Philo'xenus
a painter of Eretria, the disciple of Nicomachus, whose speed in painting he imitated and even surpassed, having discovered some new and rapid methods of colouring (such, at least, appears to be the meaning of Pliny's words,
breviores etianmnum quasdam picturas compendiarias invenit,
H. N. 35.10. s. 36.22). Nevertheless, Pliny states that there was a picture of his which was inferior to none, of a battle of
Alexander with Dareius, which he painted for king Cassander.
A similar subject is represented in a celebrated mosaic found at Pompeii, which, however, the best critics think to have been copied, more probably, from Helena's picture of the battle of Issus (see Müller,
Archidol. d. Kunst, § 163, n. 6).
As the disciple of Nicomachus, who flourished about B. C. 360, and as the painter of the battle above-mentioned, Philoxenus must have flourished under
Alexander, about B. C. 330 and onwards.
The words of Pliny, "Cassandro
reyi," if taken literally, would show that the date of his great picture must have been after B. C. 317 or 315, for from one of those two years the reign of Cassander must be dated. (Clinton,
F. H. vol. ii. p. 236.)
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