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 phy-
having been written at Alexandria, and at all | sician Nicias, whom he addresses in terms of the
.
14th, 15th, and 17th Idyls bear every mark of that another of his intimate friends was the phy-
having been written at Alexandria, and at all | sician Nicias, whom he addresses in terms of the
.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
1322, foll.
ed.
Reiske), which 633, c.
; Macrob.
Sut.
vii.
3.
) This must have
is, however, ascribed by Dionysius 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 Xρείαι, ιστορία Λιβύης, and επιστολαί θαυμα-
and exercised unbounded influence. In the year olai, to which Eudocia (p. 232) adds, Noyol aavn.
A. D. 216 he was despatched at the head of an uplkoi. The Xpeiai, that is, clever sayings, were
army against the Annenians, and sustained a probably, as C. Müller suggests, not a work written
signal defeat. (Dion Cass. lxxvii. 21. ) (W. R. ) by Theocritus himself, but a collection, made by
THEO'CRITUS (Ocorpitos). 1. Of Chios, an some one else, of the witticisms ascribed to him.
orator, sophist, and perhaps an historian, in the By ALOTOAal Savuao lai is not meant, as Vossius
time of Alexander the Great, was the disciple of calls them, epistolae admirabiles, but de rebus mira-
Metrodorus, 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
ing to the aristocratic and Macedonian, and Theo Fulgentius quotes a stupid story about the Gor-
critus to the democratic and patriotic party. (Strab. gons and Perseus from “ Theocritus antiquitatum
xiv. p. 645; Suid. ) There is still extant a passage historiographus" (Mythol. i. 26); but the same con-
of 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 emotona Savuaolai
poverty. (Ath. vi. p. 230, f. ; Theop. Frag. 276, than to the Libyan history. Another case, in
ed. Müller, Frag. Hist. 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. Müller (Ath. p. 14, e. , Alabóntoi dè érd opaipın
astic wit, which appears to have been the chief | Δημοτέλης ο Θεόγνιδος του Χίου σοφιστού αδελ.
cause of his celebrity, and which at last cost him pos. 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 (Protrept. p. 45), as d Seios OOPLOTÁS.
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 Laërtius (v. 11). The epigram, prefixed to some
letter was read at Chios, Theocritus exclaimed that editions of the poems of the more celebrated Theo-
he now understood that line of Homer,-
critus of Syracuse, as in Brunck's Analecta (Epig.
έλλαβε πορφύρεος θάνατος και μοίρα κραταίη.
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. Müller (loc. inf. 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 Hermolaüs 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 I to Artemidorus, who is also the author of a distich
3 U 4
## p. 1032 (#1048) ##########################################
1032
THEOCRITUS.
THEOCRITUS.
1
}
1
cuse.
prefized to the ancient collection of the bucolic events they prove that the poet had lived there,
poets. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 263 ; Jacobs, Aath. and enjoyed the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus
Gracc. 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
AMAOS Xios dyà Bè ebxpiros, Os 7d8° bypaya, cannot be earlier than B. c 270, when Hiero was
Είς από των πολλών ειμι Συρηκόσιος,
made king. To these indications of the date and
Yίδς Πραξαγόραο περικλειτης τε Φιλίννης:
residences of Theocritus, must be added the testi-
Μούσαν δ' οθνείην ούποτ' εφελκυσάμην.
mony of the author of the Θεοκρίτου γένος, that
Theocritus flourished under Ptolemy the son of
(Fabric. Bill. Gracc. vol. iii. p. 775; Vossius, de Lagus ; that of the Greek argument to the first
Hist. Gracc. p. 68, ed. Westermann; Menagius, ad Iůsl, namely, that he was contemporary with
Biog. Laërt. v. 11; Clinton, F. 11. vol. iii. p. 477 ; Aratus and Callimachus and Nicander, and that he
Müller, Frug. Hist. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 86, 87, in flourished in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus ;
Didot's Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum). and also the important statement, in the argument
2. The celebrated poet, was, according to the to the fourth Idyl, that he flourished about Ol. 124,
epigram just quoted, a native of Syracuse, and the B. C. 284–280. (There can be little doubt the
son of Praxagoras and Philinna. This is also the pro' 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 Pto-
Simichidas, and also that, by some accounts, he lemy Philopator, but only in order to refute it.
was a native of Cos, and only a uétorkos at Syra- In interpreting these testimonies, our chief diffi-
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 ac-
Deokpitov gévos, and to the Scholia on Idyl. vii. counts of his being the teacher of Theocritus refer
21, from 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 Theocritns. Without attempting to decide
himself, whom, therefore, they made a son of these questions, we would hazard the conjecture,
Simichus or Simichidas (Schol. I. c. , et ad v. 41). that the date above mentioned, of Ol. 124, B. C.
