Andronicus

• the cognomen of several Romans, among whom the most distinguished, L. Livius Andronicus, the first dramatic and epic poet of the Romans, lived in the middle of the third century B.C., Cic. Brut. 18; Gell. 17, 21 al.; cf. Bähr, Lit. Gesch. p. 41 sq.; 78; Teuffel, Röm. Lit. § 82.

(Ἀνδρόνικος), ambassador of Attalus, sent to Rome in B. C. 156, to inform the senate that Prusias had attacked the territories of Attalus. (Plb. 32.26.) Andronicus was again sent to Rome in B. C. 149, and assisted Nicomedes in conspiring against his father Prusias. (Appian, Aithr. 4, &c.)

(Ἀνδρόνικος), an Aetolian, the son of Andronicus, was put to death by the Romans, in B. C. 167, because he had borne arms with his father against the Romans. (Liv. 45.31.)

(Ἀνδρονίκος Κομνηνός), emperor of Constantinople, son of Isaac, grandson of Alexis I. and first-cousin of the emperor Manuel Comnenus, was born in the beginning of the twelfth century after Christ. The life of this highly gifted man, who deserves the name of the Byzantine Alcibiades, presents a series of adventures of so extraordinary a description, as to appear more like a romance than a history. Nature had lavished upon him her choicest gifts. His manly beauty was unparalleled, and the vigour of his body was animated by an enterprising mind and an undaunted spirit. Endowed with great capacities, he received a careful education, and the persuasive power of his eloquence was so great, that he was equally dangerous to kings and queens : three royal princesses were his concubines. For love and war were his predominant passions, but they both degenerated into luxury and cruelty. In every deed or mischief, says Gibbon (ch. 48), he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

In 1141 he was made prisoner by the Turks-Seljuks, and remained during a year in their captivity. After being released, he received the command in Cilicia, and he went there accompanied by Eudoxia Comnena, the niece of the emperor Manuel, who lived on a similar footing with her sister Theodora. At the close of this war he received the government of Naissus, Braniseba, and Castoria; but the emperor soon afterwards ordered him to be imprisoned in Constantinople. He escaped from captivity after having been confined twelve years, and fled to Jaroslav, grand duke of Russia, and at Kiev obtained the pardon of his offended sovereign. He contrived an alliance between Manuel and Jaroslav against Hungary, and at the head of a Russian army distinguished himself in the siege of Semlin. Still suspected by Manuel, he was again sent to Cilicia. He staid some time at Antioch, and there seduced Philippa, the daughter of Raymond of Poitou, prince of Antioch, and the sister-in-law of the emperor Manuel, who had married her sister Maria. To escape the resentment of the emperor, he fled to Jerusalem, and thence eloped with Theodora, the widow of Baldwin III. king of Jerusalem, a Comnenian princess who was renowned for her beauty. They first took refuge at the court of Nur-ed-din, sultan of Damascus; thence they went to Baghdád and Persia, and at length settled among the Turks. He then proceeded to make war upon the emperor of Constantinople, and invaded the province of Trebizond, but the governor of this town succeeded in taking queen Theodora and the two children she had borne to Andronicus, and sent them to Constantinople. To regain them Andronicus implored the mercy of his sovereign, and after prostrating himself laden with chains to the foot of the emperor's throne, he retired to Oenoe, now Unieh, a town on the Black Sea in the present eyalet of Trebizond. There he lived quietly till the death of the emperor Manuel in 1180.

