Conon

• A renowned general of the Athenians, whose life was written by Nepos; cf. Cic. Off. 1, 32, 116; id. de Or. 3, 34, 139; Just. 5, 5 sq.; 6, 1 sqq.—
• II A celebrated mathematician and astronomer of Samos in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Cat. 66, 7; Verg. E. 3, 40; Sen. Q. N. 7, 3, 2; Serv. ad Verg. A. 7, 738.

(Κόνων).

1. A distinguished Athenian general, who lived in the latter part of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth century B. C. In 413, he was stationed in command of a fleet off Naupactus, to prevent the Corinthians from sending succours to the Syracusans. In an engagement which ensued neither side gained a decisive victory. (Thuc. 7.31.) In 410, according to Diolorus (13.48), he was strategus, and was sent to Corcyra to protect the Athenian interests in that quarter, when Corcyra became the scene of another massacre. In 409, he was elected strategus with Alcibiades and Thrasybulus (Xen. Hell. 1.4.10), and again in 406 was made the first of the ten generals chosen to supersede Alcibiades. (Xen. Hell. 1.5.16; Diod. 13.74.) For an account of the operations which forced him to take refuge in Mytilene, of his blockade by Callicratidas, and the victory of the Athenians at Arginusae by which he was delivered, see Xen. Hell. 1.6; Diod. 13.77_79, 97, &c. When all his colleagues were deposed, Conon retained his command. (Xen. Hell. 7.1.)

When the Athenian fleet was surprised by Lysander at Aegos-Potami (B. C. 405), Conon alone of the generals was on his guard. He escaped with eight ships, and sought an asylum in Cyprus, which was governed by his friend Evagoras. (Xen. Hell. 2.1.20, &c.; Diod. 13.106; Corn. Nep. Conon, 1-3.) Here he remained for some years, till the war which the Spartans commenced against the Persians gave him an opportunity of serving his country. There is some difficulty in reconciling the accounts which we have left of his proceedings. He appears to have connected himself with Pharnabazus (Corn. Nep. Con. 2), and it was on the recommendation of the latter, according to Diodorus (14.39) and Justin (6.1), that he was appointed by the Persian king to the command of the fleet in B. C. 397. From Ctesias (Pers. 63) it would appear, that Conon opened a negotiation with the Persian court while at Salamis, and Ctesias was sent down to him with a letter empowering him to raise a fleet at the expense of the Persian treasury, and to act as admiral under Pharnabazus. He was first attacked, though without success, by Pharax, the Lacedaemonian admiral, while lying at Caunus, and soon after succeeded in detaching Rhodes from the Spartan alliance. (Diod. 14.79.) Though he received considerable reinforcements, the want of supplies kept him inactive. (Isocr. Paneg. 100.39.) He therefore made a journey to the Persian court in 395. The king granted him all that he wanted, and at his request appointed Pharnabazus as his colleague. (Diod. 14.81; Isocr. Paneg. 100.39; Corn. Nep. Con. 2-4; Justin, 6.2.) In B. C. 394, they gained a decisive victory over Pisander, the Spartan admiral, off Cnidus. (Xen. Hell. 4.3.10, &c.; Diod. 14.83; Corn. Nep. Con. 4.) Pharnabazus and Conon now cruised about the islands and coasts of the Aegean, expelled the Lacedaemonian harmosts from the maritime towns, and won over the inhabitants by assurances of freedom from foreign garrisons. (Xen. Hell. 4.8; Diod. 14.84.) In the course of the winter, Conon drew contributions from the cities on the Heilespont, and in the spring of 393, in conjunction with Pharnabazus, sailed to the coast of Laconia, made descents on various points, ravaged the vale of the Pamisus, and took possession of Cythera. They then sailed to Corinth, and Pharnabazus having left a subsidy for the states in alliance against Sparta, made preparations for returning home. Conon with his sanction proceeded to Athens, for the purpose of restoring the long walls and the fortifications of Peiraeeus. He was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and with the aid of his crews great progress was in a short time made towards the restoration of the walls. (Xen. Hell. 4.8.7, &c.; Diod. 14.84, 85 ; Paus. 1.2; Corn. Nep. Corn. 4; Dem. in Lept. p. 478; Ath. 1.5, p. 3.) When the Spartans opened their negotiations with Tiribazus, Conon with some others was sent by the Athenians to counteract the intrigues of Antalcidas, but was thrown into prison by Tiribazus. (Xen. Hell. 4.8.16; Diod. 14.85; Corn. Nep. Con. 5.) According to some accounts, he was sent into the interior of Asia, and there put to death. (Isocr. Paneg. 100.4]; Diod. 15.43; Corn. Nep. l.c.) But according to the most probable account, he escaped to Cyprus. He had property in this island, and on his death left behind him a considerable fortune, part of which was bequeathed to different relations and temples, and the remainder to his son Timotheus. (Lys. de Arist. Bon. p. 638, ed. Reiske ; Corn. Nep. l.c.) His tomb and that of his son, in the Cerameicus, were to be seen in the time of Pausanias. (1.29.15.)

