DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4377#0027
HISTORY OE CNIDUS. 357
his observatory at Cnidus, discovered tlie star
Canopus, on the extreme verge of the southern
horizon/
Like the neighbouring city of Cos, Cnidus was
celebrated from early times as a school of medicine;
and in the same century in which Eudoxus was
observing the stars in his native city, a fellow-citizen
and fellow-labourer in science, Ctcsias, the phy-
sician, was residing at the court of Artaxerxes
Mnemon, and employing his leisure time in com-
posing those oriental histories the loss of which
we shall ever deplore.
In the narrative of the march of Alexander the
Great through the south of Asia Minor, Cnidus is
not mentioned as having offered any resistance,
like Myndus or Halicarnassus. It is probable,
therefore, that it was still unfortified, and that its
walls, which are still existing, are of a period sub-
sequent to this invasion. Under the successors of
Alexander Cnidus is scarcely ever mentioned in
history. It is to be presumed from a passage in
Theocritus,5 that, like Cos and Halicarnassus, it
fell into the hands of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
In his reign, a Cnidian architect, Sostratos, con-
structed the celebrated Pharos at Alexandria, and
built in his native city a pensilis ambulatio, which
was probably a magnificent terrace, raised upon
columns.11 This architect was styled by Strabo,
" the friend of kings," a title which represented
f Strabo, ii. p. 119. e Idyll, xvii. 6G.
11 Strabo, xvii. p. 791. Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 12, § 18. Lucian.
JJe Hist. Cousorib. lxii. Stepb. Byz., and Suidas, s. v. <l>apijc.
his observatory at Cnidus, discovered tlie star
Canopus, on the extreme verge of the southern
horizon/
Like the neighbouring city of Cos, Cnidus was
celebrated from early times as a school of medicine;
and in the same century in which Eudoxus was
observing the stars in his native city, a fellow-citizen
and fellow-labourer in science, Ctcsias, the phy-
sician, was residing at the court of Artaxerxes
Mnemon, and employing his leisure time in com-
posing those oriental histories the loss of which
we shall ever deplore.
In the narrative of the march of Alexander the
Great through the south of Asia Minor, Cnidus is
not mentioned as having offered any resistance,
like Myndus or Halicarnassus. It is probable,
therefore, that it was still unfortified, and that its
walls, which are still existing, are of a period sub-
sequent to this invasion. Under the successors of
Alexander Cnidus is scarcely ever mentioned in
history. It is to be presumed from a passage in
Theocritus,5 that, like Cos and Halicarnassus, it
fell into the hands of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
In his reign, a Cnidian architect, Sostratos, con-
structed the celebrated Pharos at Alexandria, and
built in his native city a pensilis ambulatio, which
was probably a magnificent terrace, raised upon
columns.11 This architect was styled by Strabo,
" the friend of kings," a title which represented
f Strabo, ii. p. 119. e Idyll, xvii. 6G.
11 Strabo, xvii. p. 791. Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 12, § 18. Lucian.
JJe Hist. Cousorib. lxii. Stepb. Byz., and Suidas, s. v. <l>apijc.