Manuel was succeeded by Alexis II., whom Andronicus put to death in the month of October 1183, and thereupon he ascended the throne. [Alexis II.] Agnes or Anna, the widow of Alexis, and daughter of Louis VII. king of France, a child of eleven years, was compelled to marry Andronicus, who was then advanced in years. His reign was short. He was hated by the nobles, numbers of whom he put to death, but was beloved by the people. His administration was wise; and he remedied several abuses in civil and ecclesiastical matters. William II., the Good, king of Sicily, whom the fugitive Greek nobles had persuaded to invade Greece, was compelled by Andronicus to desist from his attack on Constantinople and to withdraw to his country, after he had destroyed Thessalonica. Thus Andronicus thought himself quite sure on the throne, when the imprudence of his lieutenant, the superstitious Hagiochristophorites, suddenly caused a dreadful rebellion. This officer resolved to put to death Isaac Angelus, a noble but not a dangerous man; the people of Constantinople, however, moved to pity, took arms for the rescue of the victim, and Isaac was proclaimed emperor. Andronicus was seized, and Isaac abandoned him to the revenge of his most implacable enemies. After having been carried through the streets of the city, he was hanged by the feet between the statues of a sow and a wolf, and in that position was put to death by the mob. (12th of September, 1185.) (Nicetas, Manuel Comnenus, 1.1, 3.4.1-5; Alexis Manuelis Comn. Fil. 100.2, 9, &c.; Andronicus Comnenus ; Guilielmus Tyrensis, 21.13.) [W.P]

the Elder (Ἀνδρονίκος Παλαιόλογος), emperor of Constantinople, the eldest son of the emperor Michael Palaeologus, was born A. D. 1260. At the age of fifteen he was associated with his father in the government, and he ascended the throne in 1283. Michael had consented to a union between the Greek and Latin churches on the second general council at Lyon, but Andronicus was opposed to this measure, and was at length excommunicated by pope Clement V. in 1307. During this the Greek armies were beaten by Osman, the founder of the Turkish empire, who gradually conquered all the Byzantine possessions in Asia. In this extremity Andronicus engaged the army and the fleet of the Catalans, a numerous band of warlike adventurers, to assist him against the Turks. Roger de Flor, or de Floria, the son of a German noble at the court of the emperor Frederic II., the commander of these adventurers, accordingly went to Constantinople with a numerous fleet and an army of 8000 men. The emperor appointed him admiral of the empire, and conferred upon him the title of Caesar. This famous captain defeated the Turks in several engagements, but his troops ravaged the country of their allies with as much rapacity as that of their common enemies, and in order to get rid of them, the emperor caused Roger to be assassinated at Adrianople. But the Catalans now turned their arms against the Greeks, and after having devastated Thrace and Macedonia, they retired to the Peloponnesus, where they conquered several districts in which they maintained themselves.

Michael, the son of Andronicus, was associated with his father in the throne. Michael had two sons, Andronicus and Manuel. Both loved the same woman without knowing that they were rivals, and by an unhappy mistake Manuel was slain by the hand of his brother. Their father, Michael, died of grief, and the emperor, exasperated against his grandson, showed some intention to exclude him from the throne. Thus a dreadful civil war, or rather three wars, arose between the emperor and his grandson, which lasted from 1321 till 1328, when at last the emperor was obliged to abdicate in favour of the latter. Andronicus the elder retired to a convent at Drama in Thessaly, where he lived as monk under the name of Antonius. He died in 1332, and his body was buried in Constantinople. (Pachymeres, Andronicus Palaeologus ; Nicephorus Gregoras, lib. vi.--x.; Cantacuzenus, 1.1, &c.) [W.P]

the Younger (Ἀνδρονίκος Παλαιόλογος), emperor of Constantinople, was born in 1296, and succeeded his grandfather in 1328, as has been related in the preceding article. He was unsuccessful in his wars with the Turks; he lost the battle of Philocrene against sultan Urkhan and his brother Alá-ed-dín, who had just organized the body of the Jannisaries, by whom Thrace was ravaged as far as the Haemus. Equally unsuccessful against the Catalans in Greece, he was more fortunate against the Bulgarians, the Tartars of Kiptschak, and the Servians.

