Iccus
(
*)/Ikkos).
1. Of Tarentum, a distinguished athlete and teacher of gymnastics. Pausanias (
6.10.2) calls him the best gymnast of his age, that is, of the period about Ol. 77, or B. C. 470; and Plato also mentions him with great praise (
de Leg. viii. p. 840,
Protag. p. 316, with the Schol.; comp. Lucian,
Quomodo Hist. sit conscrib. 35; Aelian,
Ael. VH 11.3).
He looked upon temperance as the fruit of gymnastic exercises, and was himself a model of temperance. Iamblichus (
Vit. Pythag. 36) calls him a Pythagorean, and, according to Themistius (
Orat. xxiii. p. 350, ed. Dindorf), Plato reckoned him among the sophists.