DI'DYMUS, a celebrated grammarian, the son of a seller of fish at Alexandria, was born In the consulship of Antony and Cicero, n.c. 63 (Suidas, sob v.), and lived In the reign of Augustus. Macrobius calls him the greatest grammarian of his own or any other time. (Saturn.
r. 22.) According to Athenteus p. 139, C.) he published 3500 volumes, and had written so much that he was called the forgetter of books (filflaierulear), for he often forgot what he had written himself ; and also the man with bowels of brass (XaAdvrepos), from his un wearied industry. To judge from tho specimens of his writings given by Athenaeu., we need not much regret the loss of them. His criti cisms were of the Aristarehian school (Suid.) : ho wrote, among other things, an explanistion of the Agamemnon of Ion (Athen. xL p. p.418, D.), and also of the plays of Phrynichns (id. ix. p. 371, F.); several treatises against' Juba, king of Libya (Suid. '1613ar), a book on the corruption of diction (Atheteeus, ix. p. 368, B.), a history of the city Cabeaaus (Stepp. Bye. sub v. 'AydOvpaoi), besides essays ou the country of Bonier, the mother of "Emma, and other equally unimportant subjects. The 'Scholia Minora' on Homer have been attributed to
him, but wrongly, for Didymus himself is quoted in these notes. The collection of proverb' extant under the name of Zenobius was partly taken from a previous collection made by Didytnua, and about sixty fragments of his fifteen books on agriculture are preserved in the collection of Cassianus Basins.
Snide, mentions several other authors of this name, and among them one surnamed Ateius, who was an Academic philosopher, and wrote a treatise in two books on the solutions of probabilities and sophisms. We may also mention Didymus ' the blind, aft Alexandrian father of tho chnreh, who was born about the year Il.C. 30S, and was the teacher of St. Jerome, St, Isidore, Itufinue, and others. lie died in n.c. 395. Of hls numerous writings, four treatises have come down to Ira.
1, ' On the Holy Spirit. 2, 'On the Trioity? 3, Against the Manicheans? 4, ' Oa the Canonical Epistles: A Greek Treatise on Farriery by another Didymus is also extant