DICIEARCHUS,. the sou of Phidias, was born in the city of Messana in Sicily. He was a scholar of Aristotle, and is called a peripatetic philosopher by CiCero (' De Officiis,' ii. 5); but though he wrote some works on philosophical subjects, ho seems to have devoted bis attention principally to geography and statistics. His chief philo sophical work was one ' On the Soul,' in two dialogues, each divided into three books : one dialogue being supposed to be held at Corinth, the other at Mityleue. In these he argued against the Platonic doctrine of the soul, and indeed altogether denied its existence. In the second and third books of the Corinthian dialogue, Cicero tells us Tuscul. Disput.; i. 10), he introduced an old l'thiote named ?here crates, maintaining that the soul was absolutely nothing ; that the word was a mere empty sound; that there was no soul either in man or beast; that the principle by means of which we act and perceive is equally diffused throughout all living bodies, and cannot exist sepa rated from them; and that there is no existence except matter, which is one and simple, the parts of which are naturally so arranged that it has life and perception. The greatest performance of Dictearchus was a treatise on the geography, politics, and manners of Greece, which he called the' Life of Greece' (' EassdEes Nei). Of this a frag
ment has come down to us, which is printed in Iludsou's 'Oeographici Minoru, and also edited by Marx in Crenzer'a 'Meletemata a Discipl. Antiquitatis, p. iii. p. 174. It has been conjectured, with great appearance of truth, that the citations from Dictearchui, in which his treatises 'On Musical Contests," On the Dionysian &c., are referred to, are drawn from this comprehensive work, and that the grammarians have named them by the title of the subdivision to which these subjects belonged, instead of the leading title of the book. (See Nake in the' Rhein. Mus.' for 1S33, p. 47.) Dierearebua'a maps were extant in the time of Cicero (' Ep. ad Att.,' vL 2); but his geography was not much to be depended upon. (Strabo, p. 104.) Cicero was very fond of the writings of Dicsearchus, and speaks of him in terms of the warmest admiration. (' Ep. ad Att.,' ii. 2.) In the extant fragment Diewarchus quotes Posidippus, and must therefore have been alive in ism 2S9. We must distinguish him from a Lacedze nionian grammarian of the same name, who was a pupil of Aristarchus. (See Suidas.)