Zealots, a Jewish political group in the 1st cent. ce. According to *Josephus the Zealots were one of the three factions who controlled *Jerusalem in the last years of the Jewish revolt against Rome (ce 66–70). In 68 the Zealots attacked the existing leaders of the rebel Jewish state, seized control of the Temple and, despite reverses at the hands of other Jewish factions, maintained an independent role until the capture of Jerusalem by *Titus in ce 70.Josephus' depiction of the excesses of the Zealots when in power in Jerusalem is deeply hostile (BJ 4. 128 ff.), but he none the less described their leaders as priests of distinguished lineage (BJ 5. 6). Their supporters included country people from northern Judaea. They signalled a break from the previous leadership in Jerusalem by execution of political opponents and by appointing a high priest from a non-traditional family. The name zēlōtēs was apparently a self-designation (BJ 4.
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Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton and Stephen Mitchell
Zela (mod. Zile), an ancient temple-state of *Pontus with a large and fertile territory and a considerable population of sacred slaves (*hierodouloi) attached to the land and to the service of Anaitis (*Anahita) and ‘the Persian deities’. Here *Mithradates VI defeated C. *Valerius Triarius in 67 and Caesar *Pharnaces II in 47
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Malcolm Schofield
Zeno (1), of Elea is portrayed by *Plato(1) (Prm. 127b) as the pupil and friend of *Parmenides, and junior to him by 25 years. Their fictional meeting with a ‘very young’ *Socrates (ibid.) gives little basis for firm chronology. We may conclude only that Zeno was active in the early part of the 5th cent.
The most famous of Zeno's arguments are the four paradoxes about motion paraphrased by *Aristotle (Ph. 6. 9), which have intrigued thinkers down to Bertrand Russell in our era. The Achilles paradox proposes that a quicker can never overtake a slower runner who starts ahead of him, since he must always first reach the place the slower has already occupied. His task is in truth an infinite sequence of tasks, and can therefore never be completed. The Arrow paradox argues that in the present a body in motion occupies a place just its own size, and is therefore at rest. But since it is in the present throughout its movement, it is always at rest. The Dichotomy raises the same issues about infinite divisibility as the Achilles; the Arrow and the Stadium (an obscure puzzle about the relative motion of bodies) are perhaps directed against the implicit assumption of indivisible minima.
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Julia Annas
Zeno (2), of Citium (*Cyprus), (335–263 bce), founder of *Stoicism. He came to Athens in 313 and is said to have studied with or been influenced by various philosophers, notably *Crates (2) the Cynic, *Antisthenes(1) the Socratic, and the Academics *Xenocrates (1) and particularly *Polemon(2), who seems to have stressed the notion of nature. Zeno taught in the *Stoa Poecile (‘Painted Colonnade’) which gave its name to Stoicism. He was well respected at Athens, and in old age, around 276 bce, was invited by *Antigonus(2) Gonatas to go to his court, but, according to Diogenes Laertius 7.9, he did not go, but sent two students, *Persaeus and Philonides of Thebes, instead.Zeno's writings established Stoicism as a set of ideas articulated into three parts: *logic (and theory of knowledge), *physics (and metaphysics), and ethics. See the general account of Zeno's School and its doctrines under Stoicism. The early writings of Zeno stressed that even basic moral rules could have justified exceptions. In Zeno's Republic an ideal community, radically rejecting convention, was developed.
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Julia Annas
Zeno (3) of *Tarsus, Stoic (See
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Kenneth S. Sacks
Zeno (4) was a politician who wrote a history of Rhodes from the beginnings to his own times. *Polybius (1) used it (along with the work of *Antisthenes(2)), although he criticized its patriotic exaggeration (Polyb. 16. 14); Zeno's tradition may also appear in *Diodorus (3).
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William David Ross and Dirk Obbink
Epicurean (See epicurus), pupil of the Epicurean Apollodorus and probably head of the school between him and *Phaedrus(3). *Cicero heard him lecture in Athens in 79–78, and found him querulous and irascible in manner and style: not only did he heap abuse on contemporaries, but he called *Socrates the scurra Atticus (the Attic equivalent of a Roman festive buffoon), and never referred to *Chrysippus except in the feminine gender (Nat. D. 1. 93). No writings by Zeno have been found among the Epicurean library excavated at *Herculaneum, but *Philodemus, whose writings were found there in abundance, studied with him at Athens, and boasts that he was a devoted ἐραστής (admirer) of Zeno while he lived, and an indefatigable ὑμνητής, ‘laudator’ i.e. ‘eulogist’ of him after his death. Philodemus' On Speaking Frankly (Περὶ παρρησίος) is a selection from Zeno's teachings, and Philodemus' On Signs (Περὶ σημείων) reiterates lectures by Zeno and his disputes with adversaries of his own day.