Theocritus again speaks in the name of Simichidas 284—280, marks the period, either when Theo-
in the 12th line of his Syrinx ; but, as the full critus first went to Alexandria, or when, after
name there used is lápis Elpixidas, it would spending some time there in receiving the instruc-
evidently be unsafe to understand the latter word | tion, or studying the works, of Phileas and
literally as a patronymic. The idea is much mort Asclepiades, he began to distinguish himself as a
probable, and more in harmony 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 asso-
Tityrus in Virgil ; and this is the explanation given 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. l. c. ; DeoK. Jévos. ) 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
Pbiletas. In the compitou Jévos we are told days. The manner in which Ptolemy, the son of
that “ he was the disciple of Philetas (of Cos) and Lagus, is alluded to, in Id. xvii. 14, confirms the
Asclepiades (of Samos), whom he mentions,” supposition that Theocritus had lived under that
namely, in Id. vii. 40:-
king. From the 16th Idyl it is evident that
ούτε τον εσθλον
Theocritus returned to Syracuse, and lived there
Σικελίδαν νίκημι τον εκ Σάμω, ούτε Φιλητάν,
under Hiero II. , but the contents of the poem are
not 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
(Schol. ad loc. ) Another reference to his conuection 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 of Choeroboscus. (Bekker, Annot. 263. Be this as it may, the whole tone of the
in Etym. p. 705 ; Pantas [i. e. $ihtas) ftoá- poem indicates that Theocritus was dissatisfied,
okalos Deokpítov). He appears also to have been both with the want of liberality on 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 Phaenomena. (Schol. representations of which his fame chiefly rests.
ad ll. 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
Theocritus 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 phy-
having been written at Alexandria, and at all | sician Nicias, whom he addresses in terms of the
.
## p. 1033 (#1049) ##########################################
THEOCRITUS.
1033
THEOCRITUS.
-
highest commendation (Id. xi. 5, 6, xxviii. 7; spirit. The form of these poems is in perfect
comp. Arg. ad Id. xi. , and Jacobs, Arth. Graec. keeping with their object. The symmetrical ar
vol. xiii. p. 923).
rangement and the rapid transitions of the lively
Theocritus was the creator of bucolic poetry as a dialogue, the varied language and the musical
branch of Greek, and, through imitators, such as rhythms, the combination of the prevailing epic
Virgil, of Roman literature. The germ of this verse and diction with the forins of common speech,
species of poetry may be discovered, at a very early all contribute much to the general effect. In short,
period, among the Dorians, both of Laconia and of as Theocritus was the first who developed the
Sicily, especially at Tyndaris and Syracuse, where powers of bucolic poetry, so he may also be said to
the festivals of Artemis were enlivened by songs, have been the last who understood its true spirit,
in which two shepherds or herdsmen, or two parties its proper objects, and its natural limits.
of theni, contended with one another, and which The pocms of Theocritus, however, are by no
gradually grew into an art, practised by a class of means all bucolic. The collection, which has como
performers called Lydiastue and Bucoli:tuc, who down to us under his name, consists of thirty poems,
Nourished extensively in Sicily and the neighbour-called by the general title of Idyls, a fragment of a
ing districts of Iuly. The subjects of their songs few lines from a poem entitled Berenice, and twenty-
were popular mythical stories, and the scenes of two epigrams in the Greek Anthology, besides
country life ; the benuty, love, and unhappy end of that upon the poet himself, which, as above stated,
Daphnis, the ideal of the shepherd, who was is probably the production of Artemidorus. Several
introduced by Stesichorus into his poetry, and of other works were ascribed to him by the ancient
Diomns, who was named by Epicharmus ; the grammarians. Suidas (s. v. ) tells us that he wrote
melancholy complaints of the coy huntsman Me- the poems called Bucolics in the Doric dialect, and
nalcas ; and other kindred subjects. These songs that some ascribed to him also the following :-
were still popular in the time of Diodorus ; but the | Προιτίδας, Ελπίδας, ύμνους, Ηρωίνας, επικήδεια
only fragment of them which has come down to us | μέλη, έλεγείας, ιάμβους, επιγράμματα. The Greek
consists of the two following lines in the Priapeian author of a few sentences on the characteristics of
metre, prefixed to the works of Theocritus : the poetry of Theocritus, prefixed to his works,
Δέξαι ταν αγαθαν τύχαν, δέξαι ταν υγίειαν,
says that all poetry has three characters, the dinne
“Αν φέρομεν παρά τας θεου, αν εκαλέσσατο τήνα. ματικός, the δραματικός, and the μικτικός, and
that bucolic poetry is a mixture of every form.
(Welcker, über den Ursprung des Hirtenlieds, Kleine Bergk has recently classed the poems of Theocritus
Schriften , vol. i. pp. 402-411. )
under the heads of Carmina Bucolica, mimica, ly-
Theocritus, however, was the first who reduced rica, epica, and cpigrammata (Rhein. Alus. 1838
this species of poetry to such a form as to constitute -1839, vol. vi. pp. 16, &c. )
it a branch of regular literature ; and, in so doing, Of the thirty so-called Idyls, the last is a late
he followed, not merely the impulse of his own Anacreontic, of scarcely any poetical merit, and
genius, but, to a great extent, the examples of has no claim to be regarded as a work of Theocritus.
