Nicopiianes

a Greek painter, who appears, from the way in which he is mentioned by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 35.10. s. 36.23), to have been a younger contemporary or successor of Apelles. Pliny says that in beauty few could compare with him; but it must have been that meretricious kind of beauty, into which the finished grace of Apelles might easily be degraded by an imitation, for Polemon numbered him among the πορνογράφοι. (Athen. 13.567b.) In apparent contradiction to this judgment are the words of Pliny (l. e.): " Cothurnus ei et gravitas artis." But Sillig proposes to amend the passage by altering the punctuation, thus: "Annumeratur his et Nicophanes, elegans et concinnus, ita ut venustate ei pauci comparentur: coliturnuts ei et gravits arts multum a Zeuxide et Apelle abest." A simpler, and perhaps equally satisfactory explanation is, that this is one of the many examples of Pliny's want of the power of discrimination.

P. S.]