He was twice married, first to Agnes or Irene, the daughter of Henry, duke of Brunswick, and after her death to Anna, countess of Savoy, by whom he had two sons, John and Emanuel. At his death, in 1341, he left them under the guardianship of John Cantacuzenus, who soon began to reign in his own name. (Nicephorus Gregoras, lib. ix.--xi.; Cantacuzenus, 1.100.58, &c., 2.100.1-40; Phranzes, 1.100.10-13; comp. Pachymeres, Andronicus Palaeologus.) [W.P]

(so called from his native place, Cyrrha), was the builder of the octagonal tower at Athens, vulgarly called "the tower of the winds." Vitruvius (1.6.4), after stating, that some make the number of the winds to be four, but that those who have examined the subject more carefully distinguished eight, adds, " Especially Andronicus Cyrrhestes, who also set up at Athens, as a representation thereof (exemplum), an octagonal tower of marble, and on the several sides of the octagon he made sculptured images of the several winds, each image looking towards the wind it represented," (that is, the figure of the north wind was sculptured on the north side of the building, and so with the rest), "and above this tower he set up a marble pillar (metam), and on the top he placed a Triton in bronze, holding out a wand in his right hand : and this figure was so contrived as to be driven round by the wind, and always to stand opposite the blowing wind, and to hold the wand as an index above the image of that wind." Varro calls the building "horologium." (R. R. 3.5.17, Schn.) It formed a measure of time in two ways. On the outer walls were lines which with gnomons above them, formed a series of sun-dials, and in the building was a clepsydra, supplied from the spring called Clepsydra, on the north-west of the Acropolis. The building, which still stands, has been described by Stuart and others. The plain walls are surmounted by an entablature, on the frieze of which are the figures of the winds in bas-relief. The entrances, of which there are two, on the north-east and the north-west, have distyle porticoes of the Corinthian order. Within, the remains of the clepsydra are still visible, as are the dial lines on the outer walls.

The date of the building is uncertain, but the style of the sculpture and architecture is thought to belong to the period after Alexander the Great. The clepsydra also was probably of that improved kind which was invented by Ctesibius, about 135 B. C. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Horologium.) Müller places Andronicus at 100 B. C. (Attika, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclop. vi. p. 233.)

From the words of Vitruvius it seems probable that Andronicus was an astronomer. The mechanical arrangements of his "horologium" were of course his work, but whether he was properly the architect of the building we have nothing to determine, except the absence of any statement to the contrary. [P.S]

the earliest Roman poet, as far as poetical literature is concerned; for whatever popular poetry there may have existed at Rome, its poetical literature begins with this writer. (Quint. Inst. 10.2.7.) He was a Greek and probably a native of Tarentum, and was made prisoner by the Romans during their wars in southern Italy. He then became the slave of M. Livius Salinator, perhaps the same who was consul in B. C. 219, and again in B. C. 207. Andronicus instructed the children of his master, but was afterwards restored to freedom, and received from his patron the Roman name Livius. (Hieron. in Euseb. Chron. ad Ol. 148.) Andronicus is said to have died in B. C. 221, and cannot have lived beyond B. C. 214. (Osann, Anal. Crit. p. 28.) Dramatic works

During his stay at Rome, Andronicus made himself a perfect master of the Latin language, and appears to have exerted himself chiefly in creating a taste for regular dramatic representations. His first drama was acted in B. C. 240, in the consulship of C. Claudius and M. Tuditanus (Cic. Brut. 18, comp. Tusc. Quaest. 1.1, de Senect. 14; Liv. 7.2; Gellius, 17.21); but whether it was a tragedy or a comedy is uncertain. That he wrote comedies as well as tragedies, is attested beyond all doubt. (Diomedes, iii. p. 486; Flavius Vopisc. Numerian, 13; the author of the work de Comoed. et Trag.) The number of his dramas was considerable, and we still possess the titles and fragments of at least fourteen. The subjects of them were all Greek, and they were little more than translations or imitations of Greek dramas. (Suet. de Illustr. Grammat. 1; Diomed. l.c.)

As to the poetical merit of these compositions we are unable to form an accurate idea, since the extant fragments are few and short. The language in them appears yet in a rude and undeveloped form, but it has nevertheless a solid basis for further development. Cicero (Cic. Brut. 18) says, that in his time they were no longer worth reading, and that the 600 mules in the Clytemnestra and the 3000 craters in the Equus Trojanus could not afford any pleasure upon the stage. (ad Fam. 7.1.) In the time of Horace, the poems of Andronicus were read and explained in schools ; and Horace, although not an admirer of early Roman poetry, says, that he should not like to see the works of Andronicus destroyed. (Hor. Ep. 2.1. 69.) Other works

