Wl 



NICOLL, ROBERT. 



NIEBUHR, CARSTEN. 



493 



principal writer. Hume admired the logical clearness with which 

 Nicole in this work showed the impossibility of one mind sufficiently 

 examining all subjects connected with religion to form a creed for 

 itself on the principle of private judgment ; and stated that the diffi- 

 culty BO ingeniously set forth suggested to him the sceptical argument 

 in his ' Dialogues on Natural Religion.' He wrote also ' Traite de 

 1' Unite" de 1'Eglise;' ' Les Pre'tendus-Re'forme's convaincus de Schisme;' 

 ' Les Lettres imaginaires ct visionnaires,' &c. He was eminent as a 

 translator and composer in Latin, and in 1659 published 'Epigram- 

 matum Delectus." 



(Niceron, Memoiret, t. xxix. 285 333 ; Nouv. Diet. Hist., <kc.) 



NICOLL, ROBERT, a poet distinguished by the precocity of his 

 talents, was born at Tullybeltane, in Perthshire, on the 7th January, 

 1814. His parents were in too humble circumstances to afford him 

 any education beyond the rudiments of reading and writing ; and at 

 a very early age he was set to the occupation of herdins? cattle. At 

 the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a grocer in Perth, and at 

 the conclusion of his service endeavoured to earn a livelihood by 

 keeping a circulating library in Dundee. During this interval he had 

 been acquiring the elements of knowledge. He was a devourer of 

 books, and at the age of twenty had acquired both knowledge and 

 cultivation without being educated. In 1835 he published a small 

 volume of ' Poems,' which became very popular, were extensively 

 noticed by the newspaper press, and passed through three editions. 

 They are less remarkable for energy or originality than as the fruit 

 of a fine-toned and sensitive mind. In prose his writing was of a 

 different character. In 1836 he undertook the editorship of the 

 ' Leeds Times,' a paper of strongly liberal sentiments ; and by the 

 spirit and energy of his political articles, and their adaptation to the 

 feelings of the surrounding community, he soon more than tripled the 

 circulation of the 'paper. His early struggles had probably under- 

 mined bis constitution, and he soon sank under the excitement of his 

 editorial labours. When on his death-bed he was removed to the 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where, amidst the attentions of kind 

 friends, he died on the 9th of December 1837, in his twenty-third 

 year. (Memoir, by Mrs. Johnstone, prefixed to a third edition of his 

 Poemt.) 



NICO'Jf ACHUS, a physician of Stagira in Macedonia, and one of 

 the family of the Asclepiada;, flourished about B.C. 400, 'Ol.' xov. 1. 

 He was the friend and physician of Amyntas, king of Macedonia, but 

 is now only known as the father of Aristotle. (Ammonius, and 

 Diogenes Laertius, in Vita Arittot.; Suidas, in voce Nicoinachiu.) 



NICO'JI ACHUS (NiKo^x"") of Thebes, son and pupil of Aristo- 

 demus, was a celebrated Greek painter, who lived between B.C. 360 

 and 300. He is classed by Cicero with Applies and Protogenes, and 

 his paintings are compared by Plutarch with the lines of Homer : he 

 was the most celebrated of all the Greek painters for rapidity of 

 execution. In illustration of the rapidity of hid execution, Pliny 

 mentions the decorations of the monument which Aristratus, tyrant 

 of Sicyon, had erected in honour of the poet Teleates, which were 

 executed in a few days by Nicomaohus, with remarkable beauty, and 

 to the entire satisfaction of Aristratus, who shortly before was exceed- 

 ingly angry with him, for, as he supposed, neglecting his contract, 

 which was to have the tomb finished by a certain day. 



The notices of Nicomachus are few, and what there are contain but 

 little information about him. Pliny mentions by him a Rape of 

 Proserpine in the Temple of Minerva on the Capitol, hanging above 

 the niche or shrine of Juventus or youth ; a Victory in a quadriga, in 

 the Capitol, which was dedicated by Plancus ; also Apollo and Diana ; 

 a Cybele, the mother of the gods, sitting upon a Lion ; Bacchantes, 

 with Satyrs creeping up to them ; and a Seylla, which was iu the Temple 

 of Peace. Pliny notices also an unfinished picture of the Tyndaridte 

 by Nicomachus ; he instances it as an example of the unfinished works 

 of painters being in greater repute than their finished works, when 

 left unfinished through death, or perhaps other circumstances impeding 

 their completion : he mentions four pictures the Tyndaridse of Nico- 

 machiis, the Iris of Aristides, tho Medea of Timornachu*, and a Venus 

 of Apelk-s. Nicomachus is the first who represented Ulysses with the 

 pileiw or cap of liberty. He is one of the painters who from an error 

 of Pliny is eaid to have used only four colours. Cicero, in speaking 

 of the cruder performance. 1 ) of the early artists, notices that iu the 

 works of Echion, Nicomachus, Piotogenes, and Apelles, all things are 

 perfect. He is, however, enumerated by Vitruvius among those artists 

 who though of the greatest ability met with little substantial success 

 in life, btobseus relates of Nicomachus that, hearing some one say 

 that he saw no beauty in the Helen of Zeuxis, he observed, " Take 

 my eye, and you will see a goddess." He had several scholars: 

 Aristides, the oc lebrated painter, his brother ; Aristocles, his son ; 

 Philoxenus of Eretria; Nicophanes; and a certain Corybas. Phi- 

 loxenus imitated Nicomachus in celerity. Nicophanes was notorious 

 for licentious pictures. 



