254 BIOGRAPHY. 



Horace, who died 8 B.C. ; both of them patronized by Augustus and 

 Maecenas. Plautus, the comic poet, died about 184: Terence, his 

 rival, flourished 167 ; and Lucilius, the satirist, died 103 B.C. Ca- 

 tullus, Propertius, and Tibullus, preceded Ovid, the third best poet 

 of Rome, who died A.D. 17. Phsednts, the fabulist, flourished about 

 A.D. 20. Lucan, was put to death by Nero, A.D. 65 ; and Petronius 

 met the same fate in the following year. Martial, died about A.D. 

 104 ; and Juvenal died A.D. 128. Among the minor poets, were 

 Naevius, Ennius, Pacuvius, Attius, Gallus, Persius, and Seneca ; and 

 others, whom we have no room even to name. 



Of Roman philosophers, besides Cicero, we can only mention Lu- 

 cretius, who died about 54 B.C. ; and Seneca, who was put to death 

 by Nero, A.D. 65. In sciences and arts, Rome produced Pomponius 

 Mela, the geographer, who flourished A.D. 60; Pliny, the elder, the 

 naturalist, who perished while observing Vesuvius, A.D. 79 ; Celsus, 

 the physician, who flourished A.D. 20 ; Sammonicus, the physician, 

 who flourished A.D. 200 ; Columella, who wrote on agriculture, in 

 the first century ; Vitruvius, the architect, who flourished at the 

 Christian era ; Pollio, who wrote on architecture and mechanics, at 

 the same era : and Frontinus, who wrote on the military art, and 

 died A.D. 106. 



Our notice of Byzantine Biography must be confined to the men- 

 tion of the following emperors, with their dates of accession : Arca- 

 dius, the first of the eastern emperors, distinctively so called, A.D. 

 395; Theodosius II., 408; Leo I., the Thracian, 457; Leo II., 

 (Zeno), 474 ; Anastatius, styled the Silentary, 491 ; Justin I., the 

 Thracian, 518; Justinian I., 527; Justin II., 565; Phocas, 602; 

 Heraclius, 610 ; Constans II., 642 ; Justinian II., 685, and 704 ; 

 Ze<\III., Isauricus, 717 ; Constantine V., 742 ; Irene, 797 ; Michael 

 III., 842; Basilius, 867; Leo VI., the philosopher, 886; Constan- 

 tine VII., Porphyrogenitus, 912, associated with Romanus I., 919; 

 Nicephorus II., (Phocas), 963 : and Basilius II., with Constantine 

 VIII., A.D. 975. (p. 209). The renowned general Belisarius, died 

 in 565 ; and Tribonian, the lawyer, died in 545. Zosimus, and Pro- 

 copius, were among the Byzantine historians who wrote in the Greek 

 language ; all of whom were of minor note. 



CHAPTER II. 



ORIENTAL BIOGRAPHY. 



THE subject of Oriental Biography is very imperfectly known to 

 us ; owing to the remoteness of its scenes, the deficiency of its records, 

 and our imperfect knowledge even of those which do exist. It doubt- 

 less^ presents topics of romantic interest, and well worthy of contem- 

 plation, which have not yet been exhibited to the western world. 

 The wild and fiery zeal of the Mohamedan conquerors ; the self-im- 

 molation of their opponents ; and the sudden reverses of fortune, so 

 frequent in the eastern world, and so fatal to social improvement, 

 are among the characteristics of this branch, which we have no room 