Epicharmus and of Sophron, especially the latter. Of the others, only ten belong strictly to the class
His bucolic idyls are of an essentially dramatic and of poems which the ancients described by the spe-
mimetic character. They are pictures of the ordi- cific names of Boukoliká, FOIevind, almoloká, or
nary life of the common people of Sicily ; whence by the first of these words used in a generic sense,
their name, elon, cidúxia. The pastoral poems Bucolics, or, as we say, pastoral poems; but, taking
and romances of later times are a totally different the term Idyl in the wider sense explained above,
sort of composition from the bucolics of Theocritus, we must also include under it several of the poems
who knows nothing of the affected sentiment, the which are not bucolic, but which are pictures of the
pure innocence, the primeval simplicity, or even the life of the common people of Sicily. In this ge-
worship of nature, which have been ascribed to the neral sense, the Idyls, properly so called, are the
imaginary shepherds of a fictitious Arcadia; nothing first eleven, the fourteenth, fifteenth, and twenty-
of the distinction between the country and the first, the last of which has a special interest, as
town, the description of which has been made a being the only representation we possess of the life
vehicle of bitter satire upon the vices of civilized of Grecian fishermen : the second and fifteenth are
communities. He merely exhibits simple and faithful evidently pretty close imitations of the mimes of
pictures of the common life of the Sicilian people, Sophron. Several of them are erotic in their cha-
in a thoroughly objective, although truly poetical racter, and allied, in their form, to different species
-spirite He abstains from all the mere artifices of of poetry: thus, the twelfth and twenty-ninth have
composition, such as fine imagery, high colouring, a decidedly lyrical complexion, while that of the
and pathetic sentiment. He deals but sparingly in nineteenth is epigrammatic, of the twentieth bu-
descriptions, which he introduces only as episodes, colic, and of the twenty-third tragic: the thirteenth
and never attempts any of those allegorical and eighteenth, which are also erotic, have the epic
applications of the sentiments and adventures of character, both in their subjects and their forn) ;
shepherds, which have made the Bucolics of Virgil and the twenty-seventh is an erotic poem under
a signal failure. Dramatic simplicity and truth the form of a mime. The sixteenth and seven-
are impressed upon the pictures exhibited in his teenth are imitations of another branch of the
poems, into the colouring of which he has thrown ancient lyric poetry, the encomium. The twenty-
much of the natural comedy which is always seen second is an epic hymn to the Dioscuri ; the twenty-
in the common life of a free people. His fifteenth fourth and twenty-fifth appear to be fragments of
idyl, the Adoniazusae, is a masterpiece of the mi- an epic poem on the adventures of Hercules, in the
metic exhibition of female character, rendered the learned tone of the Alexandrian epos, but still
more adınirable by the skill with which he has distinguished by the free and simple style of Theo-
introduced the praises of Arsinoë and Berenice, critus ; and the twenty-sixth is also epic, but of
without sacrificing anything of its genuine dramatic | very inferior merit, being a fragment of the story
:
## p. 1034 (#1050) ##########################################
1034
THEOCRITUS.
THEOCRITUS.
of Pentheus, related in a dry rhetorical manner. | however, is, that Theocritus purposely employed a
Lastly, the twenty-eighth, entitled 'Haardta, is an mixed or eclectic dialect, in which the new or
occasional poem, written in a very pleasing style. softened Doric predominates. (Jacobs, Praef ud
This great intermixture of the different species of Anth. Pal. p. xliii. ; Wüstemann, Pruleg. ad Theocr.
poetry is quite in accordance with the spirit of the p. xxxiv. )
age and of the Alexandrian school, in which the Of the other poems which have come down to us,
poet was brought up. But, in those of the idyls the Berenice, of which we only possess five lines
which are certainly genuine, all these varieties are and a word, preserved by Athenaeus (vii. p. 284),
harmonized by the true poetical genius of Theocritus. was an encomium of the celebrated queen, the wife
But yet, if we carefully examine the collection of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, and the mother of
as a whole, it will be found to contain incongruities Ptolemy Philadelphus. The poem entitled Syrinx,
of style and subject, and varieties of merit, too contained in the Greek Anthology, is an exercise
great to allow of the belief that all these twenty of ingenuity, consisting in the composition of
nine idyls (for the thirtieth may be certainly ex- twenty verses in such a manner that the length of
cluded) are the genuine productions of Theocritus. each pair of verses is less than that of the pair be-
The introduction of spurious poems into the colo fore, and thus the whole resembles the ten pipes of
lection can easily be accounted for. As early as the mouth-organ or Pan-pipes (oup. yt). Of the
B. C. 200 there existed a collection of the works of epigrams, two (Nos. 17, 18, Brunck) are supposed
the bucolic poets, Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, by Jacobs to be the productions of Leonidas of
as we learn from the following epigram of Artemi- Tarentum, while, on the other hand, the Palatine
dorus, which is prefixed to the works of Theocritus, MS. assigns the 10th epigram of Erycius to Theo-
and is also contained in the Greek Anthology critus. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 376 ; Jacobs,
(Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 293 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. Anth. Graec. vol. i. p. 194, vol. xiii. p. 958. )
vol. i. p. 194):-
It is unnecessary to say much of the reputation of
Βουκολικα Μοίσαι σποράδες πικά, νύν δ' άμα πάσαι | he has been deservedly placed at the head of the
Theocritus. Both in ancient and in modern times,
'Εντι μιας μάνδρας, έντι μιας αγέλας.