Besides his dramas, Livius Andronicus wrote: 1. Latin Odyssey (Odyssia)

A Latin Odyssey in the Saturnian verse (Cic. Brut. 18), but it is uncertain whether the poem was an imitation or a mere translation of the Homeric poem. 2. Hymns

Hymns (Liv. 27.37; Fest. s.v. Sribas), of which no fragments are extant. The statement of some writers, that he wrote versified Annals, is founded upon a confusion of Livius Andronicus and Ennius. (Vossius, de Hist. Lat. p. 827.) Editions

The fragments of Livius Andronicus are contained in the collections of the fragments of the Roman dramatists mentioned under Accius. The fragments of the Odyssea Latina are collected in H. Düntzer et L. Lersch, de Versu quem vocant Saturnino, pp. 40-48; all the fragments are contained in Düntzer's Livii Andronici Fragmenta collecta et illustrata, &c. Berlin, 1835, 8vo.; comp. Osann, Analecta Critica, 100.1. [L.S]

(Ἀνδρόνικος), a Macedonian, is first mentioned in the war against Antiochus, B. C. 190, as the governor of Ephesus. (Liv. 37.13.) He is spoken of in B. C. 169 as one of the generals of Perseus, king of Macedonia, and was sent by him to burn the dock-yards at Thessalonica, which he delayed doing, wishing to gratify the Romans, according to Diodorus, or thinking that the king would repent of his purpose, as Livy states. He was shortly afterwards put to death by Perseus. (Liv. 44.10; Diod. Exc. p. 579, Wess.; Appian, de Reb. Mac. 14.)

(Ἀνδρόνικος), of Olynthus, who is probably the same as the son of Agerrhus mentioned by Arrian (Arr. Anab. 3.23), was one of the four generals appointed by Antigonus to form the military council of the young Demetrius, in B. C. 314. He commanded the right wing of Demetrius' army at the battle of Gaza in 312, and after the loss of the battle, and the subsequent retreat of Demetrius, was left in command of Tyre. He refused to surrender the city to Ptolemy, who, however, obtained possession of it, but spared the life of Andronicus, who fell into his hands. (Diod. 19.69, 86.)

(Ἀνδρόνικος), a Greek Physician, mentioned by Galen (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, 7.6, vol. xiii. p. 114) and Theodorus Priscianus (Rer. Mledic. 1.18, 2.1, 6, pp. 18, 37, ed. Argent), who must therefore have lived some time before the second century after Christ. No other particulars are known respecting him; but it may be remarked, that the Andronicus quoted several times by Galen with the epithet Peripateticus or Rhodius, is probably quite another person. He is called by Tiraquellus (De Nobilitate, 100.31), and after him by Fabricius (Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 62, ed. vet.), "Andronicus Ticianus," but this is a mistake, as Andronicus and Titianus appear to have been two different persons. [W.A.G]

(Ἀνδρόνικος), a Greek Poet and contemporary of the emperor Constantius, about A. D. 360. Libanius (Epist. 75; comp. De Vita Sua, p. 68) says, that the sweetness of his poetry gained him the favour of all the towns (probably cf Egypt) as far as the Ethiopians, but that the full development of his talents was checked by the death of his mother and the misfortune of his native town (Hermopolis?). If he is the same as the Andronicus mentioned by Photius (Phot. Bibl. 279, p. 536a. Bekk.) as the author of dramas and various other poems, he was a native of Hermopolis in Egypt, of which town he was decurio. Themistius (Orat. xxix. p. 418, &c.), who speaks of a young poet in Egypt as the author of a tragedy, epic poems, and dithyrambs, appears likewise to allude to Andronicus. In A. D. 359, Andronicus, with several other persons in the cast and in Egypt, incurred the suspicion of indulging in pagan practices. He was tried by Paulus, whom the emperor had despatched for the purpose, but he was found innocent and acquitted. (Ammian. Marcellin. 19.12.) No fragments of his works are extant, with the exception of an epigram in the Greek Anthology. (7.181.) [L.S]

