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

THEOMNESTUIS. TI1EON. 1079
begir;ning of the ninth century after Christ. He that is known of him is contained in the statement
was the author of a work on prosody, which is of Pliny, that Mnason, the tyrant (of Elateia),
still extant in manuscript, addressed to the em- gave him one hundred minae apiece for certain
peror Leo, the Armenian. He also wrote a history pictures, each of which represented a single hero.
of the reign of Michael II., surnamed the Stam- (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. ~ 21.) [P. S.]
merer, the successor of Leo. (Villoison, Anecd. THEON (Oe'0v). Of three of this name whose
Grac. vol. ii. p. 127; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. writings yet remain, two are mathematicians who
p. 350.) [C. P. M.] are often confounded together. The first is Theon
THEO'LYTUS (~EdAvuTos), of Methymna, in the elder, of Smyrna, best known as an arithmeLesbos, an epic poet of an unknown, but certainly tician, who lived in the time of Hadrian. The
not an early period, who is mentioned once by the second is Theon the younger, of Alexandria, the
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, and twice by father of HYPATIA, best known as an astronomer
Athenaeus. The latter author, in one passage and geometer, who lived in the time of Theodosius
(vii. p. 296, a, b.) quotes three lines from his Bac- the elder. Both were heathens, a fact which the
XLKC& fr-, that is, an epic poem on the adventures date of the second makes it desirable to state; and
of Dionysus, to whose contest with the sea-god each held the Platonism of his period. The confusion
Glaucus, his rival in the love of Ariadne, the lines would probably be avoided, if they were named
quoted by Athenaeus refer. The other reference after their leaders in science: they would then be
to Theolytus is a quotation from him, isv aevr'cp called Theon the Pythagorean, and Theon the
"rzpwa (Ath. xi. p. 470, c.), not'l2pcv, as the read- Ptolemaist.
ing was before Schweighduser, who shows that The date of "Theon of Smyrna the philosopher,"
here, and in other references to similar works, the to quote in full the account which Suidas gives of
genitive is not that of 1pa, but of dpos, a word of him, depends upon the assumption (which there
the same meaning as dpa, but used in the plural in seems no reason to dispute) that he is the Theon
the specific sense of Annals. (See Liddell and whom Ptolemy and the younger Theon mention as
Scott, and Seiler and Jacobitz, s. v.) Another cor- having made astronomical observations in the time
rection made by Schweigh;user in this latter pas- of Hadrian. Theon of Smyrna certainly wrote on
sage is the restoration of the true form of the astronomy. On the assumption just made, Ptolemy
poet's name, which Casaubon had altered to O~d- has preserved his observations of Mercury and
ICAvros. (Plehn, Lesbiaca, p. 201.) [P. S.] Venus (A. D. 129-133). Bouillaud supposes that
THEO'MEDON (~soy.ewcov), a physician who it is Theon of Smyrna to whom Proclus alludes as
accompanied Eudoxus the astronomer and phy- having written on the genealogies of Solon and
sician in his first visit to Athens, about the year Plato, and Plutarch as having written on the lunar
B. C. 386, and who supported him while he was spots. (See Bouillaud's preface, or the quotations in
attending Plato's lectures in that city. (Diog. Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 35.)
Lahrt. viii. 8. ~ 86.) [W. A. G.] All that we have left is a portion of a work enTHEOMESTOR (O~eoULoc"rop), a Samian, son titled, Tcv KarTa' /a071e:arMcKv Xp~7r7l.u'Av eIs rsv
of Androdamas, commanded a vessel in the Persian'ro IlAXdrcoos aOva'yvwolv. The portion which now
fleet at Salamis (B. C. 480), and for his services in exists is in two books, one on arithmetic, and one
that battle was made tyrant of Samos by Xerxes. on music: there was a third on astronomy, and a
(Herod. viii. 85, ix. 90.) [E. E.] fourth Ilepl -'r Ev s' t oiapwuovlas. The work on
THEOMNASTUS, one of the instruments of arithmetic is of the same character as that of
Verres in his oppression of the Sicilians. (Cic. NIcoMAcHUs; and as both these writers name
Verr. ii. 21, 51, iv. 66.) Thrasyllus, and neither names the other, it may be
THEOMNESTUS (~ekuvYjvr1os), one of the supposed that the two were nearly contemporary.
Greek writers on veterinary surgery, who may The book on music is on the simplest appliperhaps have lived in the fourth or fifth century cation of arithmetic. The two books were pubafter Christ. None of his works remain, but some lished by Bouillaud, from a manuscript in De
fragments are to be found in the collection of Thou's library, Paris, 1644, quarto (Gr. Lat.). The
writers on veterinary surgery, first published in book on arithmetic has been recently published,
Latin by John Ruellius, 1530, fol. Paris, and after- with Bouillaud's Latin, various readings, and new
wards in Greek by Simon Grynaeus, 1537, 4to. notes, by Professor J. J. de Gelder, Leyden, 1827,
Basil. [W. A. G.] 8vo: the preface is the fullest disquisition on
THEOMNESTUS (~E4Euo'Oya'or), artists. 1. Theon which exists. We may refer to it for an
A statuary of Sardis, of unknown time, who made account of the bust which was found in Smyrna by
the statue of the Olympic victor Ageles of Chios. Fouquier, with the inscription OEaINAnIAATA N
(Paus. vi. 15. ~ 2.) He may safely be identified IKONSIIAOC~O+ONOIEPETCCOEQNTONHATEPA,
with the Theomnestus mentioned by Pliny among now in the museum at Rome. There are scattered
those who made athletas et arrnatos et venatores notices (for which see De Gelder) by which it
sacrificantesque (H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. ~ 34). seems that Theon had written other works: a
2. A sculptor, the son of Theotimus, flourished manuscript headed aSEohoToe'eva is mentioned as
in Chios, under the early Roman emperors, as we attributed to him, which is probably only the work
learn from a Chian inscription, in which his name known under that name, with an assumed authoroccurs as the maker, in conjunction with Dionysius, ship. Bouillaud mentions an astronomical fragment
the son of Astius, of the monument erected to the which he found; and also the assertion of Isaac
memory of Claudius Asclepiades, a freedman of the Vossius, made to him, that an astronomical treatise
emperor, by his wife, Claudia Tertulla. (Murator. existed in the Ambrosian library at Milan.
vol. ii. p. mxiv. 11; Boeckh, Corp. Inscr. No. 2241, Of the life of Theon of Alexandria, called the
vol. ii. p. 210; R. Roclhette, Lettre a M. Sclorn, younger (described by Suidas as O E'K ou ouovelovu),
pp. 417, 418, 2d ed.) nothing is known except the melancholy history of
3. A painter, contemporary with Apelles. All his daughter HYPATIA. YWe shall now take the
3z 4