S3T 



DIDRON, ADOLPHE-NAPOLEOK. 



DIES, ALBERT. 



M 



mhort reign. Three generals at tha head of their respective legions, 

 Psecennius Niger, who commanded in the East, Septiiuius Severus iu 

 Illyricum, and Claudins Albums in Britain, refused to acknowledge 

 the nomination of the Pnctorians. Severus being proclaimed Augustus 

 by his troope, marched upon Rome, and found no opposition on the 

 road, as the towns and garrisons all declared for him. The Preetorians 

 themselves fonook Didius, and the senate readily pronounced his 

 abdication, and proclaimed Sererus emperor. A party of soldiers 

 makiug their way into the palace, and disregarding the entreaties of 

 Didius, who offered to renounce the empire, cut off hia head. Ik' 

 bad reigned only sixty-six days. Sevems soon after entered Rome, 

 pat to death the murderers of Pertiuax, disarmed the Prtetorians, 

 and banished them from the city. (Spartianus in ffuloria Augiuta; 

 Dion, Epitome, B. 73.) 



DIDRON, ADOLPHE-NAPOLEON, born at Hautevillc, depart- 

 ment of Maine, France, in March 1306, has devoted his life to the 

 extension of the study of mediaeval Christian art, and particularly of 

 iti symbolism, on which subject he is regarded aa the chief living 

 authority. M. DiJrou first examined personally most of the remark- 

 able mediaeval monuments of France, and in particular those of Nor- 

 mandy; and then, in order to compare the art of the Eastern Church 

 with that of the West, he extended his researches to Greece, and he 

 made himself familiar with all attainable mediaeval manuscripts. As 

 early as 1S3S he delivered in the Bibliotheque Royal a course of lectures 

 on Christian Iconography, and he gave a similar course on his return 

 from Greece in 1840. He founded in 1845 an archaeological library 

 at Paris, and a manufacture of painted glass for ecclesiastical purposes. 

 In 1853 he was appointed by the Minuter of Instruction secretary of 

 the ' Comit<5 HUtorique des Arts et Monuments,' and ho drew up the 

 elaborate reports issued by the committee. Ho has been from its 

 commencement the editor of the ' Annole* ArcWologiques,' and has 

 contributed numerous articles on Christian archaeology to various 

 periodicals. He has aUo published a ' Manuel d'Iconographie Chro- 

 tienne, Grecque et Lutine, avec une Introduction et des Notes par 

 M. Didron, traduit du MS. Byzantin,' Par., 8vo, 1845. But his chief 

 work is the ' Iconographie Chrciienue,' 4 to, Par., 1S43. This ia a 

 perfect treasure-house of information on this very curious subject, but 

 it unfortunately remains incomplete, only the first section, the ' His- 

 toire de Dieu,' being yet published. This portion has been translated 

 into lingluh by Mrs. Millington, and form* a volume of Bonn's ' Illus- 

 trated Library.' 



DI'DYMUS, a celebrated grammarian, the son of a seller of fish at 

 Alexandria, was born in the consulship of Antony and Cicero, B.C. 63 

 (Suidas, sub v.), and lived in the rvign of Augustus. Macrobius calls 

 him the greatest grammarian of his own or any other time. (Saturn. 

 i. 22.) According to Athenxus (iv. p. 139, C.) ho published 3500 

 volumes, and ha 1 written so much that he was called the forgetter of 

 books f/3i/3,\ioAa'.'a5), for he often forgot what he had written himself ; 

