rals and elevation of mind which ever characterised him. Nor did he neglect those exercises of the palæstra which were calculated to give perfection to the bodily powers, and prepare for the toils and hardships of war. He cultivated that eloquence which is so necessary in a popular state, and few equalled him either in studied harangue or ready reply. The expence of his education exhausted his patrimony; but he had learned that lesson so essential to a great man, not to be ashamed of honourable poverty. His indifference for riches accompanied him through the whole course of his public life, and rendered him inaccessible to corruption of every kind; and though he was more sensible to glory, yet, like a genuine philosopher, he made the consciousness of rectitude, and not fame, the great object of his conduct. To the qualities of an exalted mind he joined every amiable disposition which fits a man for friendship and society. He was so attached to truth as never to deceive, even in jest; modest, prudent, patient of injuries, and unassuming. In short, by the general agreement of writers, he exhibited, beyond almost any person of historical eminence, the image of a perfect character. Epaminondas was the intimate friend of Pelopidas, who shares with him in the honour of raising the Theban republic to consequence among the states of Greece. Pelopidas appears to have been the senior, and more early to have distinguished himself for civil and military talents. They made a campaign together among the succours sent by the Thebans to the Lacedæmonians, while yet in alliance with them. At a battle fought in this service, after Pelopidas had fallen under a number of wounds, he was protected by Epaminondas, who, though himself wounded, continued to fight over him against a host of foes, till they were both rescued by their friends. When the Lacedæmonians afterwards took possession of the citadel of Thebes, and expelled Pelopidas and others attached to liberty and independence, Epaminondas was suffered to remain, as one whose poverty and philosophy would prevent him from taking any lead in political concerns. The exiles, who maintained a correspondence with their party in the city, re-entered it by stratagem four years afterwards. During the conflict with their adversaries, Epaminondas, who abhorred shedding blood in civil contests, remained at home; but when the success was decided, he joined them at the head of the principal citizens, and put an end to the slaughter. Liberty was proclaimed to the Thebans, the

VOL. III.

citadel recovered, and the Spartans were do feated in their attempts to regain their autho rity. Not content with this success, the two friends formed the noble design of raising their countrymen from the depravity and want of spirit into which they were fallen, and rendering them great and powerful. For this purpose they were exceedingly attentive to improve the military discipline; and Epaminondas, by his example and exhortations, assiduously promoted that frugality and contempt of pleasure which is the basis of all manly exertion. Of his conduct in this respect various instances are related. Being once present at a sumptuous entertainment, he was observed to content himself with the commonest food and most ordimary wine he could find; and when asked the reason of this abstemiousness, "It is," said he, "lest I should forget how to live at home." On one of the great festivals of the city, when every one appeared in full dress, and parties were universally made to spend the day in conviviality, he walked alone in a pensive mood in the public square, without accepting any invitation; alleging as a reason for his unsociableness, that there should be at least one person to attend to the safety of the city, while the rest were drowned in mirth and wine. With such talents and manners, he could not fail of ac-, quiring the confidence of his fellow-citizens. He was raised to a high command in the army, and was one of the delegates sent to Sparta to treat of a general peace. On this occasion, when the other deputies were awed by the presence of Agesilaus, he preserved the dignity of the representative of an independent state, and insisted that the Thebans should retain the same authority in Bocotia as the Spartans in Laconia. This demand so exasperated the Spartan king, that the Thebans were excluded from the peace, and war was immediately declared against them. The first event of this war was the famous battle of Leuctra, fought B.C. 1371, in which Epaminondas commanded in chief. Through his skilful dispositions, the Thebans, with a much inferior force, gained a complete victory, with little loss, while the Lacedæmonians lost their king Cleombrotus and 4000 men. Epaminondas reckoned it his great felicity on this occasion, that both his father and mother were living to witness the glory he had acquired. The Thebans were now become formidable; and being joined by several allies, who had been oppressed by the power of Sparta,, they entered Peloponnesus with a large army, and Epaminondas appeared before the city of Lace41E .i.

