. When only about twenty years of age he settled at Athens, and soon gained a high reputation, and gathered round him a circle of renowned pupils, including Pericles, Euripides, Socrates, etc. At the age of fifty he was publicly charged with impiety and condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to perpetual banishment. Thereupon he went to Lampsacus, where he died. Anaxagoras belonged to the atomic school of Ionic philosophers. He held that there was an infinite number of different kinds of elementary atoms, and that these, in themselves motionless and originally existing in a state of chaos, were put in motion by an eternal, immaterial, spiritual, elementary being, Nous (Intelligence), from which motion the world was produced. The stars were, according to him, of earthy materials; the sun a glowing mass, about as large as the Peloponnesus;
the earth was flat; the moon a dark, inhabitable body, receiving its light from the sun; the comets wandering stars. Research Anaxagoras
Aspasia was a celebrated lady of ancient Greece. She was born at Miletus, in Ionia, but passed a great part of her life at Athens, where her house was the general resort of the most distinguished men in Greece. She won the affection of Pericles, who united himself to Aspasia as closely as was permitted by the Athenian law, which declared marriage with a foreign woman illegal. Her power in the state has often been exaggerated, but it is beyond question that her genius left its mark upon the administration of Pericles. In 432-1 BC she was accused of impiety, and was only saved from condemnation by the eloquence and tears of Pericles. After his death in 429 BC Aspasia is said to have attached herself to a wealthy but obscure cattle-dealer of the name of Lysicles, whom she raised to a position of influence in Athens. Nothing more is known of her life. She had a son by Pericles, who was legitimated in 430 BC by a special decree of the people. Research Aspasia
Cimon was an ancient Athenian general and statesman. He lived around the 5th century BC. He was a son of the great Miltiades. He fought against the Persians in the battle of Salamis in 480 BC and shared with Aristides the chief command of the fleet sent to Asia to deliver the Greek colonies from the Persian yoke.
The return of Aristides to Athens soon after left Cimon at the head of the whole naval force of Greece. He distinguished himself by his achievements in Thrace, having defeated the Persians by the Strymon, and made himself master of the country. He conquered the pirate-island of Scyros, subdued all the cities on the coast of Asia Minor, pursued the Persian fleet up the Eurymedon, destroyed more than 200 of their ships, and then, having landed, on the same day entirely defeated their army in 469 BC. He employed the spoil which he had taken in the embellishment of Athens, and in 463 reduced the revolted Thasians; but the popular leaders, beginning to fear his power, charged him on his return with having been corrupted by the King of Macedon. The charge was dropped, but when Cimon's policy of friendship to the Lacedaemonians ended in the latter insulting the troops sent by Athens to their aid, his opponents secured his banishment.
He retired into Boeotia, and his request to be allowed to fight with the Athenians against the Lacedaemonians in 457 at Tanagra was refused by the suspicious generals. Eventually Cimon was recalled at the instance of Pericles to conclude a peace with Lacedaemon. He died shortly after, in 449, while besieging Citium in Cyprus. Research Cimon
Cleon was an Athenian demagogue. Originally a tanner by trade. He was well known in public before the death of Pericles, and in 427 BC distinguished himself by the proposal to put to death the adult males of the revolted Mytileneans and sell the women and children as slaves. In 425 he took Sphacteria from the Spartans; but in 423 and 422 he was violently attacked by Aristophanes in the Knights and in the Wasps. He was sent, however, in 422 against Brasidas, but allowed himself to be taken unawares, and was killed while attempting to escape. Research Cleon
Abbreviations
Research Apollonius of Tyre