 and also the man with bowels of brass (xoWn-f/ws), from his un- 

 wearied industry. To judtgo from the specimens of hu writings given 

 by Athenicu*, we need not much regret the loss of them. His criti- 

 cUms were of the Aristorchion school (Suid.) : he wrote, among other 

 things, an explanation of the Agamemnon of Ion (Athen. xi. p. p. 418, 

 D.), and also of the plays of Phrynichus (Id. ix. p. 371, V.) ; several 

 treatiset against Juba, king of Libya (Suid. 'li!0ai), a book on the 

 corruption of diction (Athu:cu., ix. p. 363, B.), a history of the city 

 Cabeseua (Steph. llyz. sub v. '\yiivpaoi), besides essays on the country 

 of Homer, the mother of .$'neas, and other equally unimportant 

 subjects. The 'Scholia Minora' on Homer have been attributed to 

 him, but wrongly, for Didymus himself is quoted in these notes. The 

 collection of proverbs extant under the name of Zenobius was partly 

 taken from a previous collection made by Didymus, and about sixty 

 fragments of his fifteen books on agriculture are preserved in the 

 collection of Caatianus Bassos. 



Buidas mentions several other authors of this name, and among them 

 one surnamed Ateiua, who was an Academic philosopher, and wrote a 

 treatise in two books on the solutions of probabilities and (ophisms. 

 We may also mention Didymus ' the blind,' ah Alexandrian fntbcr of 

 the church, who was born about the year n.c. 30S, and was the teacher 

 of St. Jerome, St. Isidore, Kufinus, and others. Ho died in n.c. 395. 

 Of his numerous writings, four treatises have coma down to us. 

 1, 'Ou the H.,ly Spirit/ 2, 'On the Trioity.' 3, 'Against the 

 Manichean*.' 4, ' On the Canonical Epistles.' A Greek Treatise on 

 Farriery by another Didymus is also extant 



DIBBTTSCH 8ABALKAN8KL HANS KAKI, FRIEDKICH 

 ANT< T VOX DIEBITSCH AND NAKDKN, was born 



on May IS, 1785, at Orossleippe in Silesia. His father had been 

 major and i(l de-camp under Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' 

 war, but subsequently entered the Ruesian service, and attained the 

 rank of major general In 1797 the ion entered in the corps of cadets 

 at Berlin, but joined his father in 1801. He was attached to the 

 grenadier guards in the Russian service, with which he made the 

 campaign of 1805, and was wounded in the hand at the battle of 

 AusUtrlitx. After the battle of Friedland he was promoted to the 

 rank of captain. The peace that ensued gave him leisure to pursue 

 hu military studies, and in 1812, on the invasion of the French, he 

 was appointed quartermaster-general to Wittgenstein's corps, and dis- 

 tinguished himself by the recapture of Poloczk, a service of great 



mportance to the army, and for which he was made major-general 

 hi c injunction with general Yorck, who commanded a part of the 

 Prussian army, with whom he had held a secret correspondence, and 

 whose desertion greatly accelerated the fall of Napoleon, ho took 

 MMSeasion of Berlin. After the battle of Lutzen he was sent to join 

 Barclay de Tolly's army in Silesia, and commissioned to conclude the 

 secret treaty of Reicheubach between Russia, Austria, Prussia, and 

 England, which was completed on Jane 14, 1813. He was present at 

 the battle of Dresden, where he had two horses shot under him, and 

 also at that of Leipzig, when he was created lieutenant-general at 

 the same time with Tolly and Paskewitsch. In 1814 he opposed 

 strongly the hesitation of the allies to march towards Paris, for 

 which, when they met at Montmartre, the Emperor Alexander 

 embraced him, thanked him, and bestowed on him the order of 

 St Alexander Newski. . 



On the return of Bonaparte from Elba he was despatched to Vienna 

 as chief of the imperial staff, with the first division of the army, but 

 he was soon recalled to take the office of adjutant-general, and attached 

 to the person of the emperor. In 1820 he was named chief of the 

 imperial staff, accompanied Alexander to Taganrog, and saw him die. 

