one of the chief favourites of Alexander the Great, was the son of Amyntor of Pella, the capital of Macedonia. He accompanied Alexander in his expedition against the Persians; and yet it is not a little surprising that he held no military command till after the battle of Arbela, b.c. 331, when he was appointed leader of a squadron of horse. (Arrian, iii. 15.) From this time his advancement to superior command was rapid, for we find him next year, b.c. 330, in the expedition against the

---

1 Gesta Rhomanorum, cum applicationibus moralizatis ac mysticis, f. xiii. xxvii. edit. Hagenau, 1508, 4to. 2 Halle's Ancient Scottish Poems, p. 279. Edinb. 1770, 12mo. 3 Edinb. 1632, 4to. This edition was printed for the Maitland Club. 4 Pinkerton's List of the Scottish Poets, p. c. Parthians and Hyrcanians, hipparchos, or colonel, of a regiment. (iii. 27.) In the campaign against the inhabitants of Sogdiana, he was appointed to the command of a brigade, and was then sent with Perdiccas into the country of Peucelaistis, on the banks of the Indus, where he took the chief town. (iv. 16, 22, 23.) After the battle in which Porus was defeated on the banks of the Hydaspes, &c. 327, Hephæstio was sent with a body of troops against another Porus, who reigned over the country along the banks of the Hydraotes. (v. 21; Diodor. xvii. 21.) As a reward for his services, he received from his royal friend Drypetis, the daughter of Darius, last king of Persia. (Arrian, vii. 4.) But he did not long survive the successful termination of Alexander's exploits; for being taken ill at Ecbatana, where all had assembled to return thanks to the gods with more than ordinary solemnity for their success, Hephæstio suddenly died, to the inconsolable grief of Alexander. (vii. 14; Diodor. Sic. xvii. 114, 115.)

HEPHÆSTIO, a grammarian of Alexandria, in Egypt, who lived A.D. 150, and is supposed to have been one of the preceptors of Ælius Verus, mentioned by Julius Capitolinus in his life of that emperor. (Vit. Veri, c. 2.) Suidas states that he was a voluminous writer, though chiefly on grammar and metres; but, of all his works, nothing has been preserved except an Elementary Treatise on Metres. (Ερμηνεία των μετρών και συναρτήσεων.) Though this work is by no means complete, nor always correct, still it is valuable as being the only one on that subject which has reached us. It has been illustrated by numerous scholia; and there is an introduction to it (προλογος), ascribed to the celebrated Longinus, which was first published by Hudson in the preface to his edition of the work (προλογος), Oxford, 1710. The principal editions of this work of Hephæstio are, Florent. ap. Junct. 1526; Par. ap. Turnebum, with scholia, 1553; Trajecti ad Rhenum, ap. Pauw, 1726; but the best is by Gaisford, Oxford, 1810.

HEPTHHEMIMERIS (composed of ἑπτά, seven, ἡμίσημος, half, and πέρι, part), in the Greek and Latin poetry, a sort of verse consisting of three feet and a syllable; that is, of seven half feet.

HEPTHHEMIMERIS, or Hephæstimeris, is also a caesura after the third foot; that is, on the seventh half-foot. It is a rule that this syllable, though it be short in itself, must be made long on account of the caesura, or to render it an hēpthemimeris.