Callicrates
(Καλλικράτης) historical.
1. A Spartan, is mentioned by Herodotus as the finest and handsomest man of all the Greeks of his time. He was slain by an arrow just before the armies engaged at Plataea (B. C. 479), and while the Greeks were waiting till the signs from the sacrifices should be favourable. (Hdt. 9.72.) In Hdt. 9.85, his name occurs among the ἰρένες who were buried separately from the rest of the Spartans and from the Helots. The word ἰρένες, however, can hardly be used here in its ordinary meaning of "youths," but has probably its original signification of "commanders." (See Müller, Dor. ii. p. 315; Thirlwall's Greece, ii. p. 350, note.)
2. Callicrates is the name given to the murderer of Dion by Nepos (Dion, 8): he is called Callippus by Diodorus and Plutarch. [Callippus.]
3. An accomplished flatterer at the court of Ptolemy III. (Euergetes), who, apparently mistaking servility for knowledge of the world, affected to adopt Ulysses as his model. He is said to have worn a seal-ring with a head of Ulysses engraved on it, and to have given his children the names of Telegonus and Anticleia. (Athen. 6.251d.)
4. A man of Leontium in Achaia, who plays a somewhat disreputable part in the history of the Achaean league. By a decree of the Aclhaeans, solemnly recorded in B. C. 181, Lacedaemon had been received into their confederacy and the restoration of all Lacedaemonian exiles had been provided for, with the exception of those who had repaid with ingratitude their previous restoration by the Achaeans. The Romans, however, had sent to urge the recall of these men, and in the debate in the assembly on this question, B. C. 179, Callicrates contended, in opposition to Lycortas, that the requisition should be complied with, openly maintaining, that neither law, nor solemn record, nor anything else, should be more regarded than the will of Rome. The assembly, however, favoured the view of Lycortas, and appointed ambassadors, of whom Callicrates was one, to lay it before the Roman senate. But he grievously abused his trust, and instigated the Romans to sap the independence of his country by giving their support in every city to the Roman or antinational party. Returning home with letters from the senate, pressing the recall of the exiles, and highly commendatory of himself, he was made general of the league, and used all his influence thenceforth for the furtherance of the Roman cause. (Plb. 25.1, 2, 26.1-3.) In B. C. 174 he successfully resisted the proposal of Xenarchus, who was at that time general, for an alliance with Perseus. (Liv. 41.23, 24.) Early in B. C. 168 he opposed the motion of Lycortas and his party for sending aid to the two Ptolemies (Philometor and Physcon) against Antiochus Epiphanes, recommending instead, that they should endeavour to mediate between the contending parties; and he carried his point by introducing a letter from Q. Marcius, the Roman consul, in which the same course was urged. (Plb. 29.8_10.) On the conquest of Macedonia by the Romans, B. C. 168, more than 1000 of the chief Achaeans, pointed out by Callicrates as having favoured the cause of Perseus, were apprehended and sent to Rome, to be tried, as it was pretended, before the senate. Among these was Polybius, the historian; and he was also one of the survivors, who, after a detention of 17 years, were permitted to return to their country. (Plb. 30.10, 31.8, 32.7, 8, 33.1; Liv. 45.31; Paus. 7.10.) The baseness of Callicrates was visited on his head,--if, indeed, such a man could feel such a punishment, --in the intense hatred of his countrymen. Men deemed it pollution to use the same bath with him, and the very boys in the streets threw in his teeth the name of traitor. (Plb. 30.20.) In B. C. 153 he dissuaded the league from taking any part in the war of the Rhodians against Crete, on the ground that it did not befit them to go to war at all without the sanction of the Romans. (Plb. 33.15.) Three years after this, B. C. 150, Menalcidas, then general of the league, having been bribed by the Oropians with 10 talents to aid them against the Athenians, from whose garrison in their town they had received injury, engaged Callicrates in the same cause by the promise of half the sum. The payment, however, he evaded, and Callicrates retaliated on Menalcidas by a capital charge; but Menalcidas escaped the danger through the favour of Diaeus, his successor in the office of general, whom he bribed with three talents. In B. C. 149, Callicrates was sent as ambassador to Rome with Diaeus, to oppose the Spartan exiles, whose blanishllellt Diaeus had procured, and who hoped to be restored by the senate. Callicrates, however, died at Rhodes, where they had touched on their way; "his death," says Pausanias "being, for aught I know, a clear gain to his country." (Paus. 7.11, 12.) [E.E]
(Καλλικράτης), literary.
1. Is mentioned only once by Athenaeus (xiii. p. 586() as the author of a comedy called Μοσχίων, and from the connexion in which his name appears there with those of Antiphanes and Alexis, it may be inferred that he was a poet of the middle Attic comedy. (Meineke, Hist.. Crit. Com. Gr. p. 418.)
2. A Greek orator who seems to have lived about the time of Demosthenes, and to whom the tables of Pergamus ascribed the oration κατὰ Δημοσθένους παρανόμων, which was usually considered the work of Deinarchus. (Dionys. Deinarch. 11.) But no work of Callicrates was known even as early as the time of Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
3. A Greek historian who lived in and after the time of the emperor Aurelian. He was a native of Tyre, and wrote the history of Aurelian. Vopiscus (Aurel. 4), who has preserved a few fragments of the work, describes Callicrates as by far the most learned writer among the Greeks of his time. [L.S]
(Καλλικράτης).
1. An architect, who in company with Ictinus built the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. (Plut. Per. 13.)
2. A Lacedaemonian sculptor, celebrated for the smallness of his works. (Aelian, Ael. VH 1.17.) He made ants and other animals out of ivory, which were so small that one could not distinguish the different limbs. (Plin. Nat. 7.21, 36.5. S. 4.) According to Athenaeus (ix. p. 782, B.), he also executed embossed work on vases. [W.I]
(Καλλικράτης). (1) An Athenian, who caused Dion (q.v.) to be assassinated.
(2) An officer intrusted with the care of the treasures of Susa by Alexander.
(3) An architect, who, in conjunction with Ictinus, built the Parthenon at Athens, and who undertook also to complete the Long Walls termed σκέλη ( Pericl. c. 13). He appears to have flourished about B.C. 440.
(4) A sculptor, distinguished principally by the minuteness of his performances. He is mentioned as a Lacedaemonian, and is associated with Myrmecides by Aelian (V. H. i. 17). In connection with this artist he is said to have made some chariots which could be covered with the wings of a fly, and to have inscribed on a grain of the plant sesamum some verses of Homer (Plin.vii. 21). Galen, therefore, well applies to him the epithet ματαιότεχνος. Athenaeus, however, relates that he engraved only large vases. The age in which he lived is uncertain.
- Olympic victor: Paus. 6.17.3
- Hdt. 9.72
- completes subjection of Greece to Rome: Paus. 7.10.5, 7, 9-11
- evil genius of Greece: Paus. 7.11.2
- his intrigues: Paus. 7.11.7ff., Paus. 7.12.1ff.
- sent as envoy to Rome: Paus. 7.12.8
- his death: Paus. 7.12.8