species of poetry which he formed, and in a very
Into such a collection, made at a time when critical high rank among all poets, for the force and truth.
science was in its infancy, every thing would na- fulness of his pictures, the beauty of his language,
turally be swept together that had the least tradi- and the simple good taste of his style. The best
tional or other claim to be regarded as the pro- discussion of his characteristics is that by Finken-
duction of one of these three poets ; and, moreover, stein, in the Introduction and Appendices to Arc-
whatever was of doubtful authority would naturally thusa, oder d. Bukol. Dichter des Alterthums, Berl.
be ascribed to Theocritus, as the most celebrated of 1806-1810. The Eclogues of Virgil are mere imita-
the three. Of this large collection the idyls tions of the Bucolics of Theocritus, to which they are
that have come down to us are merely samples, se immeasurably inferior. (VIRGILIUS. ] The Alex.
lected by the grammarians (whence the name of andrian grammarians gave Theocritus a place in one
Eclogae, which was afterwards applied to bucolic of their Pleiads, that, namely, of the seven miscel-
poetry in general); and thus it has happened that, laneous poets ; and commentaries were written
while much of the genuine poetry of Theocritus upon him by Amerias, Asclepiades of Myrlea,
has been lost, there must be much that is not his Theon, Theaetetus, Amarantus, Munatus, and
in the collection we now possess. To distinguish others. The existing Scholia evidently contain a
the genuine from the spurious, we have scarcely very small, and probably not the most valuable,
any other test than internal evidence ; and here portion of those commentaries: they consist chiefly
the danger arises, into which some critics appear to of paraphrastic explanations of the text.
have fallen, of making the comparative excellence The modern literature of Theocritus is much ton
of the poems the sole test of their genuineness. It voluminous to admit of any attempt to give here a
is impossible here to enter upon the detailed critical list even of the chief editions and illustrative works.
arguments for and against the genuineness of the The titles of the whole occupy forty-nine columns
several poems. The whole subject has been dis- of Hoffmann's Lexicon Bibliographicum Scriptorum
cussed by Eichstädt (de Carm. Theocr. ad sua Ge- Graecorum. The Editio Princeps, in folio, con-
nera revocat. fc. , Lips. 1794, 4to. ), by E. Rein- taining the Works and Days of Hesiod and the
hold (de Genuinis Theocr. Carm. et Supposititiis, Idyls of Theocritus, is without place or date, but
Jen. 1819), by A. Wissowa (Theocritus Theocri- is believed to have been printed at Milan about
teus, Vratislav. 1828, 8vo. ), and by Warton, 1481. There is another very early edition, in 8vo. ,
Meineke, and Wüstemann, in their editions of without place or date. The next earliest edition
Theocritus. Those idyls, of which the genuineness is that of Aldus, containing the Idyls, and a vast
is the most doubtful, are the 12th, 17th, 18th, 19th, mass of other matter, Venet. 1495, fol. For a full
20th, 26th, 27th, 29th, and 30th.
account of this and the other ancient editions, see
The Metre chiefly employed in these poems is Hoffmann. The chief among the more receut
the heroic hexameter, adapted to the purposes of editions are those of Reiske, Viennae, 1765, 1766,
Theocritus by having a more broken movement 2 vols. 4to. ; of Warton, Oxon. 1770, 4to. ; of
substituted for the sustained and stately march of the Brunck, in the Analecta, 1772, 4to. ; of Valcke-
Homeric verse. In a few cases other metres are naer, 1779—1781, 8vo. ; of Schaefer, 1810, fol. ; of
employed. The dialect of Theocritus has given the Heindorf, 1810, 8vo. ; of Gaisford, in his Poetae
grammarians considerable trouble. The ancient Minores, Oxon. 1816, 1820, 1823, 8vo. ; of Kiess-
critics regarded it as a modification of the Doric dia-ling, Lips. 1819, 8vo. , reprinted, with Bion and
lect, which they called véa Awpis, and some of the Moschus, Notes, Scholia, Indices, and Portus's
modern editors have carried this notion so far as to Lexicon Doricum, Lond. 1829, 2 vols. 8vo. ; of
try to expunge all the epic, Aeolic, and Ionic Jacobs, Halae, 1824, 8vo. , only vol. i. published; of
forms, which the best MSS. present. The fact, Meineke, Lips. 1825, 12mo. ; and, the most useful
## p. 1035 (#1051) ##########################################
THEODECTES.