(Ἀνδρόνικος), of Rhodes, a Peripatetic philosopher, who is reckoned as the tenth of Aristotle's successors, was at the head of the Peripatetic school at Rome, about B. C. 58, and was the teacher of Boethus of Sidon, with whom Strabo studied. (Strab. xiv. pp. 655, 757; Ammon. in Aristot. Categ. p. 8a., ed. Ald.) We know little more of the life of Andronicus, but he is of special interest in the history of philosophy, from the statement of Plutarch (Plut. Sull. 100.26), that he published a new edition of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, which formerly belonged to the library of Apellicon, and were brought to Rome by Sulla with the rest of Apellicon's library in B. C. 84. Tyrannio commenced this task, but apparently did not do much towards it. (Comp. Porphyr. vit. Plotin. 100.24; Boethius, ad Aristot. de Interpret. p. 292, ed. Basil. 1570.) The arrangement which Andronicus made of Aristotle's writings seems to be the one which forms the basis of our present editions ; and we are probably indebted to him for the preservation of a large number of Aristotle's works. Works Work on Aristotle

Andronicus wrote a work upon Aristotle, the fifth book of which contained a complete list of the philosopher's writings, and he also wrote commentaries upon the Physics, Ethics, and Categories. None of these works is extant, for the paraphrase of the Nicomachean Ethics, which is ascribed to Andronicus of Rhodes, was written by some one else, and may have been the work of Andronicus Callistus of Thessalonica, who was professor at Rome, Bologna, Florence, and Paris, in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Περὶ Παθῶν

Andronicus Callistus was the author of the work Περὶ Παθῶν, which is also ascribed to Andronicus of Rhodes. Editions

The Περὶ Παθῶν was first published by Höschel, Aug. Vindel. 1594, and the Paraphrase by Heinsius, as an anonymous work, Lugd. Bat. 1607, and afterwards by Heinsius as the work of Andronicus of Rhodes, Lugd. Bat. 1617, with the Περὶ Παθῶν attached to it. Editions

The two works were printed at Cantab. 1679, and Oxon. 1809. Further Information

Stahr, Aristotelia, ii. p. 129.

(Ἀνδρόνικος). (1) A peripatetic philosopher, a native of Rhodes, who flourished about B.C. 80. He arranged and published the writings of Aristotle, which had been brought to Rome with the library of Apellicon. He commented on many parts of these writings; but no portion of his works has reached us, for the treatise Περὶ Παθῶν, and the Paraphrase of the Nicomachean ethics, which have been published under his name, are the productions of another. The treatise Περὶ Παθῶν was published by Hösschel in 1593, and was afterwards printed conjointly with the Paraphrase in 1617, 1679, and 1809. The Paraphrase was published by Heinsius in 1607, at Leyden, as an anonymous work (Incerti Auctoris Paraphrasis, etc.), and afterwards under the name of Andronicus of Rhodes, by the same scholar, in 1617, with the treatise Περὶ Παθῶν added to it. See the dissertations by Littig, Andronikos von Rhodos (1891) and by Rösener (1893).

(2) Cyrrhestes, an astronomer of Athens, who erected, B.C. 159, an octagonal marble tower in that city to the eight winds, now known as the “Tower of the Winds.” On every side of the octagon he caused to be wrought a figure in relievo, representing the wind which blew against that side. The top of the tower was finished with a conical marble, on which he placed a brazen Triton, holding a wand in his right hand. This Triton was so contrived that he turned round with the wind, and always stopped when he directly faced it, pointing with his wand over the figure of the wind at that time blowing. Within the structure was a water-clock, supplied from the fountain in a turret. Beneath the eight figures of the winds lines were traced on the walls of the tower, which, by the shadows cast upon them by styles fixed above, indicated the hour of the day, as the Triton's wand did the quarter of the wind. When the sun did not shine recourse was had to the water-clock within the tower, which building thus supplied both a vane and a chronometer. The structure still stands, though in a damaged state. To the correctness of the sundials Delambre bears testimony, and he describes the series as “the most curious existing monument of the practical gnomonics of antiquity.” There are two entrances, facing respectively to the northeast and northwest; each of these openings has a portico supported by two columns. (See Vitruv. i. 6, 4.)

Livius. See Livius.