(Pliny, Uitt.Nat. xxxv. 10,30; 11, 40; Cicero, Drutia, 1 8 ; Plutarch, 

 Timol. 36; Vitruvius, iii. in proam.; Stobams, fierm. 61.; Junius, 

 C'alalngui A rlifinum.) 



NICOME'DES (NIKO^STJJ), the name of several kings of Bithynia. 



1. NICJOMEDES I. succeeded his father Xiphceteg, B.C. 278. His suc- 

 cession was disputed by his brother Zibuctea ; and he called in the 

 Gauls to support his claims, B.C. 277. With their assistance he was 



JJIOQ. DIV. VOL. IV. 



successful ; but his allies became his masters, and the whole of Asia 

 Minor was for a long time overrun by these barbarians. He probably 

 died about B.C. 250, and was succeeded by his eldest son Zielaa. 



2. NICOSIBDES II., surnamed Epiphanes, succeeded his father 

 Prusias II., B.C. 149. He accompanied his father to Rome, B.C. 167, 

 where he appears to have been brought up under the care of the 

 senate. (Liv. xlv. 44.) Prusias becoming jealous of the popularity 

 of his sou, and anxious to secure the succession to his younger 

 children, formed a plan for his assassination ; but Nicomedes, having 

 gained intelligence of his purpose, deprived his father of the throne, 

 and subsequently put him to death. Nicomedes remained during the 

 whole of his long reign a faithful ally, or rather obedieut subject, of 

 the Romans. He assisted the Romans iu their war with Aristouicus, 

 brother of Attalus, king of Pergamus, B.C. 131 ; and ho was applied to 

 by Marius for assistance during the Citnbriau war, about B.C. 103. 

 During the latter part of his reign, he was involved in a war with 

 Mithridates, of which an account is givea iu the life of that monarch. 

 [MlTHRIDATES VI.] 



Coin of Nicomedes II. 

 British Museum. Actual size. Silver. 



3. NICOMEDES III., aurnamed Philopater, succeeded his father 

 Nicomedes II., B.C. 91. During the first year of his reign, he was 

 expelled from his kingdom by Mithridates, who placed upon the throne 

 Socratts, the younger brother of Nicomedes. He was restored how- 

 ever to bis kingdom in the following year by the Romans, who sent 

 an army under Aquilius to support him. At the breaking out of the 

 Mithridatic war, B.C. 88, Nicomedes took part with the Romans, but 

 his army was completely defeated by the generals of Mithridates, near 

 the river Anmias, iu Paphlagonia (Strabo, xii. p. 562) ; and he himself 

 was again expelled from his kingdom, and obliged to take refuge in 

 Italy. At the conclusion of the Mithridatic war, B.C. 84, Bithynia was 

 restored to Nicomedes. He died B.C. 74, without children, aud left 

 his kingdom to the Romans. 



NIEBUHR, CARSTEN, a celebrated modern traveller, and a native 

 of the duchy of Lauenburg, on the southern confines of Holstein, 

 was born March 17, 1733. His family had been farmers in easy 

 circumstances, but he lost his parents early ; aud, through some mis- 

 management in the division of their property, he was so utterly 

 deprived for a time of the means of continuing his education, that ho 

 passed several years of his youth in tho condition of a mere peasant, 

 and was even prevented from cultivating a taste for music, which had 

 given him hopes of obtaining the situation of organist. But, in his 

 twenty-first year, an occasion arose which elicited his natural energy 

 of spirit, and decided the direction of his fortunes. Some legal pro- 

 ceedings rendering it necessary to employ a land-surveyor iu his native 

 district, he resolved to qualify himself for the office, and for this pur- 

 pose applied zealously to the study of geometry. With the thirst of 

 knowledge thus excited, being now of age to dispose of the wreck of 

 his little patrimony, he was led to employ a portion of it in acquiring 

 higher instructions in the mathematics, first at Hamburg, aud subse- 

 quently in the university of Gbttingen, Here, as his views enlarged 

 and his pecuniary resources diminished, he gladly embraced an oppor- 

 tunity, iu his twenty -fourth year, of entering the corps of Hanoverian 

 engineers : but he was soon diverted from that service by au offer 

 from the Danish government of employment in a scientific expedition 

 to Arabia. 



The idea of this enterprise, which forms the most honourable event 

 in the reign of Frederic V. of Denmark, was suggested to his minister 

 Count von Bernstorff,' by the learned MichaelU, for the purpose of 

 illustrating some passages iu the Old Testament; and the original 

 project, which contemplated the mission only of a single Arabic 

 scholar, was liberally extended by the Count to include a mathema- 

 tician for purposes of astronomical and geographical observation, a 

 naturalist, a draughtsman, and a physician. When the first of thesa 

 appointments was offered to Niebuhr, he showed his conscientious 

 character by stipulating for a delay of eighteen months, iu order to 

 improve his scientific qualifications. This period of preparation ho 

 employed chiefly iu gaining practice as an astronomical observer, and 

 also in studying Arabic for a time with Michaelis ; though, under that 

 instructor, he made but small progress in overcoming the difficulties 

 of a language which he afterwards learned to speak fluently iu the 

 country. He modestly declined tho title of professor, not considering 

 that his acquirements were sufficient fur that distinction ; and he accom- 

 panied the expedition therefore only as a lieutenant of engineers, in t!io 

 capacity of mathematician or geographer, to which tho Danish minister, 



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