1035
THEODECTES.
of all for ordinary purposes, that of Wüstemann, 1 4, B. C. 333; and, if we assume that the statue of
in Jacobs and Rost's Bibliotheca Graeca, Gothae, which he took such special notice had been but
1830, 8vo. (a new edition is expected). For an recently erected, we may suppose that Theodectes
account of the numerous Delectuses, and of the died about B. C. 335 or 334, and therefore, accord.
translations of the whole, or separate portions, of ing to Suidas's account of the length of his life,
the Idyls, and of the works upon Theocritus, the that he was born about B. C. 376 or 375. He
reader is referred to Hoffmann. The chief English would then be about 23 or 24 at the time of the
versions are those of Creech, Lond. 1681, 1684, funeral of Mausolus ; about the same age as
1713, 1721, 12mo. ; Fawkes, Lond. 1767, 8vo. ; Theopompus, his rival on that occasion, and his
and Polwhele, Lond. 1786, 4to. , 1792, 1811, 8vo. fellow-pupil under Isocrates ; and about ten years
(Fabric. Bibl. Gracc. vol. iii. pp. 764, foll. ; Wüs younger than Aristotle, a result agreeing with the
temann's Prolegomena; Bernhardy, Gesch. d. Gricch. account which makes him not merely the friend,
Lit.
is, however, ascribed by Dionysius 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 Xρείαι, ιστορία Λιβύης, and επιστολαί θαυμα-
and exercised unbounded influence. In the year olai, to which Eudocia (p. 232) adds, Noyol aavn.
A. D. 216 he was despatched at the head of an uplkoi. The Xpeiai, that is, clever sayings, were
army against the Annenians, and sustained a probably, as C. Müller suggests, not a work written
signal defeat. (Dion Cass. lxxvii. 21. ) (W. R. ) by Theocritus himself, but a collection, made by
THEO'CRITUS (Ocorpitos). 1. Of Chios, an some one else, of the witticisms ascribed to him.
orator, sophist, and perhaps an historian, in the By ALOTOAal Savuao lai is not meant, as Vossius
time of Alexander the Great, was the disciple of calls them, epistolae admirabiles, but de rebus mira-
Metrodorus, 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
ing to the aristocratic and Macedonian, and Theo Fulgentius quotes a stupid story about the Gor-
critus to the democratic and patriotic party. (Strab. gons and Perseus from “ Theocritus antiquitatum
xiv. p. 645; Suid. ) There is still extant a passage historiographus" (Mythol. i. 26); but the same con-
of 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 emotona Savuaolai
poverty. (Ath. vi. p. 230, f. ; Theop. Frag. 276, than to the Libyan history. Another case, in
ed. Müller, Frag. Hist. 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. Müller (Ath. p. 14, e. , Alabóntoi dè érd opaipın
astic wit, which appears to have been the chief | Δημοτέλης ο Θεόγνιδος του Χίου σοφιστού αδελ.
cause of his celebrity, and which at last cost him pos. 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 (Protrept. p. 45), as d Seios OOPLOTÁS.
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 Laërtius (v. 11). The epigram, prefixed to some
letter was read at Chios, Theocritus exclaimed that editions of the poems of the more celebrated Theo-
he now understood that line of Homer,-
critus of Syracuse, as in Brunck's Analecta (Epig.
έλλαβε πορφύρεος θάνατος και μοίρα κραταίη.
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. Müller (loc. inf. 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 Hermolaüs 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 I to Artemidorus, who is also the author of a distich
3 U 4
## p. 1032 (#1048) ##########################################
1032
THEOCRITUS.
THEOCRITUS.
1
}
1
cuse.
prefized to the ancient collection of the bucolic events they prove that the poet had lived there,
poets. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 263 ; Jacobs, Aath. and enjoyed the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus
Gracc. 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
AMAOS Xios dyà Bè ebxpiros, Os 7d8° bypaya, cannot be earlier than B. c 270, when Hiero was
Είς από των πολλών ειμι Συρηκόσιος,
made king. To these indications of the date and
Yίδς Πραξαγόραο περικλειτης τε Φιλίννης:
residences of Theocritus, must be added the testi-
Μούσαν δ' οθνείην ούποτ' εφελκυσάμην.