....

upon his guard; so that the Thebans, after some vigorous assaults, were obliged to retreat. Epaminondas then marched suddenly to Mantinæa, with similar expectations of finding it defenceless; but it happened that a strong Athenian force arrived in it on the very same day. Foiled also in this attempt, he determined to retrieve his honour by a battle. He therefore proceeded against the combined army of Lace dæmonians, Arcadians, and their allies, commanded by Agesilaus; and, falling upon them unexpectedly, threw them into confusion. But while he was pursuing with great ardour the broken Spartan battalions, the enemy suddenly rallied, and covered him with a shower of darts. Several of these he drew out, and returned; but, at length, a Spartan struck a javelin into his breast with such force, that the wood broke, and left the point in his body. He was carried off the field by his soldiers, and conveyed to his tent. His first question when he recovered his speech was, what was become of his shield. It was brought him, and he kissed it. He then enquired which side had the victory; and being answered, The Thebans; " It is well," said he, "I die unconquered" and the javelin being extracted, he expired. This event is dated B.C. 363. Epaminondas would never marry, thinking a life of celibacy best suited to his philosophical pursuits while a private man, and to his active services when in a public character. The glory of his country, as it rose with him, so it did not long survive him. Perhaps he was led by his patriotic zeal to push its temporary greatness beyond its natural strength. His own glory, sealed by a victorious death, has been immortal. Cicero, in the time of the Roman splendour, styled him one of the greatest men that any age or nation had produced; and at the present day it would not be easy, from the catalogue of statesmen and warriors, to present a more illustrious name. Corn. Nepos, Vit. Epaminond. Plutarch, Vit. Pelopid. Agesil. Univers. Hist.-A.

EPAPHRODITUS, one of the first bishops or ministers of the christian church that was founded by St. Paul at Philippi in Macedonia. He was in that situation when St. Paul was prisoner at Rome, and was sent by his church to vist the apostle in his bonds, and to carry him their liberal contributions towards his support and maintenance. While he was at Rome on this errand of beneficence and christian affection, he was attacked by a dangerous sickness, which for a time threatened to prove fatal. On his recovery, finding that his friends at Philippi had heard of his illness, and were anxious

on his account, St. Paul sent him to them in the year of Christ 62, committing to his care his Epistle to the Church in that place, and highly commending him in it for his zeal and fidelity in the office of the christian ministry. He calls him his brother and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, who was well able to supply the place of an apostle among them, and who would not fail to inculcate on them the same truths which it was the object of St. Paul's commission to recommend and enforce. This is all that can with any certainty be learned concerning Epaphroditus; and he deserves to have his name recorded with honour among the worthies who, in the early ages of christianity, when its enemies were active in their endeavours, by persecution and every species of discouragement, to crush the rising sect, stood forwards at all hazards to avow its principles, and to confirm the first believers in a stedfast adherence to the doctrines and instructions of the apostles. Philip. cb. ii. ver. 25-30.-M.

EPHORUS, a Greek orator and historian, was a native of Cuma, or Cyme, in Eolia, and flourished about 352 B.C. He was a disciple of Isocrates, at whose instigation he undertook to write history. Judiciously avoiding the fabulous periods, he commenced with the re turn of the Heraclide into Peloponnesus, and brought down his narration to the twentieth year of Philip of Macedon. This he divided into thirty books, prefixing to each an introduction. It appears that this work was in considerable esteem among the ancients, and it is frequently quoted by Strabo and other writers: yet its mistakes and misrepresentations were not few, and he was likewise charged with many plagiarisms. Seneca (Quest. Natur.) says of him, "Ephorus, vero non religiosissima fidei, sæpe decipitur, sæpe decipit;"—" Ephorus, not overscrupulous in veracity, is often deceived, and often deceives." The total loss of his work is, however, to be regretted. He wrote several other books on moral, geographical, and rhe-` torical topics, all which have perished. He might have had the honour of belonging to the court of Alexander, but declined it. Bayle. Vossii Hist. Grac.-A.

