70 NIC 
blems; as "may be feen in his Univerfal Arithmetic. 
That Nicomedes flouriflied not long after the time of Era- 
tofthenes, may be concluded from his palling jokes on that 
geometrician, on account of the mechanifm of his mefo- 
labe and alfo from the circumltance that Gemimis, who 
lived in the fecond century B.C. wrote upon conchoids, 
of which Nicomedes was then allowed to be the inventor. 
Thefe fafts are fufficient to overthrow the hypothefis of 
thole writers who have alligned to him fo late a date as 
the fourth or fifth century of the Chriftian asra. Hutton's 
Math. Did. under the article Conchoid. 
NICOME'DES, or Mesomedes, a famous mufician, 
who flouriflied about the year 145 of the Chriftian era, un¬ 
der the reign of Antoninus. He was the firft who drew 
up a body of rules for performing on the lyre. The em¬ 
peror, however, retrenched his falary as a mufician of the 
court, telling him that it would be lhameful, and even 
cruel, if thofe w'hofe labours were of no ufe to the ftate 
fhould partake of his benefits. 
NICOME'DES, the name of feveral kings of the an¬ 
cient Bithynia. They performed nothing worthy of hif- 
torical notice. See Bithynia. 
NICOME'DIA, in ancient geography, a metropolis of 
Bithynia, built by Nicomedes the grandfather of Prufias. 
It is fituated on a point of the Sinus Aftacenus (Pliny) ; 
furnamed the Beautiful (Athenaeus) ; the largeft city of 
Bithynia, (Paufanias,) who fays it was formerly called 
Aft a cus; though Pliny diftinguilhes Aftacum and Nico- 
media as different cities. Nicomedia was very famous, 
not only under its own kings, but under the Romans : it 
was the royal reiidence of Dioclefian, and of Conftantine, 
while Conftantinople was building, if we may credit Ni- 
cephorus. It is Hill called Nicomedia, at the bottom of a 
bay of the Propontis in the Hither Afia. Lat. 41.20. N. 
Ion. 30. o. E. It is a place of confequence ; carries on a 
trade in filk, cotton, glals, and earthen-ware, and is the 
fee of a Greek archbilhop. 
NI'CON, a faint in the Greek and Roman calendars, lived 
in the tenth century, and acquired the furname of Meta- 
noite, from the frequent introdu&ion into his difcourfes 
of the Greek word /xetcci'oeite, “ repent.” When very 
young, againft the confent of his parents, he entered a 
monaftery on the borders of Pontus and Paphlagonia, and 
gained a reputation for extraordinary fanftity, by the ex- 
ceflive rigour with which for a long time he praftiled the 
aufterities of the cloifter. In the year 961, he was fent 
on a million into Armenia, for the purpofe of converting 
to the Chriftian faith the inhabitants of that and the neigh¬ 
bouring countries; in which his labours are laid to have 
been eminently fuccefsful. From Armenia he went to 
the ifland of Crete, where his zeal in preaching is alfo faid 
to have been attended with wonderful effefts ; which 
would have been better entitled to credit if the relations of 
them had not been intermixed with legendary tales of the 
n umerous miracles which he performed. Afterwards Nicon 
retired to Lacedemon; whence he was called to Corinth, 
where the fuperftitious people were perfuaded that his 
prayers would have the efficacy of putting a flop to the 
incurfions of the favage Bulgarians into their country. 
He died in the year 998, His life, which was written by 
a Lacedemonian abbot, father Sirmond tranflated into 
Latin ; and Baronius has freely made ufe of it in the tenth 
volume of his Annales, under the years 961—998. To 
this Nicon is attributed a curious and interefting little 
treatife in the Greek Language “ On the impious religion 
of the molt wicked Armenians,” which will be found of 
ufe in illuftrating the ftate of manners, as well as the ec- 
clefiaftical hiftory, of that country. It is inferted, in 
Latin, in the twenty-fifth volume of the Bibl. Patr. and 
is alfo given in Cotelerius’s Patr. Apoftol. To this piece 
is prefixed, in the Bibl. Patr. a fragment, in Latin, of a 
letter to a monk, “On unjuft and precipitate Excom¬ 
munications,” which has alfo been attributed to our 
author. That letter, however, mult have been written 
by a later Nicon, fince mention is made in it of Nicholas 
N I C 
the Grammarian, who was patriarch of Conftantinople 
in 1084. 