2. Son of Timotheus, grandson of the preceding. On the death of Timotheus nine-tenths of the fines which had been imposed on him were remitted, and Conon was allowed to discharge the remainder in the form of a donation for the repair of the long walls. (Corn. Nep. Tim. 4.) He was sent by the Athenians, together with Phocion and Clearchus, to remonstrate with Nicanor on his seizure of Peiraeeus, B. C. 318. (Diod. 18.64.) [C.P.M]

literary.

1. A grammarian of the age of Augustus. Work Διηγήσεις

the author of a work entitled Διηγήσεις, addressed to Archelaus Philopator, king of Cappadocia.

It was a collection of fifty narratives relating to the mythical and heroic period, and especially the foundation of colonies. Editions

An epitome of the work has been preserved in the Bibliotheca of Photius (Phot. Bibl. 186), who speaks in terms of commendation of his Attic style, and remarks (Cod. 189), that Nicolaus Damascenus borrowed much from him.

There are separate editions of this abstract in Gale's Histor. Poet. Script. p. 241, &c., Paris, 1675; by Teucher, Lips. 1794 and 1802; and Kanne, Götting, 1798. Another Rhetorician named Conon

Dion Chrysostom (Or. xviii. tom. i. p. 480) mentions a rhetorician of this name, who may possibly be identical with the last.

2. A Conon is mentioned by the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (1.1163), who quotes a passage, ἐν τῇ Ἡρακλείᾳ, and mentions a treatise by him, Περὶ τῆς Νηδιάδος. Josephus (c. Apion. 1.23) also speaks of a writer of this name.

3. Another Conon, whether identical with any of those above-mentioned or not is uncertain, is mentioned by Servius (ad Virg. Aen. 7.738) as having written a work on Italy. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. iv. p. 25; Voss. de Hist. Gr. pp. 206, 420, ed. Westermann.)

4. There was a Christian writer of this name, who wrote on the resurrection against Johannes Philoponus. (Phot. Bibl. 23, 24.) [C. P. M.

(Κόνων), of Samos, a mathematician and astronomer, lived in the time of the Ptolemies Philadelphus and Euergetes (B. C. 283-222), and was the friend and probably the teacher of Archimedes, who survived him. None of his works are preserved. His observations are referred to by Ptolemy in his φάδεις ἀπλανῶν, and in the historical notice appended to that work they are said to have been made in Italy (Petav. Uranolog. p. 93), in which country he seems to have been celebrated. (See Virgil's mention of him, Ecl. 3.40.) According to Seneca (Nat. Quaest. 7.3), he made a collection of the observations of solar eclipses preserved by the Egyptians. Apollonius Pergaeus (Conic. lib. iv. praef.) mentions his attempt to demonstrate some propositions concerning the number of points in which two conic sections can cut one another. Conon was the inventor of the curve called the spiral of Archimedes [Archimedes] ; but he seems to have contented himself with proposing the investigation of its properties as a problem to other geometers. (Pappus, Math. Coll. iv. Prop. 18.) He is said to have given the name (Coma Berenices to the constellation so called [Berenice, No. 3], on the authority of an ode of Callimachus translated by Catullus (lxvii. de Coma Berenices); a fragment of the original is preserved by Theon in his Scholia on Aratus. (Phaenom. 146 ; see also Hyginus, Poet. Astron. 2.24.) But it is doubtful whether the constellation was really adopted by the Alexandrian astronomers. The strongest evidence which remains to us of Conon's mathematical genius consists in the admiration with which he is mentioned by Archimedes. See his prefaces to the treatises on the Quadrature of the Parabola and on Spirals. [W.F.D]

