Philo

, a Jewish writer of Alexandria, A.D. 40, sent as amba ador from his nation to Caligula. He was unsucce ful in his emba y, of which he wrote an entertaining account; and the emperor, who wished to be worshipped as a god, expre ed his di atisfaction with the Jews, because they refused to place his statues in their temples. He was so happy in his expre ions, and elegant in his variety, that he has been called the Jewish Plato, and the book which he wrote on the sufferings of the Jews in the reign of Caius, met with such unbounded applause in the Roman senate, where he read it publicly, that he was permitted to consecrate it in the public libraries. His works were divided into three parts, of which the first related to the creation of the world, the second spoke of sacred history, and in the third the author made mention of the laws and customs of the Jewish nation. The best edition of Philo is that of Mangey, 2  vols. , folio, London, 1742.――A man who fell in love with his daughter, called Proser pine, as she was bathing. He had by her a son, Mercurius Trismegistus.――A man who wrote an account of a journey to Arabia.――A philosopher who followed the doctrines of Carneades, B.C. 100.――Another philosopher of Athens, tutor to Cicero.――A grammarian in the first century.――An architect of Byzantium, who flourished about three centuries before the christian era. He built a dock at Athens, where ships were drawn in safety, and protected from storms. Cicero , On Oratory , bk. 1 , ch. 14 .――A Greek christian writer, whose work was edited at Rome, 4to, 1772.――A dialectic philosopher, 260 B.C.