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

1082 THEOPHANES. THEOPHANES.
by Aelian ( V. H. ii. 44) of Theon's picture of a nople " the seed " (rb ar4pp/a, the eggs, of course)
soldier rushing to the battle. If we may believe of the silk-worm, and these " seeds" being hatched
Aelian, Theon even transgressed the limits of his in the spring, and the worms fed with mulberry
own art in his attempt to produce a striking effect; leaves, they spun their silk, and went through
for he never exhibited the picture without first their transformations.
causing a charge to be sounded on trumpets, and The Excerpta of Photius from the ten books of
when the excitement produced by the music was the history of Theophanes were printed in Greek,
at its highest, he drew up the curtain, and showed with a Latin version by Andr. Schottus, and notes
the warrior as if he had suddenly started into the by Ph. Labbe, in Valesius's edition of the Excerpta
presence of the spectators. Pliny places Theon de Legnationibus, from Dexippus and others, Paris,
among the painters who were primis proximni, and 1648, fol.; reprinted in the Venetian collection of
mentions two of his works, namely, Orestis insania, the Byzantine historians, Venet. 1729, fol.: they
and Thamyrus citharoedus (IH. N. xxxv. 11. s. 40. are also printed in the volume of Niebuhr's Cor~ 40). The former picture is also mentioned in puts Scriptorum Hist. Byzant., containing Dexthe treatise of the Pseudo-Plutarch, de Audiendis ippus, &c., Bonn. 1829, 8vo. (Cave, Hist. Litt.
Poetis, p. 18, from which we learn, what might be s. a. 580, vol. i. p. 537, ed. Basil.; Hankius, Byz.
inferred from Pliny's words, that it represented Rer. Script. ii. 4, pp. 674, foll.; Fabric. Bibl. Gricc.
Orestes slaying his mother. (See further, re- vol. vii. pp. 459,541, 543; Vossius, deHist. Graec.
specting this picture, R. Rochette, Monum. Ined. pp. 327, 328, ed. Westermann; Clinton, Fasti
p. 177.) [P. S.] Romani, s. aa. 567, 568, 571.)
THEONDAS, the chief magistrate in Samo- 3. ISAURvS, also surnamed Isaacius*, from his
thrace at the time of the defeat of Perseus, in father's name, and also Confessor, or Confessor
B. c. 168. (Liv. xlv. 5.) Imaginum, from his sufferings in the cause of image
THEO'NOE (Oeovo's7). 1. A daughter of Pro- worship, but more celebrated now as the author of
teus and Psammathe, who is said to have been in a Chronicon in continuation of that of Syncellus,
love with Canobus, the helmsman of Menelaus, lived during the second half of the eighth century
who died in Egypt, in consequence of the bite of a of our era, and the first fifteen years of the ninth.
snake. She is also called Eido or Eidothea. He was of noble birth, his parents being Isaacius,
(Eurip. Helen. 11; Aristoph. Tlhesm. 897; Plat. the praefect of the Aegeopelagitae, and Theodota.
Cratyl. p. 407; Hom. Od. iv. 363.) He was born in A. D. 858, and soon after, by the
2. A daughter of Thestor. [THESTOR.] [L. S.] death of his father, he became a ward of the emTHEO'PHANE ()eopaiv7l), a daughter of peror Constantinus Copronymus. While quite a
Bisaltes, who, in consequence of her extraordinary youth, he was compelled by Leo the patrician to
beauty, was beleaguered by lovers, but was carried marry his daughter; but, on the wedding-day,
off by Poseidon to the isle of Crinissa. As the Theophanes and his wife agreed that the marriage
lovers followed her even there, Poseidon metamor- should not be consummated; and, on the death of
phosed the maiden into a sheep and himself into Leo, in A. D. 780, his daughter retired into a cona ram, and all the inhabitants of the island into vent, and her husband Theophanes, who had in the
animals. As the lovers began to slaughter these meantime discharged various public offices, entered
animals, he changed them into wolves. The god the monastery of Polychronium, near Singriana, in
then became by Theophane the father of the ram lesser Mysia. He soon left that place, and went
with the golden fleece, which carried Phrixus to to live in the island of Calonymus, where he conColchis. (Hygin. Flb. 188.) [L. S.] verted his paternal estate into a monastery. After
THEO'PHANES (soeopadVs), literary. I. A a residence of six years there, he returned to the
writer on painting, mentioned by Diogenes Laertius neighbourhood of Singriana, where he purchased
(ii. 104). an estate, called by the simple name of Ager
2. Of Byzantium, one of the writers of the By- (&-ypos), and founded another monastery, of which
zantine history, flourished most probably in the he made himself the abbot. In A. D. 787, he was
latter part of the sixth century of our era. He summoned to the second Council of Nicaea, where
wrote, in ten books, the history of the Eastern he vehemently defended the worship of images.
Empire (iorTopKtcc, Ayo 84Ka), during the Persian We have no further details of his life until A.D. 81 3,
war under Justin II., beginning from the second when he was required by Leo the Armenian to
year of Justin, in which the truce made by Jus- renounce the worship of images, and, upon his
tinian with Chosroes was broken, A. D. 567, and refusal, though he was extremely ill, and had been
going down to the tenth year of the war, which, bed-ridden for five years, he was carried to Conaccording to Mr. Clinton, was not A. D. 577, but stantinople, and there, after a further period of
A. D. 581, because the war did not begin till A. D. resistance to the command of the emperor to re571, although the history of Theophanes may have nounce his principles, he was cast into prison, at
commenced with A. D. 567. the close of the year 815 or the beginning of 816;
Photius (Bibl. Cod. 64) gives an account of the and, after two years' imprisonment, he was banished
work of Theophanes, and he repeats the author's to the island of Samothrace, where he died, only
statement that, besides adding other books to the twenty-three days from his arrival. His firmness
ten which formed the original work, he had written was rewarded by his party, not only with the
another work on the history of Justinian. It well title of Confessor, but also with the honours of
deserves mention that, among the historical state- canonization.
ments preserved byPhotius from Theophanes is the Theophanes was the personal friend of Georgius
discovery, in the reign of Justinian, of the fact that
silk was the production of a worm, which had not * There appears to be no authority for calling
been before known to the people of the Roman him, as Vossius does, Gcoryius. The mistake proempire. A certain Persian, he tells us, coming bably arose from some accidental confusion of his
froml the land of the Seres, brolught to Constanti- name with that of Georgius Syncellus.