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

1032 THEOCRITUS. TH EOCRITUS.
prefixed to the ancient collection of the bucolic events they prove that the poet had lived there,
poets. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 263; Jacobs, Anth. and enjoyed the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Graec. vol. i. p. 194, vol. vi. p. 490.) The follow- The 16th, in praise of Hiero, the son of Hierocles,
ing is the epigram: — was evidently- written at Syracuse, and its date
AXXos 6 X7ose ~ey; ae 03d4rpvs.os bs r3' Eypaea, cannot be earlier than B. c. 270, when Hiero was
Elm mrb a7'v iroAev ri0A~ci eUpalsdErOLzosS made king. To these indications of the date and
ETrs! 6t7pafaTopao Tf7repsAA&em?1.'-e + AInfLO Sresidences of Theocritus, must be added the testi1Mo1ia4' r epala r' Ko'pa'o 7rdi7C e InclvP7.sp mony of the author of the ~EOKepiTOV yE'vs, that
Theocritus flourished under Ptolemy the son of
(Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 775; Vossius, de Lagus; that of the Greek argument to the first
list. Giraec. p. 68, ed. Westernmann; Menagius, ad Idyl, namely, that he was contemporary with
Dioy. Leart. v. 11; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 477; Aratus and Callimachus and Nicander, and that he
hMiiller, Frang. Hist. Greaec. vol. ii. pp. 86, 87, in flourished in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus;
Didot's Bibliotlecac Scriptorun' Graecoruma). and also the important statement, in the argument
2. The celebrated poet, was, according to the to the fourth Idyl, that he flourished about 01. 124,
epigram just quoted, a native of Syracuse, and the B. C. 284-280. (There can be little doubt the
son of Praxmagoras and Philinna. This is also the pKt' is the true reading.) The writer of the
statement of Suidas (s. v.), who adds, however, argument to the 17th Idyl mentions the statement
that others made him the son of Simichus, or of Munatus, that Theocritus flourished under PtoSimichidas, and also that, by some accounts, he iemy Philopator, but only in order to refute it.
was a native of Cos, and only a j/E-OLKOS at Syra- 11 interpreting these testimonies, our chief difficuse. The origin of the former variation will be culty arises from a two-fold uncertainty respecting
understood by a reference to the brief account of Philetas; first, as to the precise period down to
him prefixed to his poems, under the title of which he lived; and, secondly, whether the acOeoKcpi'ov yemOos, and to the Scholia on Idyl. vii. counts of his being the teacher of Theocritus refer
21, fiom which it appears that Simichidas, the to personal intercourse and instruction, or only to
person into whose mouth that Idyl is put, was the influence of the works of Philetas upon the
naturally identified by the ancients with the poet mind of Theocritus. Without attempting to decide
-himself, whom, therefore, they made a son of these questions, we would hazard the conjecture,
Simlichus or Simichidas (Schol.. c., et ad v. 41). that the date above mentioned, of 01. 124, B. c.
Theocritus again speaks in the name of Simichidas 284-280, marks the period, either when Theoin the 12th line of his Syrinx; but, as the full critus first went to Alexandria, or when, after
-nanle there used is rfdpis Ztlmuxi3as, it would spending some time there in receiving the instrucevidently be unsafe to understand the latter word tion, or studying the works, of Philetas and
literally as a patronymic. The idea is much more Asclepiades, lie began to distinguish himself as a
probable, and more in harnmony with the spirit of poet; that his first efforts obtained for him the
poetry, that Simichidas is an assumed name, like patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was assoTityrus in Virgil; and this is the explanation givel ciated in the kingdom with his father, Ptolemy
by some of the ancient grammarians, who couple it, the son of Lagus, in B. c. 285, and in whose praise,
however, with an etymology which is not at all therefore, the poet wrote the Idyls above referred
probable. (Schol. 1. c.; ~Eoic.'yevoc.) The other to, which bear every mark of having been composed
statement, that Theocritus was a native of Cos, in the early part of Ptolemy's sole reign (from B.c.
has probably arisen out of his connection with 283), and of being productions of the poet's younger
Philetas. In the ~eoKpirov ye'vos we are told days. The manner in which Ptolemly, the son of
that " he was the disciple of Philetas (of Cos) and Lagus, is alluded to, in Id. xvii. 1 i, confirms the
Asclepiades (of Samos), whom lie mentions," supposition that Theocritus had lived under that
Inamely, in Id. vii. 40:- king. From the 16th Idyl it is evident that
O6YTE bv Eioe0ObvTheocritus returned to Syracuse, and lived there
ZtvceXAtiaav ~vOiti1-o T'mh?1ea'/W EoOC'IOT, Aunder Hiero II., but the contents of the poem are
X~Ktisa XiK71~U L 7V inot definite enough to determine the precise period of
the first words of which the ancient commentators Hiero's reign at which it was composed: from the
are probably right in referring to Asclepiades 76th and 77th lines it may perhaps be inferred
(Sc/hol. adloc.) Another reference to his connlection that it was written during the first Punic War,
with Philetas has been discovered by Bekker in a after the alliance of Hiero with the Romans in B.c.
corrupted passage ofChoeroboscus. (Bekker,Annot. 263. Be this as it may, the whole toine of the
in Et.yam. p. 705; iMAtirras [i. e.'4INr Tas] 6uad- poem indicates that Theocritus was dissatisfied,
rcahXos ~eoc{pTrov). He appears also to have been both with the want of liberality oil the part of
intimate with the poet Aratus, to whom he ad- Hiero in rewarding him for his poems, and with
dresses his sixth Idyl (v. 2), and whom he the political state of his native country. It may,
mentions three times in the seventh (vv. 98, 102, therefore, be supposed that he devoted the latter
122); at least, it was the belief of the ancient part of his life almost entirely to the contemplation
commentators that the Aratus mentioned in these of those scenes of nature and of country life, on his
passages was the author of the Phaenonena. (Schol. representations of which his fime chiefly rests.
ad 11. cc.) Now, it may safely be assumed that These views are, of course, to some extent,
Theocritus became acquainted with these poets at affected by the question respecting the genuineness
Alexandria, which had already become, under the of some of the Idyls; but the only one of those
first and second Ptolemy, a place of resort for the which furnish our chief evidence, that is generally
literary men of Greece, and which it is certain that regarded as spurious, is the 17th. We possess no
Thleocritus visited at least once in his life. The further information respecting the poet's life, except
14th, 15th, and 17th Idyls bear every mark of that another of his intimate friends was the phyhaving been written at Alexandria, and at all sician Nicias, whom he addresses in terms of the