A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TIMOMACHUS. TIMON. 1143
meditating the murder of her children, but still TIMON (TCtowY). 1. The son of Timarchus of
hesitating between the impulses of revenge for her Phlius, a philosopher of the sect of the Sceptics, and
own wrongs and of pity for her children. A general a celebrated writer of the species of satiric poems
notion of the composition is probably preserved in called Silli (rlNAol), flourished in the reign of
a painting on the same subject found at Pompeii Ptolemy Philadelphus, about B. c. 279, and on(Mlus. Borb. v. 33; Pompeii, vol. ii. p. 190), and wards. A pretty full account of his life is prethe type of Medea is seen in a figure found at served by Diogenes La/rtius, from the first book
Herculaneum (Antiq. di Ercol. i. 13; Mus. Borb. of a work on the Silli (Ev rc, 7rrpc6rTc r&v e's robr
x. 21), and on some gems. (Lippert,Supplez. i. 93; rAhhovus VroMZV7uza/wv) by Apollonides of Nicaea;
Panofka, Annal. d. Inst. i. p. 243; Miiller, Archiaol. and some particulars are quoted by Diogenes from
d. Kunst, ~ 208, n. 2.) A minute description of Antigonus of Carystus, and from Sotion (Diog.
the emotions expressed in the artist's llledea is Laert. ix. c. 12. ~~ 109-115). Being left an
given in the following epigrams from the Greek orphan while still young, he was at first a choreutes
Anthology. (Anth. Plan. iv. 135, 136, p. 317; in the theatre, but he abandoned this profession
Brunck, Anal. vol. iii. p. 214, vol. ii. p. 174; for the study of philosophy, and, having removed
Jacobs, Anth. Pal. Append. vol. ii. p. 667.) The to Megara, he spent some time with Stilpon, and
first is anonymous: -- then he returned home and married. He next went
T aopy al ov ette to Elis with his wife, and heard Pyrrhon, whose
MTsXvaler TLe/Lcd e o'pov r aePYW' i tenets he adopted, so far at least as his restless
_M- sb'c,,'rICVcV sic j4pov pEe icEe aW genius and satirical scepticism permitted him to?ri pcv -Yhp avrsKbe vo z' irpos' I YaYi follow any master. During his residence at Elis,
O'C;Ei Kair ICrEIVIEn $OUV o/0ALPJ' U rTEICEe. he had children born to him, the eldest of whom,
named Xanthus, he instructed in the art of medicine and trained in his philosophical principles,
ThV Aho&v Mioeiav o',' e'ypacpe T o/-uadX-V X-P, so that he might be his successor and repre(AcT teal r'IevosE havTyeOehAcoE/lvav, sentative (cKal da3oXov,'roVT fou icaTerXTre; but
pupiov &paTo d'dxOov,'lv' Oiea to6rab Xapraip, these words may, however, mean that he left him
ai r-b Aeq, eds Op-ydV,eie, I'b P' EiS EAsov. heir to his property). Driven again from Elis by
&ycpqw' P r7Xpwoeev, o0pa r'7rov. E'v yap arelXA straitened circumstances, he spent some time on
8aKpuoV, ev' e'AEih avqo's a'vaT'pe'EraL. the Hellespont and the Propontis, and taught at
K'ApICeL' ai /C4Ah rLs, EYa eopoS' aqua ae EKVe Chalcedon as a sophist with such success that
e7rpe7re M esip, Ks Xepl T,~oPdxov. he realised a fortune. He then removed to
Athens, where he lived until his death, with the
There is a similar epigram by Ausonius (No. 129). exception of a short residence at Thebes. Among
From these descriptions it appears that the great the great men, with whom he became personally
art of Timomachus consisted in the expression of acquainted in the course of his travels, which prothat conflict of emotions which precedes the perpe- bably extended more widely about the Aegean and
tration of some dreadful act, and in exciting in the the Levant than we are informed, were the kings
ininds of the spectators the corresponding emotions Antigonus amld Ptolemy Philadelphus. He is said
of terror and pity, which are the end aimed at by to have assisted Alexander Aetolus and Homerus
all tragic exhibitions; and, at the same time, in in the composition of their tragedies, and to have
avoiding the excess of horror, by representing, not been the teacher of Aratus (Suid. s. a. "Apaeos).
the deed itself, but only the conception of it in the " These indications," says Mr. Clinton, " mark his
mind. Plutarch mentions the painting as an ex- time. He might have heard Stilpo at Megara
ample of one of those works of art, in 4which un- twenty-five years before the reign of Philadelphus"
natural deeds (7rpdSets &ioro) are represented, (Fast. Hellen. vol. iii. s. aa. 279, 272). He died
and which, while we abhor the deed, we praise on at the age of almost ninety. Among his pupils
account of the skill shown in representing it in a were Dioscurides of Cyprus, Nicolochus of Rhodes,
becoming manner (TimV rEXYVY,, el 1/AEXl71TaL 7rpoa7q- Euphranor of Seleuceia, and Praylus of the Tread.
tcOVWrs tb UroKreieEvov, Plut. de And. Poet. 3, p. Timon appears to have been endowed by nature
18, b.). There are also two other epigrams upon with a powerful and active mind, and with that
the picture in the Greek Anthology (Jacobs, 1. c. quick perception of the follies of nlen, which beNos. 137, 138), from the former of which we trays its possessor into a spirit of universal distrust
learn that it was painted in encaustic; and, from both of men and truths, so as to make him a sceptic
the connection in which Timomachus is mentioned in philosophy and a satirist in every thing. Acby Pliny, it would seem that this was the case cording to Diogenes, Timon had that physical
with all his works. defect, which some have fancied that they have
(2.) His Ajax resembled his Medeca in the con- found often accompanied by such a spirit as his,
flict of emotions which it expressed. It repre- and which at least must have given greater force
sented the hero in his madness, meditating the act to its utterances; he was a one-eyed man; and
of suicide. It is described by Philostratus (Vit. he used even to make a jest of his own defect,
Apollon. ii. ] 0), in an epigram in the Greek An- calling himself Cyclops. Some other examples of
tlhology (Jacobs, 1. c. No. 83, p. 648), and by Ovid his bitter sarcasms are recorded by Diogenes; one
Triist. ii. 528). of which is worth qoting as a maxim in criticism:
(3. ) His other works are mentioned by Pliny being asked by Aratus how to obtain the pure text
in the following words: -- " Timomachi aeque lau- of Homer, he replied, " If we could find the old
dantur Ores/es, Iphigenia in Taunis, Lecythion agi- copies, and not those with modern emendations."
litatis exercitator, Cognatio nobilium, Palliati, quos He is also said to have been fond of retirement,
dicturos pinxit, alterum stantem, alterum sedentem; and of gardening; but Diogenes introduces this
praecipue tamen ars ei favisse in Gosyone visa est." statement and some others in such a way as to
(Plin. II. N. xxxv. 11. s. 40. ~ 30.) [P. S.] suggest a doubt whether they ought to be referred
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