mony of the author of the Θεοκρίτου γένος, that
Theocritus flourished under Ptolemy the son of
(Fabric. Bill. Gracc. vol. iii. p. 775; Vossius, de Lagus ; that of the Greek argument to the first
Hist. Gracc. p. 68, ed. Westermann; Menagius, ad Iůsl, namely, that he was contemporary with
Biog. Laërt. v. 11; Clinton, F. 11. vol. iii. p. 477 ; Aratus and Callimachus and Nicander, and that he
Müller, Frug. Hist. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 86, 87, in flourished in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus ;
Didot's Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum). and also the important statement, in the argument
2. The celebrated poet, was, according to the to the fourth Idyl, that he flourished about Ol. 124,
epigram just quoted, a native of Syracuse, and the B. C. 284–280. (There can be little doubt the
son of Praxagoras and Philinna. This is also the pro' 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 Pto-
Simichidas, and also that, by some accounts, he lemy Philopator, but only in order to refute it.
was a native of Cos, and only a uétorkos at Syra- In interpreting these testimonies, our chief diffi-
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 ac-
Deokpitov gévos, and to the Scholia on Idyl. vii. counts of his being the teacher of Theocritus refer
21, from 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 Theocritns. Without attempting to decide
himself, whom, therefore, they made a son of these questions, we would hazard the conjecture,
Simichus or Simichidas (Schol. I. c. , et ad v. 41). that the date above mentioned, of Ol. 124, B. C.
Theocritus again speaks in the name of Simichidas 284—280, marks the period, either when Theo-
in the 12th line of his Syrinx ; but, as the full critus first went to Alexandria, or when, after
name there used is lápis Elpixidas, it would spending some time there in receiving the instruc-
evidently be unsafe to understand the latter word | tion, or studying the works, of Phileas and
literally as a patronymic. The idea is much mort Asclepiades, he began to distinguish himself as a
probable, and more in harmony 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 asso-
Tityrus in Virgil ; and this is the explanation given 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. l. c. ; DeoK. Jévos. ) 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
Pbiletas. In the compitou Jévos we are told days. The manner in which Ptolemy, the son of
that “ he was the disciple of Philetas (of Cos) and Lagus, is alluded to, in Id. xvii. 14, confirms the
Asclepiades (of Samos), whom he mentions,” supposition that Theocritus had lived under that
namely, in Id. vii. 40:-
king. From the 16th Idyl it is evident that
ούτε τον εσθλον
Theocritus returned to Syracuse, and lived there
Σικελίδαν νίκημι τον εκ Σάμω, ούτε Φιλητάν,
under Hiero II. , but the contents of the poem are
not 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
(Schol. ad loc. ) Another reference to his conuection 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 of Choeroboscus. (Bekker, Annot. 263. Be this as it may, the whole tone of the
in Etym. p. 705 ; Pantas [i. e. $ihtas) ftoá- poem indicates that Theocritus was dissatisfied,
okalos Deokpítov). He appears also to have been both with the want of liberality on 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 Phaenomena. (Schol. representations of which his fame chiefly rests.
ad ll. 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
Theocritus 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 phy-
having been written at Alexandria, and at all | sician Nicias, whom he addresses in terms of the
.
## p. 1033 (#1049) ##########################################
THEOCRITUS.
1033
THEOCRITUS.
-
highest commendation (Id. xi. 5, 6, xxviii. 7; spirit. The form of these poems is in perfect
comp. Arg. ad Id. xi. , and Jacobs, Arth. Graec. keeping with their object. The symmetrical ar
vol. xiii. p. 923).
rangement and the rapid transitions of the lively
Theocritus was the creator of bucolic poetry as a dialogue, the varied language and the musical
branch of Greek, and, through imitators, such as rhythms, the combination of the prevailing epic
Virgil, of Roman literature. The germ of this verse and diction with the forins of common speech,
species of poetry may be discovered, at a very early all contribute much to the general effect. In short,
period, among the Dorians, both of Laconia and of as Theocritus was the first who developed the
Sicily, especially at Tyndaris and Syracuse, where powers of bucolic poetry, so he may also be said to
the festivals of Artemis were enlivened by songs, have been the last who understood its true spirit,
in which two shepherds or herdsmen, or two parties its proper objects, and its natural limits.
of theni, contended with one another, and which The pocms of Theocritus, however, are by no
gradually grew into an art, practised by a class of means all bucolic. The collection, which has como
performers called Lydiastue and Bucoli:tuc, who down to us under his name, consists of thirty poems,
Nourished extensively in Sicily and the neighbour-called by the general title of Idyls, a fragment of a
ing districts of Iuly. The subjects of their songs few lines from a poem entitled Berenice, and twenty-
were popular mythical stories, and the scenes of two epigrams in the Greek Anthology, besides
country life ; the benuty, love, and unhappy end of that upon the poet himself, which, as above stated,
Daphnis, the ideal of the shepherd, who was is probably the production of Artemidorus. Several
introduced by Stesichorus into his poetry, and of other works were ascribed to him by the ancient
Diomns, who was named by Epicharmus ; the grammarians. Suidas (s. v. ) tells us that he wrote
melancholy complaints of the coy huntsman Me- the poems called Bucolics in the Doric dialect, and
nalcas ; and other kindred subjects. These songs that some ascribed to him also the following :-
were still popular in the time of Diodorus ; but the | Προιτίδας, Ελπίδας, ύμνους, Ηρωίνας, επικήδεια
only fragment of them which has come down to us | μέλη, έλεγείας, ιάμβους, επιγράμματα. The Greek
consists of the two following lines in the Priapeian author of a few sentences on the characteristics of
metre, prefixed to the works of Theocritus : the poetry of Theocritus, prefixed to his works,
Δέξαι ταν αγαθαν τύχαν, δέξαι ταν υγίειαν,
says that all poetry has three characters, the dinne
“Αν φέρομεν παρά τας θεου, αν εκαλέσσατο τήνα. ματικός, the δραματικός, and the μικτικός, and
that bucolic poetry is a mixture of every form.
