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

11;12 TIMOM.ACHUS. TIMIOMACHUS.
the Thebans. But they neglected to occupy tile indeed if, while two such pictures as the Ajax and
passes of Oneium, and Epaminondas, who was Medea, celebrated by Cicero, existed at Cyzicus,
preparing to invade Achaia, persuaded Peisias, two others on the same subjects should have been
the Argive general, to seize a commanding height painted by Timomachus, and should have been adof the mountain. The Thebans were thus enabled mired as we know thev were, and that the pictures
to make their way through the Isthmus (Xen. of Ajax and Medea should be simply mentioned
Hell. vii. i. ~ 41; Died. xv. 75). Towards the by Pliny as well known, without any distinction
end, apparently, of B. c. 361, Timomaclhus was sent being made between the two pairs of pictures. It
out to take the command in Thrace, for which he is true that, from one of the passages of Pliny
seems to have been utterly unfit, and he failed quite above cited (xxxv. 4. s. 9), the inference has been
as much at' least as his immediate predecessors, drawn that, besides the Ajax and Medea, which
Menon and Autocles, in forwarding the Athenian Caesar dedicated in the temple of Venus, there
interests in that quarter. Not only were his mi- was another pair of pictures brought to Rome, by
litary arrangements defective, but, according to the Agrippa, who purchased them from the Cyzicenes
statement of Aeschines, it was through his culpable at a great price, namely, an Ajax and Venus; but
easiness of disposition that Hegesander, his trea- the passage is extremely difficult to understand
surer (Tradias), was enabled to appropriate to his clearly; and, even taking the above explanation,
own use no less than 80 minae (more than 3001.) any conclusion drawn from it would apply only to
of the public money. Timomachus appears to have the Ajax, and not to the Medea, which was evibeen superseded by Cephisodotus in B. c. 360, and, dently the more celebrated of the two. On the
on his return to Athens, was impeached by Apol- whole, then, it seems most probable that the piclodorus (son of Pasion, the banker), who had been tures at Cvzicus, mentioned by Cicero, were the
one of his trierarchs. He was condemned, and, very pictures of Timomachus, which were puraccording to Demosthenes, was heavily fined; but chased by Julius Caesar; and therefore that the
his punishment was death, if we may believe the word actate in Pliny must either be rejected, or
statement of the Scholiast on Aeschines (Aesch. interpreted with a considerable latitude. In cone. Tim. p. 8; Schol. ad loc.; Dem. de Fals. Leg. firmnation of this conclusion another passage is cited
p. 398, pro Phorm. p. 960, c. Polycl. pp. 1210, &c.; from Pliny himself (I. c. ~ 41), in which lie enu.
Rehdantz, Vit. Ipih., Ct/abr., Tim. cap. v. ~~ 7, 8). merates, as examples of the last unfinished pictures
It was during the command of Timomachus in of the greatest painters, which were more admired
Thrace that he received a letter from Cotys, who than even their finished works, the Medea of Tirepudiated in it all the promises he had made to momachus, in connection with the Iris of Aristeides,
the Athenians when he wanted their aid against the Tyndaridae of Nicomachus, and the Venus of
the rebel Miltocythes. (Dem. c. Arist. p. 658.) Apelles; whence it has been argued that Timoma[CoTvs, No. 2.] [E. E.] chus was probably contemporary with the other
TIMO'MACHIUS (Tfos'Ataxos), a very distin- great painters there mentioned, and moreover that
guished painter, of Byzantium. He lived (if the it is incredible that Caesar should have given the
statement of Pliny, as contained in all the editions, large price above mentioned for two pictures of a
be correct) in the time of Julius Caesar, who pur- living artist, especially when one of them was unchased two of his pictures, the Ajax and Aledea, finished. Still, any positive chronological conclnfor the immense sum of eighty Attic talents, and sion from these arguments can only be received
dedicated them in the temple of Venus Genitrix. with much caution. They seem to prove that
(Plin. H. N. vii. 38. s. 39, xxxv. 4. s. 9, 11. s. 40. Timomachus flourished not later than the early
~ 30.) In the last of these passages, Pliny defines part of the first century B. c., but they do not prove
the artist's age in the following very distinct terms: that he is to be carried back to the third century.
- " Timomachus Byzantius Caesaris Dictatoris The associations of works and names, in the pas.
actate Ajacem et Medeam pin-it." But here an sages of Cicero and Pliny, have respect to the order
important and difficult question has been raised. of excellence and not to that of time; and it must
In Cicero's well-known enumeration of the master- be remembered that a great artist often obtains a
pieces of Grecian art, which were to be seen in reputation even above his merits during his life
various cities (in Ferr. iv. 60), he alludes to the and soon after his death, and that fashion, as well
Ajax and Ml1edea at Cyzicus, but without men- as fame, will set a high pecuniary value on such an
tioning the painter's name. (Quid Cyzicenos [or- artist's works. On the other hand, a positive arbitramini merere eelle], sst Ajacem, ant Medeams gument, to prove that Nicomachus lived later
[amiltant]?) From this passage a presumption is than the time of that flourishing period of the art
raised, that the two pictures should be referred to a which is marked by the name of Apelles, may be
period much earlier than the time of Caesar, drawn from the absence of any mention of him by
namely to the best period of Grecian art, to which Pliny in his proper chronological order, which inmost of the other works, in connection with which dicates the absence of his name from the works of
they are mentioned, are known to have belonged: the Greek authors whom Pliny followed, and that
at all events, as the manner in which they are re- he was one of those recent artists who were only
ferred to by Cicero presupposes their being already known to Plinth by their works which he had seen.
celebrated throughout the Roman empire, it is not Without attempting to arrive at any more precise
likely that they could have been painted during conclusion with regard to the age of Timomachus,
the life of Caesar, and it is of course impossible we proceed to state what is known of his works.
that they were painted during his dictatorship. (1.) The two pictures already mentioned were
But then, the question comes, whether these were the most celebrated of all his works, and the
the paintings mentioned by Pliny, and, as will Medea appears to have been esteemed his masterpresently be seen, celebrated by other writers. piece. It is referred to, in terms of the highest
T'he first impulse of any reader would be to assume praise, in several passages of the ancient writers,
this. as a matter of course; and it would be strange from which we learn that it represented Medea