There was alfo another Nicon, a monk of Paleftine, 
who under the reign of the emperor Conftantine Ducas, 
about the year 1060, collected a “ Pandect of Interpre¬ 
tations of the Divine Commands,” in two books, which 
has never been publilhed, though faid to be well worthy 
of being given to the world. It is Itill preferved in feve¬ 
ral libraries, and, among others, in the king’s library at 
Paris. Gen. Biog. 
NI'CON, or Niki'ta, a diftinguilhed prelate of the 
Greek church, whom fome of the Ruffians ftili abhor as 
antichrift, and others adore as a faint, was born in 1613, 
of obfcure parents, in a village belonging to the govern¬ 
ment of Niffinei Novogorod. Educated in the convent 
of St. Macarius, where his ftudies were diredled almoft en¬ 
tirely to the Holy Scriptures, and influenced by the ex¬ 
hortations of his preceptors, he imbibed at a very early 
period the ftrongeft attachment to a monaftic life. Being 
thwarted in his inclination by the authority of his father, 
he entered into the married ftate; and, being thus pre¬ 
cluded from admiffion into a convent, he was ordained a 
fecular prieft. With his wife he fpent ten years; firft as 
a pariffi-prieft in fome country-village, and afterwards at 
Mofcow in the fame capacity; but, having loft three chil¬ 
dren whom he tenderly loved, his difguft for the world 
and propenlity to folitude returned with redoubled vio¬ 
lence ; and, having perfuaded his wife to take the veil, he 
entered into the monaftic order. He chofe for his retreat 
a fmall ifland of the White Sea, inhabited only by a few 
perfons, who formed a kind of ecclefiaftical eftabliffiment, 
as remarkable for the aufterity of the rules as for the foli¬ 
tude of the fituation. Twelve monks occupied feparate 
cells, about a mile and a half diftant from each other, and 
from the church, which flood in the centre of the ifland. 
Thefe lonely anchorites affembled every Saturday evening- 
in the church, where they affifted in the performance of 
divine fervice during the whole night, and the next day 
till noon, and then retired to their refpeftive habitations. 
This pradftice was repeated on certain feftivals ; at other 
times each reclufe occupied his cell undifturbed by mutual 
intercourfe. Their food was bread, and fiffi, which they 
caught themfelves, or procured from the neighbouring 
continent. Such was the fituation to which Nicon retired 
as congenial to the gloomy ftate of his own mind, and 
where he contradled that cloiftered pride which gave an 
alloy to his virtues, and proved the greateft deleft in his 
charafter when raifed to an exalted ftation. After a Ihort 
refidence in this ifland, he accompanied the chief of the 
ecclefiaftical eftabliftunent to Mofcow to raife a colleftion 
for the purpofe of building a new church; but he had 
fcarcely returned from this expedition when, at the miti¬ 
gation of the chief, whom he had offended during the 
journey, he was compelled by the other monks to retire 
from the ifland. He embarked, during tempeftuous wea¬ 
ther, in an open boat, with only one perfon ; and, after 
being tolled about in continual danger of perilhing, was 
at length driven upon an ifland near the mouth of the 
Onega. From this ifland he repaired to a monaftery on 
the continent, and was admitted into the fociety; but, 
inftead of inhabiting an apartment in the convent, he 
conftrufted a feparate cell on an adjacent ifland, where 
he lived upon the fiffi which he caught with his own hands, 
and never vifited the monaftery but during the time of 
divine lervice. In confequence of this reclufe and rigid 
way of life, he was held in high efteem by his brethren ; 
and, on the death of the fuperior, was unanimoufly elefted 
to fill the vacant dignity. In this capacity he continued 
three years ; at the end of which, being induced by fome 
family-affairs to vifit Mofcow, he was accidentally pre- 
fented to the czar Alexey Michaelovitch, who, captivated 
with his talents and learning, detained him at Mofcow 
under his immediate proteftion. In the courfe of lefts 
than five years he was fucceffively created archimandrite 
or abbot of the Novopatlkoi convent, archbilhop of No¬ 
vogorod, 