(Welcker, über den Ursprung des Hirtenlieds, Kleine Bergk has recently classed the poems of Theocritus
Schriften , vol. i. pp. 402-411. )
under the heads of Carmina Bucolica, mimica, ly-
Theocritus, however, was the first who reduced rica, epica, and cpigrammata (Rhein. Alus. 1838
this species of poetry to such a form as to constitute -1839, vol. vi. pp. 16, &c. )
it a branch of regular literature ; and, in so doing, Of the thirty so-called Idyls, the last is a late
he followed, not merely the impulse of his own Anacreontic, of scarcely any poetical merit, and
genius, but, to a great extent, the examples of has no claim to be regarded as a work of Theocritus.
Epicharmus and of Sophron, especially the latter. Of the others, only ten belong strictly to the class
His bucolic idyls are of an essentially dramatic and of poems which the ancients described by the spe-
mimetic character. They are pictures of the ordi- cific names of Boukoliká, FOIevind, almoloká, or
nary life of the common people of Sicily ; whence by the first of these words used in a generic sense,
their name, elon, cidúxia. The pastoral poems Bucolics, or, as we say, pastoral poems; but, taking
and romances of later times are a totally different the term Idyl in the wider sense explained above,
sort of composition from the bucolics of Theocritus, we must also include under it several of the poems
who knows nothing of the affected sentiment, the which are not bucolic, but which are pictures of the
pure innocence, the primeval simplicity, or even the life of the common people of Sicily. In this ge-
worship of nature, which have been ascribed to the neral sense, the Idyls, properly so called, are the
imaginary shepherds of a fictitious Arcadia; nothing first eleven, the fourteenth, fifteenth, and twenty-
of the distinction between the country and the first, the last of which has a special interest, as
town, the description of which has been made a being the only representation we possess of the life
vehicle of bitter satire upon the vices of civilized of Grecian fishermen : the second and fifteenth are
communities. He merely exhibits simple and faithful evidently pretty close imitations of the mimes of
pictures of the common life of the Sicilian people, Sophron. Several of them are erotic in their cha-
in a thoroughly objective, although truly poetical racter, and allied, in their form, to different species
-spirite He abstains from all the mere artifices of of poetry: thus, the twelfth and twenty-ninth have
composition, such as fine imagery, high colouring, a decidedly lyrical complexion, while that of the
and pathetic sentiment. He deals but sparingly in nineteenth is epigrammatic, of the twentieth bu-
descriptions, which he introduces only as episodes, colic, and of the twenty-third tragic: the thirteenth
and never attempts any of those allegorical and eighteenth, which are also erotic, have the epic
applications of the sentiments and adventures of character, both in their subjects and their forn) ;
shepherds, which have made the Bucolics of Virgil and the twenty-seventh is an erotic poem under
a signal failure. Dramatic simplicity and truth the form of a mime. The sixteenth and seven-
are impressed upon the pictures exhibited in his teenth are imitations of another branch of the
poems, into the colouring of which he has thrown ancient lyric poetry, the encomium. The twenty-
much of the natural comedy which is always seen second is an epic hymn to the Dioscuri ; the twenty-
in the common life of a free people. His fifteenth fourth and twenty-fifth appear to be fragments of
idyl, the Adoniazusae, is a masterpiece of the mi- an epic poem on the adventures of Hercules, in the
metic exhibition of female character, rendered the learned tone of the Alexandrian epos, but still
more adınirable by the skill with which he has distinguished by the free and simple style of Theo-
introduced the praises of Arsinoë and Berenice, critus ; and the twenty-sixth is also epic, but of
without sacrificing anything of its genuine dramatic | very inferior merit, being a fragment of the story
:
## p. 1034 (#1050) ##########################################
1034
THEOCRITUS.
