The Theory of Moral Sentiments - Adam Smith [249]
Epaphroditus (1st c. AD), former slave of Nero, secretary to Nero and Domitian, and himself master of Epictetus.
Epictetus (1st-2nd c. AD), Roman Stoic philosopher whose life and writings are principally dedicated to matters of practical morality; he wrote nothing, dedicating himself exclusively to teaching, but his lessons were transcribed by his student Arrian under the title Discourses.
Epicurus (341-270 BC), Greek philosopher whose hedonistic moral philosophy was built on the foundations of a materialist metaphysics derived from earlier atomistic theories.
Eugene, Prince of Savoy (1663-1736), French military commander whose chief renown came from his service to the Austrian state and the Hapsburgs in their battles against the Ottoman Empire and in the War of Spanish Succession.
Eumenes (ca. 361-316 BC), Macedonian military commander; a favorite of Alexander, he was one of the chief generals vying for supremacy in the wake of Alexander’s death, but was defeated by Antigonus at Gabiene.
Euripides (5th c. BC), with Sophocles and Aeschylus, one of the three principal dramatists of the golden age of Athenian tragedy; among his nineteen extant plays are several dealing with figures and themes with which Smith engaged, including Hippolytus.
Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier, Sieur de (1657-1757), French author and key figure of the early Enlightenment; renowned for his dialogues on astronomy and Copernican cosmology (Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, 1686), his defense of the moderns against the ancients, and his éloges of his fellow members of the French Academy of Sciences.
Frederick II (Frederick the Great; 1712-1786), king of Prussia from 1740 to his death, and renowned for his success as a military commander, his study and patronage of Enlightenment philosophers, and an approach to domestic administration that combined moderate liberal reforms with strong centralized authority (so-called enlightened absolutism).
Genghis Khan (ca. 1162-1227), Mongol emperor from 1206 to his death; at its height his empire stretched from modern China to the Middle East, and was reputed for the brutal destruction that accompanied its expansion.
Gracchi (Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus; ca. 164-133 BC) and his younger brother Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (154-121 BC) were Roman tribunes who advocated moderate legal reforms that generally benefited the plebs they represented.
Gray, Thomas (1716-1771), English poet greatly admired by Smith; chiefly known for his Odes and his Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard (1751).
Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645), Dutch theorist of natural jurisprudence; his De Jure Belli ac Pacis (Of the Rights of War and Peace, 1625) was a preeminent and influential text of Protestant natural law, much admired by Smith, and he also wrote a number of influential theological texts in defense of revealed religion, including Of the Truth of the Christian Religion (1627).
Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632), king of Sweden; a highly successful military commander during the Thirty Years’ War, he pioneered several innovations in military techniques.
Hercules, Greek hero famed for the Twelve Labors that displayed his immense physical strength, and the subject of tragedies by Euripides and Sophocles.
Hippolytus, Greek tragic figure and subject of several tragedies ancient and modern that recount his refusal of his stepmother Phaedra’s illicit love and the death he suffered following the intervention of Neptune, to whom his enraged father Theseus had appealed.
Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679), English philosopher whose vast interests and influence on scientific and political thinking were communicated in a translation of Thucydides (1629), treatises on human nature and political philosophy (De cive, pub. 1642; Leviathan, pub. 1651) and an account of the English civil war (Behemoth, pub. 1679); the Scottish Enlightenment tended to regard him as an exponent of metaphysical materialism and ethical egoism.
Homer (ca. 8th c. BC), Greek epic poet