(Κόνων). (1) A distinguished Athenian commander, and one of the generals who succeeded Alcibiades in the command of the fleet during the Peloponnesian War. Having engaged Callicratidas, the Spartan admiral, he lost thirty vessels, and was compelled to take shelter in the harbour of Mytilené, where he was blockaded by his opponent. The victory gained by the Athenians at the Arginusae released him at length from his situation. Being subsequently appointed, with five others, to the command of a powerful fleet, he proceeded to the Hellespont, where Lysander had charge of the Lacedaemonian squadron. The negligence of his fellow-commanders, the result of overweening confidence in their own strength, led to the fatal defeat at Aegos Potamos, and the whole Athenian fleet was taken, except nine vessels of Conon 's division, with eight of which, thinking that the war was now desperate, he sailed to Salamis in the island of Cyprus. The ninth vessel was sent to Athens with the tidings of the defeat. In Cyprus, Conon remained at the court of Evagoras, watching for an opportunity to prove of service to his country. Such a state of affairs soon presented itself. The Lacedaemonians, having no more rivals in Greece, sent Agesilaüs with an army into Asia to make war upon the Persian king. Conon immediately repaired to Pharnabazus, the satrap of Lydia and Ionia, aided him with his counsels, and suggested to him the idea of exciting the Thebans and other Grecian communities against Sparta, so as to compel that State to recall Agesilaüs from the East. The plan was approved of by the king of Persia, and Conon , at the head of a Persian fleet, B.C. 394, attacked the Spartan admiral, Pisander, near Cnidus, and defeated him, with the loss of the greater part of his ships. Lacedaemon immediately lost the control of the sea, and her power in Asia Minor ceased. Conon thereupon, after ravaging the coasts of Laconia, returned to Attica, rebuilt the city walls as well as those of the Piraeus, with means which had been furnished by Pharnabazus, and gave on this occasion a public entertainment to all the Athenians. The Lacedaemonians, dispirited by the success of Conon , and alarmed at the re-establishment of the Athenian fortifications, sent Antalcidas to Tiribazus, one of the Persian generals, to negotiate a peace. The Athenians, on their part, deputed Conon and some others to oppose this attempt; but Tiribazus being favourably inclined towards Sparta, and in all probability jealous of Pharnabazus, imprisoned Conon , under the pretext that he was endeavouring to excite an insurrection in Aeolis and Ionia. The Persian king, however, disapproved of the conduct of the satrap, and Conon was released. The latter thereupon returned to the island of Cyprus, where he fell sick and died, about B.C. 390. His remains were conveyed to Athens ( Conon; Hist. Gr. i. 4, 10; id. ib. ii. 1, 21, etc.).

(2) A native of Samos, distinguished as an astronomer and geometrician. None of his works have reached us; he is mentioned, however, by Archimedes, Vergil, Seneca, and others. Conon lived between about 300 and 260 years before our era. Apollonius, in the fourth book of his Conic Sections, thinks that many of Conon 's demonstrations might be rendered more concise. He is mentioned as an astronomer by one of the commentators on Ptolemy, and Seneca (Quaest. Nat. vii. 3) informs us that he had made out a list of the eclipses of the sun that had been visible in Egypt. He is mentioned also by Vergil (Eclog. iii. 40), and by Catullus in his translation of the Greek poem of Callimachus, on the tresses of Berenicé.

(3) A grammarian epitomized by Photius (q.v.).

• Paus. 3.9.2, Paus. 8.52.4
• repairs to Persian court: Paus. 3.9.2
• obtains Phoenician galleys from king Artaxerxes: Paus. 1.3.2
• persuades Rhodians to join Athenian alliance: Paus. 6.7.6
• defeats Lacedaemonian fleet at Cnidus: Paus. 1.1.3, Paus. 6.3.16
• rebuilds Long Walls of Athens: Paus. 1.2.2
• builds sanctuary of Aphrodite at Piraeus: Paus. 1.1.3
• expels Lacedaemonian garrisons: Paus. 8.52.4
• his grave: Paus. 1.29.15
• statues: Paus. 1.3.2, Paus. 1.24.3, Paus. 6.3.16