Menecrătes

, a physician of Syracuse, famous for his vanity and arrogance. He was generally accompanied by some of his patients, whose disorders he had cured. He disguised one in the habit of Apollo, and the other in that of Æsculapius, while he reserved for himself the title and name of Jupiter, whose power was extended over those inferior deities. He crowned himself like the master of the gods; and in a letter which he wrote to Philip king of Macedon, he styled himself in these words, Me nec rates Jupiter to king Philip, greeting . The Maced on i an monarch answered, Philip to Me nec rates, greeting, and better sense . Philip also invited him to one of his feasts, but when the meats were served up, a table was put separate for the physician, on which he was served only with perfumes and frankincense, like the father of the gods. This entertainment displeased Me nec rates; he remembered that he was a mortal, and hurried away from the company. He lived about 360 years before the christian era. The book which he wrote on cures is lost. Ælian , Varia Hist or i a , bk. 10 , ch. 51 .— Athenæus , bk. 7 , ch. 13 .――One of the generals of Seleucus.――A physician under Tiberius.――A Greek historian of Nysa, disciple to Aristarchus, B.C. 119. Strabo , bk. 16 .――An Ephesian architect who wrote on agriculture. Varro , de Re Rustic a .――An historian.――A man appointed to settle the disputes of the A then i ans and Lacedæmonians in the eighth year of the Peloponnesian war. His father’s name was Amphidorus.――An officer in the fleet of Pompey the son of Pompey the Great.