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

THEOCRITUS. THEOCRITUS. 1031
p. 299, where the reference is defective), on the fate of his son would account for his enmity
authority of the Latin Version of Avicenna (v. 2. against Alexander. A very bitter epigram upon
~ 2, vol. ii; p. 320, ed. Venet. 1595). The printed Aristotle, by Theocritus, is preserved, in separate
Arabic edition has O which is an portions, by Diogenes Lairtins (v. 11), Plutarch
(Op. AMor. p. 303, c.), and Eusebius (Praep. Ev.
error. The Latin translator (Gerardus Cremonen- xv. 1), and is contained in the Greek Anthology.
(Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 184; Jacobs, Anth. Graec.
sis?) appears to have read in his MS. AL I tj' vol. i. p. 117, comp. vol. xiii. p. 958). Numerous
or, which is not a bad cojecture, but examples of his satirical wit might be quoted fiom
or ~.j;~~,~ which is not a bad conjecture, but the ancient authors: as a specimen we may menwhich is also wrong. Sontheimer, in his " Zusam- tion his description of the speeches of Aaxienes
mengesetzte Heilmittel der Araber" (p. 218), has "a stream of words, but sense drop by drop"
(AEWv /.EVi 7WrTa/jubs, yoi s'erahaeyL.6s, Stob.
clumsily confounded the word with es and Serm. xxxvi. p. 217, ed. Gesner, comp. Ath. i.
p. 21, c.; and, for other examples, see Stob. Sera.
reads H~ippocrates. The true reading is probably P.21, c.; and, for other exanpies, see Stoh. Sem.
reads ocates The true reading is probably ii., iv., xxi., xxxviii., lxxxi., cxxiii.; Ath. viii.
~'a' Naucratis, as appears from Galen, p. 344, b.; Plut. Mor. pp. 534, c., 631, f.). At
last he was put to death by Antigonus Gonatas, in
De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. iv. 8, vol. xii. p. 764, revenge for a jest upon the king's single eye, though
from which work the passage in question (as also perhaps he might have escaped, if he had not
many other medical formulae in the same chapter included the king's cook also in his witticism.
of Avicenna) is taken. Galen attributes the medi- That functionary, the story goes, having been decine to o NavKpaTr't7s, " the native of Naucratis " spatched by Antigonus, to require the orator's
in Egypt; but who is the individual thus desig- attendance, "I perceive," replied Theocritus, " that
naoted, the Writer is at present unable to deter- you mean to serve me up raw to the Cyclops."
mine. [W. A. G.] " Yes! and without your head," retorted the cook,
THEOCRINES (OeoeKpivVs), the person and repeated the conversation to Antigonus. who
against whom Demosthenes spoke in one of his at. once put Theocritus to death. (Plut. Mot. p.
extant orations (p. 1322, foll. ed. Reiske), which 633, c.; Macrob. Sat. vii. 3.) This must have
is, however, ascribed by Dionysitis of Halicarnas- happened before B. c. 301, when Antigonus fell
sus to Deinarchus. (Dein. 10.) in battle.
THEO'CRITUS, an actor, the dancing-master The works of Theocritus, mentioned by Suidas,
of Caracalla, under whom he enjoyed high honour are Xpesae, 0reTopia ALr/els, and ErteroAal aavleaand exercised unbounded influence. In the year alat, to which Eudocia (p. 232) adds, Xo-yoi 7rav?A. D. 216 he was despatched at the head of an yuvpiKol. The Xpe7al, that is, clever sayings, were
army against the Armenians, and sustained a probably, as C. Miiller suggests, not a work written
signal defeat. (Dion Cass. lxxvii. 21.) [W.R.] by Theocritus himself, but a collection, made by
THEO'CR1TUS (OeOKpLTro). 1. Of Chios, an some one else, of the witticisms ascribed to him.
orator, sophist, and perhaps an historian, in the By Ei7ro'rohal aavuao'fai is not meant, as Vossius
time of Alexander the Great, was'the disciple of calls them, epistolae admzirabiles, but de rebus miraMetrodorus, who was the disciple of Isocrates. bilibus. About the Libyan history there is perhaps
(Suid. s. v.) He was contemporary with Ephorus some mistake, as the name of Theocritus might
and Theopompus; and the latter was his fellow- easily be confounded with that of Theocrestus,
citizen and political opponent, Theopompus belong- whose Libyan history we know. It is true that
irlg to the aristocratic and Macedonian, and Theo- Fulgentius quotes a stupid story about the Gorcritus to the democratic and patriotic party. (Strab. gons and Perseus from " Tleocritus antiquitalum
xiv. p. 645; Suid.) There is still extant a passage historlioalrphus" (Ilpythol. i. 26); but the same conof a letter from Theopompus to Alexander, in fusion of names might easily happen here; and,
which he charges Theocritus with living in the even if the passage be from Theocritus, it would
greatest luxury, after having previously been in rather seem to belong to the s7rLoroAal [aav/aaiLaL
poverty. (Ath. vi. p. 230, f.; Theop. Fray. 276, than to the Libyan history. Another case, in
ed. Miiller, Frag. first. vol. i. p. 325, in Didot's which the name of Theocritus has probably been
Bibliotheca). Theocritus himself, too, is said to confounded with one like it, is pointed out by C.
have given deep offence to Alexander by the sar- MUller (Ath. p. 14, e., ALaG6csroL E i7ri er0paipliKh
castic wit, which appears to have been the chief A7r/o0AXIs 56 0eoyvm3os Toe XtoUv -ooplvToo Hekcause of his celebrity, and which at last cost him (p's. Nothing is known of a sophist named
his life. When Alexander was making prepara- Theognis).
tions for a magnificent celebration of his Asiatic Theocritus of Chios is mentioned by Clemens
victories on his return home, he wrote to the Greek Alexandrinus (PI'otrept. p. 45), as 56 eos aoYpoeATi-s.
cities of Asia Minor and the islands, to send him a A life of him by Ambryon, is quoted by Diogenes
large supply of purple cloth; and when the king's La//rtius (v. 11). The epigram, prefixed to some
letter was read at Chios, Theocritus exclaimed that editions of the poems of the more celebrated Theohe now understood that line of Homer,- critus of Syracuse, as in Brunck's Analecta (iEoig.
xcctge Grope tpaos 3dvae'os ica poipa Kpa~ra& 22, ed. Kiessling), is probably not the production
of the poet himself, but of some grammarian who
(Plut. Op. Mor. p. 11, a.; Ath. xii. p. 540, a.) It wished to mark clearly the distinction between the
is observed by C. MUller (loc. isf; cit.) that Arrian two persons. It is inscribed to Theocritus in the
mentions (Anab. iv. 13. ~ 4), among the boys Palatine MS. and the Codex Politianus, and in
concerned in the conspiracy of Hermolauis against the editions of the Anthology by Stephanus and
Alexander, one Anticles, the son of Theocritus; Wechel; but in the Aldine edition it is assigned
and that, if this was Theocritus the Chian, the to Artemidorus, who is also the author of a distich
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