A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Εὔδοξος) of Cnidus, the son of Aeschlines, lived about B. C. 366. He was, according to Diogenes Laertius, astronomer, geometer, physician, and legislator. It is only in the first capacity that his fame has descended to our day, and he has ore of it than can be justified by any account of his astronomical science now in existence. As the probable introducer of the sphere into Greece, and perhaps the corrector, upon Egyptian information, of the length of the year, he enjoyed a wide and popular reputation, so that Laertius, who does not even mention Hipparchus, has given the life of Eudoxus in his usual manner, that is, with the omission of all an astronomer would wish to know. According to this writer, Eudoxus went to Athens at the age of twenty-three (he had been the pupil of Archytas in geometry, and heard Plato for some months, struggling at the same time with poverty. Being dismissed by Plato, but for what reason is not stated, his friends raised some money, and he sailed for Egypt, with letters of recommendation to Nectanabis, who in his turn recommended him to the priests. With them he remained sixteen months, with his chin and eyebrows shaved, and there, according to Laertius, he urote the Octaeteris. Several ancient writers attribute to him the invention or introduction of an imiprovement upon the Octaeterides of his predecessors. After a time, he came back to Athens with a band of pupils, having in the mean time taught philosophy in Cyzicum and the Propontis : he chose Athens, Laertius says, for the purpose of vexing Plato, at one of whose symposia he introduced the fashion of the guests reclining in a semicircle; and Nicomachus (he adds), the son of Aristotle, reports him to have said that pleasure was a good. So much for Laertius, who also refers to some decree which was made in honour of Eudoxus, names his son and daughters, states him to have written good works on astronomy and geometry, and mentions the curious way in which the bull Apis told his fortune when he was in Egypt. Eudoxus died at the age of fifty-three. Phanocritus wrote a work upon Eudoxus (Athen. 7.276f.), which is lost.

[A. DE M.]