 On his return to St Petersburg, during the revolt that followed the 

 announcement of Alexander's death, he displayed the talents of a 

 statesman and of an experienced soldier. Nicolas then sent him to 

 Constantino at Warsaw, to announce and explain the occurrence at 

 St Petersburg, and on his finally accepting the crown created him a 

 count In the war against Turkey, in 1S23-9, he gained great reputa- 

 tion by his conquest of 'Varna; and being raised to the chief com- 

 mand iu February 1829, he largely increased it by the passage of the 

 Balkan, for which ho received bis additional titles of Sabalkanski, 

 meaning ' beyond the Balkan,' and the rank of field-marshal. He 

 advanced to Adriauople, when, by tho cfljrts of the diplomatists, the 

 treaty of Adrianople was concluded. This saved his army, whir 

 suffered terribly. He next visited Berlin, and it was rumoured with 

 the intention of quitting the Russian service and re-entering that of his 

 native country. However, the insurrection of Poland recalled him to 

 head a Russian army, and he passed the frontiers of that country on 

 January 25, 1331, but his powers were failing. After the sanguinary 

 battle of Ostrolenka he transferred his head-quarters to Kleczcwo, 

 near Pultusk, and there he died from an attack of cholera ou June 

 9, 1831. His corpse was conveyed to St Petersburg and interred 

 with much pomp, but hia heart was deposited iu the cathedral church 

 of Pultusk. 



D1EPENBECK, ABRAHAM VAN, a distinguished Dutch historical 

 painter of the Flemish school, was born at llertogenbosch (Bois-1 

 about 1607 according to Descamps, but probably earlier. He was 

 already a good painter on glass when he entered tho school of Rubens 

 ut Antwerp, in which he was tho fellow-pupil of Vandyck ; and he is 

 the scholar who ia said to have been pushed against tho great picture 

 of the ' Taking Down from the Cross,' when wet, the consequent damage 

 to which was so admirably repaired by Vaudyck. Dicpeiibeck 

 at two periods with Rubens, before and after a visit to Rome, but in 

 the second period more in the capacity of assistant than scholar, llo 

 was one of tho best of Rubens s scholars, especially iu composition 

 and in colour : in design he was never excellent ; he was too hasty 

 in his execution. He had however a great reputation at Antwerp, 

 and in 1641 was elected director of the academy there, an office which 

 he held until his death in 1075. 



Die penbeck came to England in the time of Charles I., and was em- 

 ployed by William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, to make the pictures 

 for his book on horsemanship, some of which in Walpole's time were 

 still exhibited in the hall at Welbeck. 



Diepenbeck's works are very numerous, but they consist chiefly of 

 designs made for booksellers. Heinekeu bos given a long Hat of the 

 engravings after them in hia Dictionary. One of his principal works 

 is a series of fifty-nine designs, published iu 1655 at Paris, under the 

 title of ' Tableaux du Temple des Muses,' with illustrated letter-press 

 by the Abbd Marolles : the subjects are from Ovid's ' Metamorphoses,' 

 aud the engravings are executed by Bloemart, Matham, and 

 eminent engravers. There are several later editions and imitations 

 of it 



His oil paintings on canvass are scarce : some pass probably as the 

 works of Rubens ; but there are still many of hit paintod window* iu 

 the churches of Antwerp. Houbraken says Diepenbeck was the best 

 painter on gloss of his time. 



(lloubraken, Qroole Xchoulurg tier A'cderlandtrhe KoiultchUdcn, c. ; 

 D'Argenville, Abrtgt de In Vie da pint fameux Peinlret ; Descamps, 

 Viet da Peinlrtt Flamandt. &c.; Heineken, IHctionnairc del Artiita, 

 ilpole, Antcdottt of Painting, ftc.) 



DIES, ALBERT, a landscape-painter aud engraver, was born at 

 Hanover in 1756. Ho learnt the first drudgery of painting under an 

 obscure artist of Hanover, with whom he spent three years ; at the 

 expiration of this period he visited Dusseldprf for a year, whence he 

 went to Rome in 1776, with thirty ducats in his pocket, a donation 

 from the royal treasury. At Rome he attracted the notice of tho 

 celebrated Pironesi and of the Karl of Bristol, who wished to make 

 a second Salvator Ro-a of Dies, but the painter preferred sketching 

 from nature to copying or to imitating the works of the gloomy 

 Neapolitan : his favourite retreats were about Albano and Tivoli. 