EPHRAIM, the second son of the patriarch Joseph, and the progenitor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel, was born in Egypt, of Athenah, the daughter of a priest of prince of On, towards the latter end of the seventeenth century B.C. He was adopted, together with his brother Manasseh, by Jacob, when on his deathbed, who decreed that, in the future distributions of inheritance among his descendants,

they should be entitled to rank with his immediate sons, and be considered as the ancestors of distinct tribes. In the manner of pronouncing his blessing on them, however, he prophesied that Ephraim, though the youngest of Joseph's sons, should have pre-eminence over his brother, by proving the father of a much more numerous posterity; which prediction was verified in the subsequent history of the Israelites. At the distribution of the land of Canaan among the descendants of Jacob, the portion of the Ephraimites comprehended the south part of Samaria, and extended from the Mediterranean on the west, to the river Jordan on the east; being bounded on the north by the inheritance of the tribe of Issachar, and that of half of the tribe of Manasseh, and on the south by the territory of Benjamin, and part of that of Dan. Genesis. Joshua. Blair's Chron. Tables.-M. EPHRĒM, or EPHRAIM, called the Syrian, and honoured with the title of Saint, was a native of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, and born some time during the reign of Constantine the Great. Dr. Joseph Asseman supposes that he was a disciple of James bishop of Nisibis, and that he accompanied him to the council of Nice in 325. He very early embraced the monastic life, the solitude of which he employed in a close application to his studies, and the composition of numerous theological and moral works. The latter part of his life was spent at Edessa, where be began to distinguish himself by his writings about the year 370, and was ordained deacon, but with a determination not to accept of any higher ecclesiastical order. To this determination he adhered, when, as Sozomen relates, he was elected to the bishopric of a certain city, and for a time counterfeited insanity, to prevent his being ordained by force to that of fice. He once took a journey as far as Cæsarea in Cappadocia, for the sole purpose of seeing and conversing with St. Basil the Great, who entertained a particular esteem for him, on account of his erudition, piety, humility, and the general excellence of his character. By some writers he is said to have instructed Ephrem in the Greek language, and to have ordained him priest. Those representations, however, do not concur with the testimony of the most respectable authors, who concur in stating that he was not acquainted with Greek learning, and that he died a deacon. He was the author of a great variety of works, all written in the Syriac language, several of which were translated into Greek in his life-time. They gave to his reputation a wide diffusion, and, conjointly with his sanctity and virtues, occasioned very high

encomiums to be passed upon him. Sozomen, Theodoret, and St. Gregory Nyssen, in particular, have been warm in their commendations of him. The latter calls him "the Doctor of the whole World ;" and Dr. Asseman informs us, that it was common with the Syrians to give him the titles of Doctor or Master of the whole World, and of their Prophet. In such great estimation were his works held, that, according to the testimony of St. Jerome, they were publicly read in some churches after the Scriptures. Sozomen pronounces them to be eminently beautiful in point of style, and to abound in sublimity of sentiment; and joins with Jerome in the opinion, that these excellences have been very happily transfused into the Greek version of them. The subjects of them were, commentaries upon the Old and New Testament; homilies, or sermons; exhortations to the monks; controversial pieces, particularly against Sabellius, Arius, Apollina ris, the Anomians, and the Novatians; treatises of morality; hymns to be sung in the churches; panegyrics, &c. For the particular titles of such as have been preserved to the present time, and the ai guments for and against their genuineness, we refer our readers to a comparative view of what has been written on that head by Cave, Du Pin, and Lardner. The first person who published any of the works of this father was Ambrosius Camaldulensis, who translated some of them into Latin, and printed. them at Brescia, in 1490. Subsequent editions of the same appeared at Strasburg in 1509, and at Cologne in 1547. Afterwards Gerard Vossius undertook a larger collection of them, which was finished at Rome in 1598; in three volumes folio. Besides various impressions of the same, at different periods, and in different. places, a beautiful one was published at Oxford, in Greek, in the year 1709. But the mostcomplete edition of this father was published at: Rome, by Dr. Joseph Asseman, assisted by father Benedetti a Jesuit, and Evodius Asseman, bishop of Apamea, which was begun in 1732, and finished in 1747, in six volumes folio, three of which are Syriac and Latin, and the other three Greek and Latin.. St. Ephrem died about. the year 378, under, the reign of the emperor. Valens; and, in his last moments, solemnly charged the monks who were assembled around bim, to bury him in a plain, manner, without pronouncing any eulogium, and without erecting any monument to his memory; and, at the same time, forbade them to, keep his garments. as relics. Many anecdotes are related concerning this father, particularly in the panegyric of

