Dicaearchus of Messana (Greek: Δικαίαρχος, Dikaiarkhos; c. 350 – c. 285 BC; also written Dicearchus, Dicearch, Diceärchus, or Diceärch) was a Greek philosopher, cartographer, geographer, mathematician and author. Dicaearchus was Aristotle's student in Lyceum. Very little of his work remains extant. He wrote on the history and geography of Greece, of which his most important work was his Life of Greece. He made important contributions to the field of cartography, where he was among the first to use geographical coordinates. He also wrote books on philosophy and politics.

Life

He was the son of one Pheidias, and born at Messana in Sicily, though he passed the greater part of his life in Greece, and especially in Peloponnesus. He was a disciple of Aristotle,¹ and a friend of Theophrastus, to whom he dedicated some of his writings. He died about 285 BC.

Writings

Dicaearchus was highly esteemed by the ancients as a philosopher and as a man of most extensive information upon a great variety of things.² His work is available in fragments, but they are often quoted. His works were geographical, political or historical, philosophical, and mathematical; but it is difficult to draw up an accurate list of them, since many which are quoted as distinct works appear to have been only sections of greater ones. The fragments extant, moreover, do not always enable us to form a clear notion of the works to which they once belonged. The geographical works of Dicaearchus were, according to Strabo,³ criticised in many respects by Polybius; and Strabo himself⁴ is dissatisfied with his descriptions of western and northern Europe, where Dicaearchus had never visited.

Among his geographical works may be mentioned:

• Life of Greece (Greek: Βίος τῆς Ἑλλάδος) - The most important among the works of Dicaearchus, and contained an account of the geographical position, the history, and the moral and religious condition of Greece. It contained, in short, all the information necessary to obtain a full knowledge of the Greeks, their life, and their manners. The work had three books, the first a history and a geographical description of Greece, in introduction to the whole work. The second gave an account of the condition of the various Greek states; and the third, of the private and domestic life, the theatres, games, religion, etc. of the Greeks. Of the second book a considerable fragment is still extant; but in its present form it cannot be considered the work of Dicaearchus himself, but is an abridgment.
• Circuit of the Earth (Greek: Γῆς περίοδος)⁵ - This work was probably the text written in explanation of the geographical maps which Dicaearchus had constructed and given to Theophrastus, and which seem to have comprised the whole world, as far as it was then known.⁶
• Description of Greece (Greek: Ἀναγραφὴ τῆς Ἑλλάδος) - A work of this title dedicated to Theophrastus, and consisting of 150 iambic verses, is still extant under the name of Dicaearchus; but its form and spirit are both unworthy of Dicaearchus, and it is in all probability the production of a much later writer, who made a metrical paraphrase of the portion of the Circuit of the Earth which referred to Greece.
• On the heights of mountains⁷ - A work which may have been part of his Circuit of the Earth. It was the earliest known attempt to measure the heights of various mountains by triangulation.
• Descent into (the Cave) of Trophonius (Greek: Ἡ εἰς Τροφωνίου κατάϐασις) - A work which consisted of several books, and, as we may infer from the fragments quoted from it, contained an account of the degenerate and licentious proceedings of the priests in the cave of Trophonius.⁸
• Some other works, such as Spartan Constitution (Greek: Πολιτεία Σπαρτιατῶν),⁹ Olympic Dialogue (Greek: Ὀλυμπικὸς ἀγών),¹⁰ Panathenaic Dialogue (Greek: Παναθηναικός),¹¹ and several others, seem to have been merely chapters of the Life of Greece.

Of a political nature was:

• Three-city Dialogue (Tripolitikos - Greek: Τριπολιτικός)¹² - A work which has been the subject of much dispute. It was probably a study of comparative government. Following Aristotle, Dicaearchus divided all governments into three categories: the democratic, aristocratic, and monarchical,¹³ He advocated a "mixed" government, echoing the Spartan system, in which elements of all three categories play a part. This may have been an inspiration for Cicero's De Republica.

Among his philosophical works may be mentioned:

• Lesbian Books (Greek: Λεσϐιακοί) - In three books, which derived its name from the fact that the scene of the philosophical dialogue was laid at Mytilene in Lesbos. In it Dicaearchus endeavoured to prove that the soul was mortal.¹⁴ Cicero¹⁵ when speaking of a work On the Soul, probably means this work.
• Corinthian Dialogue (Greek: Κορινθιακοί) - In three books, was a sort of supplement to the Lesbiakoi.¹⁶ It is probably the same work as the one which Cicero, in another passage,¹⁷ calls On Human Destruction (Latin: de Interitu Hominum).

A work On the Sacrifice at Illium (Greek: περὶ τῆς ἐν Ἰλίῳ ϑυσίας)¹⁸ seems to have referred to the sacrifice which Alexander the Great performed at Illium.

There are lastly some other works which are of a grammatical nature, and may be the productions of Dicaearchus, viz. On Alcaeus (Greek: Περὶ Ἀλκαίου),¹⁹ and Summaries of the plots of Euripides and Sophocles (Greek: ὑποθέσεις τῶν Εὐριπίδου καὶ Σοφοκλέους μύθων),²⁰ but may have been the works of Dicaearchus, a grammarian of Lacedaemon, who, according to the Suda, was a disciple of Aristarchus, and seems to be alluded to in Apollonius.²¹

Further reading

• Fortenbaugh, W., Schütrumpf, E., Dicaearchus of Messana: Text, Translation, and Discussion. Transaction Publishers. (2001). ISBN 0-7658-0093-4

References

Sources

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).