Callippus

• the name of a man, Plaut. Trin. 4, 2, 71 (913).

(Κάλλιππος), historical.

1. Of Athens, was a disciple of Plato, and thus became acquainted with Dion of Syracuse, who was likewise among the pupils of Plato. When Dion afterwards returned to Syracuse, Callippus accompanied him, and was ever after treated by him with distinction and confidence. Notwithstanding this, Callippus formed at last a conspiracy against the life of Dion. The plot was discovered by Dion's sister; but Callippus pacified them by swearing, that he had no evil intentions towards Dion. But in spite of this oath, he assassinated Dion during a festival of Persephone, the very divinity by whom he had sworn, B. C. 353. Callippus now usurped the government of Syracuse, but maintained himself only for thirteen months. The first attempt of Dion's friends to cause an insurrection of the people against the usurper was unsuccessful; but, a short time after, Hipparenus, a brother of the younger Dionysius, landed with a fleet at Syracuse, and Callippus, who was defeated in the ensuing battle, took to flight. He now wandered about in Sicily from town to town, at the head of a band of licentious mercenaries, but could not maintain himself anywhere. At last he and Leptines, with their mercenaries, crossed over into Italy, and laid siege to Rhegium, which was occupied by a garrison of Dionysius the Younger. The garrison was expelled, and the citizens of Rhegium were restored to autonomy, and Callippus himself remained at Rhegium. He treated his mercenaries badly, and being unable to satisfy their demands, he was murdered by his own friends, Leptines and Polyperchon, with the same sword, it is said, with which he had assassinated Dion. (Plut. Dion. 28-58, de Sera Num. Vind. p. 553d.; Diod. 16.31, 36, 45; Athen. 11.508.)

2. Of Athens, took part in the Olympic games in B. C. 332. He bribed his competitors in the pentathlon to allow him to conquer and win the prize. But the fraud became known, and the Eleans condemned both Callippus and his competitors to pay a heavy fine. The Athenians, who considered the affair as a national one, sent Hyperides to petition the Eleans to desist from their demand. When the request was refused, the Athenians neither paid the fine nor did they frequent the Olympic games any longer, until at last the Delphic god declared that he would not give any oracle to the Athenians, unless they satisfied the demand of the Eleans. The fine was now paid, and the money was spent in erecting six statues to Zeus, with inscriptions by no means flattering to the Athenians. (Paus. 5.21.3, &c.)

3. Of Athens, a son of Moerocles, a brave commander of the Athenians in the war against the Gauls, B. C. 279. He was stationed with his Athenians at Thermopylae to guard the pass. (Paus. 1.3.4, 10.20.3.)

4. An admiral of king Perseus of Macedonia. He and Antenor were sent by the king, in B. C. 168, with a fleet to Tenedos, to protect the transports that came with provisions for the Macedonians from the islands of the Aegean. (Liv. 44.28.) [L.S]

(Κάλλιππος), literary.

1. A comic poet, who is mentioned only by Athenaeus (xv. p. 668) as the author of a comedy entitled Pannychis. Porson proposed to read in this passage Hipparchus instead of Callippus, because it is known that Hipparchus composed a comedy Pannychis. (Athen. 15.691.) But this is not a sufficient reason for striking the name of Callippus from the list of comic writers. (Meineke, (Meineke. Hist. Crit. Com. Gr. p. 490.)

2. Of Athens, is mentioned by Aristotle (Aristot. Rh. 2.23) as the author of a τέχνη ῥητορική, but nothing further is known about him.

3. A Stoic philosopher of Corinth, who was a pupil of Zeno, the founder of the school. (D. L. 7.38.) He seems to be the same person as the Callippus mentioned by Pausanias (9.29.2, 38.10) as the author of a work entitled συγγραφὴ εἰς Ὀρχομενίους, of which a few fragments are preserved there.

4. Surnamed Petaneus, is mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (5.57) as one of the witnesses to the will of Theophrastus. [L.S]

or Calippus (Κάλλιππος or Κάλιππος), an astronomer of Cyzicus. He was a disciple of one of Eudoxus' friends, and followed him to Athens, where he became acquainted with Aristotle (who mentions him Metaph. 11.8), and assisted that philosopher in rectifying and completing the discoveries of Eudoxus. (Simplic. in lib. II. de Coel p. 120a.) His observations are frequently referred to by Geminus and Ptolemy in their meteorological calendars (see Geminus, Elem. Astron. cap. 16, in Petav. Uranolog. p. 64, &c. and Ptol φάσεις ἀπλανῶν ἀστέρων καὶ συναγωγὴ ἐπισημασιῶν, ibid. p. 71, &c.), and were probably made at Cyzicus, since Ptolemy (ad fin.) says, that Callippus observed at the Hellespont. Such calendars were fixed in public places, for common use, and hence called παραπήγματα: they record the times of the different risings and settings of the fixed stars, with the ἐπισημασίαι, or principal changes in the weather supposed to be connected with them, as deduced from the observations of various astronomers. Callippus invented the period or cycle of 76 years, called after him the Callippic. Several attempts had been previously made to discover intervals of time of moderate length, which should be expressible in whole numbers by means of each of the three natural units of time--the solar year, the lunar month, and the solar day: and, in particular, Meton, about a century before, had observed the remarkable approximation to equality between 19 years and 235 months, and had introduced the celebrated cycle of 19 years, which he also assumed to contain 6940 days. This would make the year = 365 5/19 days; and, therefore, Callippus, observing that the difference between this and the more correct value 365 1/4 was 5/19 - 5/20 = 1/4 x 19 = 1/76, proposed to quadruple the Metonic period, and then subtract one day. He supposed, that 76 years = 940 months = 27759 days; both of which suppositions are considerably nearer the truth than Meton's. (Geminus, El. Ast. cap. 6, Uranolog. p. 37.) If we take the mean values of the year and month, in days, to be 365.2422414 and 29.5305887215 respectively, then 76 years =27758d 9h 50m 54s, and 940 months = 27758d 18h 4m 54s nearly; but these numbers would not be strictly accurate in the time of Callippus.

The Callippic period seems to have been generally adopted by astronomers in assigning the dates of their observations; and the frequent use which Ptolemy makes of it enables us to fix the epoch of the beginning of the first period with considerable certainty. It must have begun near the time of the summer solstice, since Ptolemy refers to an observation of that solstice made at the end of the 50th year (τῷν́ ἕτελ λήγοντι) of the first period (μεγ. σύνταξ. 3.2, vol. i. p. 163, ed. Halma); and out of a number of other observations recorded by the same writer, all but two, according to Ideler, indicate the year B. C. 330, whilst four of them require the evening of June 28 for the epoch in question. It is not certain at what time the period came into civil use; it would naturally be employed not to supersede, but to correct from time to time, the Metonic reckoning. The inaccuracy of the latter must have become quite sensible in B. C. 330; and it is evident, from the praise which Diodorus (12.36) bestows upon it, that it could not have remained uncorrected down to his time. (Ideler, Hist. Untersuch. über die Astron. Beobachtungen der Alten, Berlin, 1806, p. 214, &c., Handbuch der Technischen Chronologie, Berlin, 1825, vol. i. p. 344, &c.; Petavius, Doctrin. Temp. 2.16; Scaliger, De Emend. Temp. lib. ii.; Delambre, Hist. de l'Astron. Ancienne, vol. i. p. 200.) [W.F.D]

• Athenian general: Paus. 10.20.5
• commands Athenians at Thermopylae against Gauls: Paus. 1.3.5, Paus. 1.4.2
• portrait by Olbiades: Paus. 1.3.5