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Julia Annas
Zeno (6) of *Sidon, Stoic (See
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Heinrich von Staden
Zeno (7) (2nd cent. bce), a physician of the ‘school’ of *Herophilus, participated in the Herophilean traditions of innovative pulse theory, *pharmacology, and Hippocratic lexicography (see hippocrates(2)). He achieved more lasting prominence, however, by ‘decoding’ (and attributing to Hippocrates himself) certain letter symbols (χαρακτῆρες), such as Δ̨ΕΗΘ or ΞΖΘ, found in clusters of four or five at the conclusion of individual case histories in some *Alexandrian manuscripts of the Hippocratic work Epidemics 3. Members of the Empiricist school of medicine (see medicine, § 5.3), including *Heraclides (4) of Tarentum, fiercely attacked Zeno's views about the provenance and meaning of the symbols. Some Empiricists, attributing the invention of the symbols to Mnemon of Side, charged Zeno with altering the marks whenever he could not find a plausible interpretation; another Empiricist, Apollonius Byblas, questioned the authenticity of the symbols, claiming that Zeno's version of the symbols in Epidemics 3, case-history 8, could not be found in any of three copies of the Hippocratic treatise that he had examined.
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John Frederick Drinkwater
Zenobia (Septimia), or in *AramaicBath Zabbai, one of the great women of classical antiquity (PLRE 1. 990 f.). The second wife of *Septimius Odaenathus of *Palmyra, on his death in ce 267, in suspicious circumstances, she secured power for herself in the name of her young son, *Septimius Vaballathus. As long as Zenobia kept the east secure, *Gallienus and *Claudius (II) Gothicus were prepared to accept her regime, including its bestowal upon Vaballathus of his father's Roman titles, and hence of the claim to be more than just king of Palmyra. However, in 270 Zenobia exploited the political instability that followed the death of Claudius to expand beyond Syria by taking over Egypt and much of Asia Minor, and further to enhance Vaballathus' Roman titles, while continuing to recognize *Aurelian as emperor. When Aurelian finally moved against her in 272, her forces failed to stop him at *Antioch (1) and *Emesa, and—now calling her son Augustus and herself Augusta—she was cornered in Palmyra.
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G. J. Toomer
Zenodorus, mathematician (fl. 200
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John Francis Lockwood, Robert Browning, and Nigel Wilson
Zenodotus of Ephesus (b. c. 325 bce), pupil of *Philitas, became the first head of the Library at *Alexandria (c. 284) and undertook the classification of the Greek epic and lyric poets, some of whom he edited.(1) Lexicography: Homeric Glossary (Γλῶσσαι), which was in alphabetical order. There was also a collection of words used in Greek dialects. (2) Editions (διορθώσεις). His recension of *Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, in which the poems may have been divided into twenty-four books for the first time, represented the first scientific attempt to get back to the original Homeric text by the collation of several manuscripts. He marked lines of the genuineness of which he felt doubt with a newly-invented sign, the obelus. Some modern critics have accused him of altering the text drastically; more recent research suggests that this picture of an arbitrary and subjective manipulator of the text is unfair. (3) He produced also recensions of .
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Alan H. Griffiths
Zephyrus (W), Boreas (N), and Notus (S) winds catalogued by *Hesiod at Theog.378–80. But epic may conceive of them, as convenient, either as minor gods who feast in their own palaces (Il. 23. 200 ff.) or as unruly elemental forces who are controlled by *Aeolus(1) from his floating prison-island and can be confined in a leather bag (Od.
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Arnold Wycombe Gomme, Theodore John Cadoux, and P. J. Rhodes
Zeugitai (from zeugos, ‘yoke’), at Athens, Solon's third property class, said (perhaps by false analogy with *pentakosiomedimnoi) to comprise men whose land yielded between 200 and 300 medimnoi of corn or the equivalent in other produce (the other three classes were *pentakosiomedimnoi, *hippeis, *thētes). The name identifies them as those who served in the army in close ranks (cf. Plut.Pel.23), i.e. as *hoplites, or, less probably, as those rich enough to own a yoke of oxen. Despite recent doubts, this class probably included many of the farmers and craftsmen of *Attica, and provided the bulk of the hoplite army. Under Solon's constitution the zeugitai enjoyed full citizen rights except that they were not admitted to the highest magistracies (see
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Brian Herbert Warmington
The name, of unknown origin, sometimes applied to the northern part of the province of Africa (see africa, roman), centred on *Carthage. It is used by *Pliny(1) (HN 5. 23), but then seems to have gone out of use, to reappear in the 4th cent. when it was occasionally used of Africa (Proconsularis), now much smaller in area after the division of the old province of Africa by *Diocletian.
