APOLLONIUS, the author of the Argonautics,
and furnished The Rhodian, from the place of his resi-
dence, is supposed to have been a native of Alexan-
dria, where he is said to have recited some portion of
his poem while he was yet a youth. Finding it ill re-
ceived by his countrymen, he retired to Rhodes; where
he is conjectured to have polished and completed his
work, supporting himself by the profession of rhetoric,
and receiving from the Rhodians the freedom of their
city. He at length returned, with considerable ho-
nour, to the place of his birth; succeeding Erato-
thenes in the care of the Alexandrian library in the
reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, who ascended the throne
of Egypt in the year before Christ 246. That prince
had been educated by the famous Aristarchus, and ri-
valled the preceding sovereigns of his liberal family in
the munificent encouragement of learning. Apol-
lonius was a disciple of the poet Callimachus; but their
connexion ended in the most violent enmity, which
was probably owing to some degree of contempt ex-
pressed by Apollonius for the light compositions of his
master. The learned have vainly endeavoured to dis-
cover the particulars of their quarrel.—The only work
of Apollonius which has descended to modern times is
his poem above mentioned, in four books, on the Ar-
gonautic expedition. Both Longinus and Quintilian
have assigned to this work the mortifying character of
mediocrity: "But (says Mr Hayley) there lies an ap-
peal from the sentence of the most candid and enlight-
ened critics to the voice of Nature; and the merit of
Apollonius has little to apprehend from the decision of
this ultimate judge. His poems abound in animated
description, and in passages of the most tender and pa-
thetic beauty. How finely painted is the first setting
forth of the Argo! and how beautifully is the wife of Apollonius,
Chiron introduced, holding up the little Achilles in Apol-
her arms, and showing him to his father Peleus as he
failed along the shore! But the chief excellence in our
poet, is the spirit and delicacy with which he has de-
lineated the passion of love in his Medea. That Vir-
gil thought very highly of his merit in this particular,
is sufficiently evident from the minute exactness with
which he has copied many tender touches of the Gre-
cian poet. Those who compare the third book of Apol-
lonius with the fourth of Virgil, may, I think, perceive
not only that Dido has some features of Medea, but
that the two bards, however different in their reputation,
resembled each other in their genius; and they both
excel in delicacy and pathos."—The ancient scholia up-
on his Argonautics, still extant, are extremely useful, and
full of learning.
APOLLONIUS of Perga, a city of Pamphylia, was a
great geometerian, under the reign of Ptolemy Euer-
getes, which reaches from the 2d year of the 133d O-
lympiad to the 3d year of the 139th. He studied a
long time at Alexandria, under the disciples of Euclid:
and composed several works, of which that only of the
Conics remains.