[55] Demetrius the grammarian, whom we have frequently mentioned, was a native of Scepsis. He composed a comment on the catalogue of the Trojan forces. He was contemporary with Crates and Aristarchus. He was succeeded by Metrodorus,1 who changed from being a philosopher to engage in public affairs. His writings are for the most part in the style of the rhetoricians. He employed a new and striking kind of phraseology. Although he was poor, yet, in consequence of the reputation which he had acquired, he married a rich wife at Chalcedon, and acquired the surname of the Chalcedonian. He paid great court to Mithridates Eupator, whom he accompanied with his wife on a voyage to Pontus, and received from him distinguished honours. He was appointed to preside over a tribunal where the party condemned by the judge had no power of appeal to the king. His prosperity however was not lasting, for he incurred the enmity of some very unjust persons, and deserted from the king at the very time that he was despatched on an embassy to Tigranes the Armenian. Tigranes sent him back much against his inclination to Eupator, who was then flying from his hereditary kingdom. Metrodorus died on the road, either in consequence of orders from the king, or by natural disease, for both causes of his death are stated. So much then respecting Scepsis.
1 Metrodorus was not only a fellow-countryman of Demetrius, who was one of the richest and most distinguished citizens of Scepsis, but also his contemporary and protegé. A small treatise of Metrodorus is cited, entitled πεοͅὶ ἀλειπτικῆς, which may mean ‘on anointing with oil,’ or ‘on oil used in the public exercises.’ It seems however very probable that the treatise on the Troad, (τοͅωϊκὰ,) which Athenæus attributes to another Metrodorus of Chios, was the work of this Metrodorus of Scepsis. The place of his birth, which was in the Troad, might have suggested, as it did to his patron, the idea of treating a subject liable to discussion, and to endeavour to throw light upon it by the words of Homer. Add to this that Strabo quotes also Metrodorus on the subject of the Amazons, whose history appears so closely connected with the Trojan war that all who have touched on the one, have also treated of the other. Pliny quotes also a Metrodorus on the subject of the serpents of the river Rhyndacus, near the Troad. It is also a question whether Metrodorus was one of those who occupied themselves with mnemonics, or the art of increasing and strengthening the memory. According to Plutarch, Metrodorus was the victim of Mithridates. Tigranes, who had placed the philosopher in his power, more from inadvertence than intentionally, so much regretted his death that he celebrated magnificent obsequies to his memory.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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