Pollux
(
Πολυδεύκης).
1.
See
Dioscuri.
2.
Iulius (
Ἰούλιος Πολυδεύκης).
A Greek rhetorician, a native of Naucratis in Egypt, in the latter half of the second century
A.D., tutor of the emperor Commodus, from whom he received an appointment as a public teacher
in Athens. His contemporaries, such as Lucian, ridiculed him for his small capacity. Lucian
is supposed to have attacked him in his
Rhetorum Praeceptor (
Ῥητόρων Διδάσκαλος), his
Lexiphanes, and his
De Saltatione, chap. xxxiii. We possess from his hand a dictionary (
Ὀνομαστικόν) in ten books, dedicated to his pupil. This is
arranged, not in the order of the alphabet, but according to subjects. It spite of all its
confusion and its want of critical acumen, it throws much light on the language, literature,
and antiquities of Greece. It has been edited by I. Bekker
(Berlin, 1846). See
Lexicon.