Simon HIPPIATRICUS
10. HIPPIATRICUS s. DE ARTE VETERINARIA SCRIPTOR. Several ancient authors refer to or quote from Simon, a writer on horses, and, in most cases, in terms which show that his thorough acquaintance with the subject had rendered him quite an authority on such matters.
He is first mentioned by Xenophon (
De Re Equestri, 100.1.1, 3, 100.11.6), according to whom he dedicated the brazen statue of a horse, in the Eleusinium at Athens and had engraved his own works (
τὰ ἑαυτοῦ ἔργα) on the base.
This statue is also noticed by Hierocles, the veterinarian [HIEROCLES], whose description of the sculpture on the base does not agree with that of Xenophon (
Artis Veterinariae Libri duo, ed. Basil. 1537, p. 3).
It is probable that Simon was an Athenian, from the place in which his offering was deposited; and by Suidas, who has quoted Simon (
s. v. Τρίλλη), he is expressly called an Athenian.
According to Suidas, in one of the above places (
s. v. Κίμων), he was banished from Athens, by ostracism, on account of his having committed incest.
Of the age of Simon we can only form an approximate estimate.
He was not earlier than the painter Micon, who lived about B. C. 460 [MICON, artists, 1], for he criticised the works of that artist (Pollux,
Onomasticon, lib. 2.69); and he wrote earlier than Xenophon (who, as we see below, cites him), but how much earlier we have no means of knowing, except that his treatise had already acquired a good reputation.
Works
According to Suidas (
l.c.) Simon wrote,
Ἱππο̈ιατρικόν,
De Arte Veterinaria ; and if, which is probable, he is also mentioned by Suidas in two other places (
s. vv. Ἄγυρτος and
Κίμων), where, however, the present reading is
Κίμων (Cimon), he also wrote
Ἱπποσκοπικόν,
De Equorum Inspectione. It may be doubted whether these were distinct works, or merely chapters or divisions of a more general treatise,
Περὶ ἱππικῆς, the title by which the works of Simon are cited by Xenophon.