Gregory Nyssen, which partake largely of the marvellous, and will now more frequently excite the reader's smile than obtain his credit. We hope, for the reputation of the good father, that the following trick, which Gregory Nyssen relates that he played Apollinaris, has no better foundation in truth than some of the other romantic tales which that writer has preserved. According to him, Ephrem, hearing that Apollinaris, who was a person of great reputation for his learning and abilities, but reckoned among the heterodox, had committed his writings to the care of a certain woman, pretended that he was a friend and disciple of Apollinaris, and borrowed the books, promising to return them speedily. When he had them in his possession, however, he glued all the leaves fast to one another, and returned the volumes to the woman, and she to Apollinaris; who, when he wanted to make use of them, found all his labours destroyed, and was much injured and hurt by the loss. If the story be true, Ephrem's zeal for orthodoxy was not unalloyed with meanness and dishonesty. That he was a man of considerable learning, and very religious, his remains sufliciently prove; while, at the same time, they shew that his pious sentiments were tinctured in no small degree by enthusiasm and fanaticism. One of the best things recorded concerning him is his very charitable disposition, and the great use which he made of his influence with the rich to provide for and relieve the wants of the poor. This disposition he particularly manifested in the instance of a famine, which affected Edessa and its neighbourhood; when, by his active exertions, many hundreds were preserved from perishing, and comfortably maintained till the evil was removed. Cave's Hist. Lit. vol. I. sub sac. Arian. Ceillier's Hist. Gen. des Aut. Sac. et Eccl. vol. VIII. Du Pin. Moreri. Lardner's Cred. pt. ii. vol. IX. Fortin's Rem. on Eccl. Hist. vol. III. -M.

EPICHARMUS, a philosopher and writer of comedy, is supposed to have been a native of Cos, but to have been brought very young into Sicily, whence he has usually passed for a Sicilian. He was a disciple in the Pythagorean school; and upon being prevented by the ty ranny of king Hiero from publicly professing philosophy, he applied to dramatic poetry, and is reckoned by Aristotle the earliest writer of comedy. This appears to have been of the moral, and sententious kind; for it is said that he offended the Pythagoreans by introducing the doctrines and precepts of their master upon the stage. He was a fertile composer; for Sui.

das assigns to him fifty-two comedies, and the industry of modern philologists has ascertained the titles of forty; but of these some fragments only are left. He taught school at Syracuse, and is said to have been the inventor of the two Greek letters, and x. He wrote also comX. mentaries upon physical and medical subjects. Among his fragments are some moral sentences which do him honour: such are, "Be sober in thought, be slow in belief; these are the sinews of wisdom :" "The gods set up their favours at a price, and industry is the purchaser:" "Live so as to be prepared either for a long life or a short one" "He who is naturally inclined to good is noble, though his mother were an Ethiop." Epicharmus is said by Lucian to have reached the great age of ninety-seven. The era of his flourishing is the fifth century B.C. Vossii Poet. Græc. Diogen. Laert. nii Hist. Nat. Brucker's Hist. Philos. Cumberland's Observer.—A.

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EPICTETUS, an eminent philosopher of the stoic school, who flourished in the first century of the christian era, was born at Hieropolis in Phrygia, in a servile condition, and was sold as a slave to Epaphroditus, one of Nero's freedmen. Ancient writers agree that he was lame, but differ with respect to the cause of his lameness. Suidas attributes it to a defluxion on one of his legs when he was young; Simplicius asserts that he was born lame; and Celsus says that it was owing to the cruelty of his master, who one day, in order to torture him, bent his leg with such violence, that Epictetus said, "You will break it ;" and when the brute, by continuing the torment with increased force, had broken the leg, he only said, "Did not I tell you, sir, that you would break it?" Others ascribe his lameness to the heavy chains with which his master loaded him. Having, by some means or other, been so fortunate as to obtain his freedom, Epictetus retired to a little hut, where, enjoying only the bare necessaries of life, he closely devoted his time to the study of philosophy. After a diligent application, by which he became thoroughly conversant in the principles of the stoic sect, and receiving instructions in rhetoric from Rufus, he commenced his philosophical lectures, and soon acquired great popularity as a moral preceptor. He was an acute and judicious observer of manners; bold and animated in his reprehensions of vice; simple, impressive, and conciliating in his precepts and instructions; and free from that dogmatism,, vanity, and rudeness, which were too commonly affected by philosophers. The morals which he inculcated were of the