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Margaret Stephana Drower, Eric William Gray, and Susan Mary Sherwin-White
Zeugma (mod. Bâlkîs, opposite Bîrecik), in *Syria on the right bank of the *Euphrates at its chief crossing, about 112 km. (70 miles) below *Samosata. Twin colonies Seleuceia (right bank) and Apamea (left bank) were founded by *Seleucus (1) I (PlinHN 5. 86), which came to be known by the generic name Zeugma (‘junction’), and gave Seleucus control of the lower river crossings of the Euphrates. It is possible that Apamea was merely a suburb of Seleuceia. It was here (in 221) that *Antiochus (3) III met his own bride, *Laodice(3), daughter of *Mithradates II of *Pontus, on her journey from Pontus and celebrated the royal wedding (Polyb. 5. 43. 1–4).
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Fritz Graf
Zeus, the main divinity of the Greek pantheon (see olympian gods; religion, greek) and the only major Greek god whose *Indo-European origin is undisputed. His name is connected with Latin Iu-p̣-piter, Rigveda Dyaus pitar, derived from the root †diéu-, ‘day (as opposed to night)’ (Lat. dies), (clear) sky’; as the Rigveda and Latin parallels suggest, his role as father, not in a theogonical or anthropogonical sense, but as having the power of a father in a patriarchal system, is Indo-European too. Thus in *Homer, Zeus is both πατήρ, ‘father’, and ἄναξ, ‘king’ or ‘lord’. His cult is attested in bronze-age Greece (see religion, minoan and mycenaean); the Linear B texts (see mycenaean language) attest several sanctuaries (*Pylos, Chania) and, at Minoan Cnossus, a month name or a festival, if in fact the Mycenaean names of months derive from festivals (KN Fp 5, 1). Another Cnossian text attests the epiclesis Dictaeus, Zeus of Mt. Dicte (KN Fp 1, 2), which remained an important place of cult in the first millennium. A text from Chania gives a common cult of Zeus and *Dionysus, a Pylos text (PY Tn 316, 8–10) one of Zeus, *Hera, and (a figure later unknown) Drimios son of Zeus, which suggests Hera as the consort of Zeus, as in later mythology.
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Karim Arafat
Although 8th-cent. figurines may represent Zeus, he does not assume a type until early Archaic, when he strides with thunderbolt and, rarely, eagle. In the Classical period, Zeus is quieter, often seated and with a sceptre: the prime example is *Phidias' cult statue at *Olympia, familiar from literature (esp. Paus. 5. 11), coins, gems, and echoes on vases. The type continues in the Hellenistic period.Zeus participates in many scenes. The east pediments of Olympia and the *Parthenon centred on him. He fights in the Gigantomachy (see giants) from Attic and S. Italian Archaic and Classical vases to the Hellenistic Pergamum altar frieze. On Classical vases and sculpture, his pursuits include Aegina (the eponymous heroine of *Aegina, see eponymoi) and *Ganymede. His transformations occur, particularly in depictions of his seduction of Europa from early Archaic, and *Leda from late Classical. He is common on coins. Zeus was favoured by *Alexander(3) the Great and some Roman emperors, especially *Hadrian (see olympieum).
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Zeuxis (1), painter, of *Heraclea(1) in Lucania, pupil of Neseus of Thasos or Damophilus of Himera. *Pliny(1) dates him 397 bce, rejecting 424. *Quintilian dates both him and *Parrhasius to the *Peloponnesian War. In *Plato(1)'s Protagoras (dramatic date about 430) he is young and a newcomer to Athens. His rose-wreathed *Eros is mentioned in Ar. Ach.991–2 (425). He painted Alcmena for Acragas before 406, and *Archelaus (2)'s palace between 413 and 399. He ‘entered the door opened by Apollodorus and stole his art’; he added the use of highlights to shading, and *Lucian praises in the *Centaur family (an instance of the unusual subjects which Zeuxis preferred) the subtle gradation of colour from the human to the animal body of the female Centaur; his paintings of grapes were said to have deceived birds; he said that if he had painted the boy carrying the grapes better, the birds would have been frightened off. His figures lacked the ethos (character) of *Polygnotus, although his Penelope was morality itself, and his Helen (for Croton or Acragas) an ideal picture compiled from several models; pathos (emotion) rather than ethos distinguished the Autoboreas with *Titan look and wild hair, and the *Menelaus (1) drenched in tears.
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Heinrich von Staden
Zeuxis (2), a physician of the Empiricist school (see medicine, § 5.3; probably 2nd cent. bce), wrote commentaries on all the ‘authentic’ works of *Hippocrates (2) (according to *Galen), often taking issue with other interpreters, including Herophileans (see herophilus) and fellow-Empiricists (e.g. Glaucias). His commentaries offered variants, emendations, glosses, and historical but partisan accounts of critical controversies, such as the one triggered by the Herophilean *Zeno(7)'s interpretation of the mysterious symbols in some copies of the Hippocratic Epidemics.