THEOCRITUS.
of Pentheus, related in a dry rhetorical manner. | however, is, that Theocritus purposely employed a
Lastly, the twenty-eighth, entitled 'Haardta, is an mixed or eclectic dialect, in which the new or
occasional poem, written in a very pleasing style. softened Doric predominates. (Jacobs, Praef ud
This great intermixture of the different species of Anth. Pal. p. xliii. ; Wüstemann, Pruleg. ad Theocr.
poetry is quite in accordance with the spirit of the p. xxxiv. )
age and of the Alexandrian school, in which the Of the other poems which have come down to us,
poet was brought up. But, in those of the idyls the Berenice, of which we only possess five lines
which are certainly genuine, all these varieties are and a word, preserved by Athenaeus (vii. p. 284),
harmonized by the true poetical genius of Theocritus. was an encomium of the celebrated queen, the wife
But yet, if we carefully examine the collection of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, and the mother of
as a whole, it will be found to contain incongruities Ptolemy Philadelphus. The poem entitled Syrinx,
of style and subject, and varieties of merit, too contained in the Greek Anthology, is an exercise
great to allow of the belief that all these twenty of ingenuity, consisting in the composition of
nine idyls (for the thirtieth may be certainly ex- twenty verses in such a manner that the length of
cluded) are the genuine productions of Theocritus. each pair of verses is less than that of the pair be-
The introduction of spurious poems into the colo fore, and thus the whole resembles the ten pipes of
lection can easily be accounted for. As early as the mouth-organ or Pan-pipes (oup. yt). Of the
B. C. 200 there existed a collection of the works of epigrams, two (Nos. 17, 18, Brunck) are supposed
the bucolic poets, Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, by Jacobs to be the productions of Leonidas of
as we learn from the following epigram of Artemi- Tarentum, while, on the other hand, the Palatine
dorus, which is prefixed to the works of Theocritus, MS. assigns the 10th epigram of Erycius to Theo-
and is also contained in the Greek Anthology critus. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 376 ; Jacobs,
(Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 293 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. Anth. Graec. vol. i. p. 194, vol. xiii. p. 958. )
vol. i. p. 194):-
It is unnecessary to say much of the reputation of
Βουκολικα Μοίσαι σποράδες πικά, νύν δ' άμα πάσαι | he has been deservedly placed at the head of the
Theocritus. Both in ancient and in modern times,
'Εντι μιας μάνδρας, έντι μιας αγέλας.
species of poetry which he formed, and in a very
Into such a collection, made at a time when critical high rank among all poets, for the force and truth.
science was in its infancy, every thing would na- fulness of his pictures, the beauty of his language,
turally be swept together that had the least tradi- and the simple good taste of his style. The best
tional or other claim to be regarded as the pro- discussion of his characteristics is that by Finken-
duction of one of these three poets ; and, moreover, stein, in the Introduction and Appendices to Arc-
whatever was of doubtful authority would naturally thusa, oder d. Bukol. Dichter des Alterthums, Berl.
be ascribed to Theocritus, as the most celebrated of 1806-1810. The Eclogues of Virgil are mere imita-
the three. Of this large collection the idyls tions of the Bucolics of Theocritus, to which they are
that have come down to us are merely samples, se immeasurably inferior. (VIRGILIUS. ] The Alex.
lected by the grammarians (whence the name of andrian grammarians gave Theocritus a place in one
Eclogae, which was afterwards applied to bucolic of their Pleiads, that, namely, of the seven miscel-
poetry in general); and thus it has happened that, laneous poets ; and commentaries were written
while much of the genuine poetry of Theocritus upon him by Amerias, Asclepiades of Myrlea,
has been lost, there must be much that is not his Theon, Theaetetus, Amarantus, Munatus, and
in the collection we now possess. To distinguish others. The existing Scholia evidently contain a
the genuine from the spurious, we have scarcely very small, and probably not the most valuable,
any other test than internal evidence ; and here portion of those commentaries: they consist chiefly
the danger arises, into which some critics appear to of paraphrastic explanations of the text.
have fallen, of making the comparative excellence The modern literature of Theocritus is much ton
of the poems the sole test of their genuineness. It voluminous to admit of any attempt to give here a
is impossible here to enter upon the detailed critical list even of the chief editions and illustrative works.
arguments for and against the genuineness of the The titles of the whole occupy forty-nine columns
several poems. The whole subject has been dis- of Hoffmann's Lexicon Bibliographicum Scriptorum
cussed by Eichstädt (de Carm. Theocr. ad sua Ge- Graecorum. The Editio Princeps, in folio, con-
nera revocat. fc. , Lips. 1794, 4to. ), by E. Rein- taining the Works and Days of Hesiod and the
hold (de Genuinis Theocr. Carm. et Supposititiis, Idyls of Theocritus, is without place or date, but
Jen. 1819), by A. Wissowa (Theocritus Theocri- is believed to have been printed at Milan about
teus, Vratislav. 1828, 8vo. ), and by Warton, 1481. There is another very early edition, in 8vo. ,
Meineke, and Wüstemann, in their editions of without place or date. The next earliest edition
Theocritus. Those idyls, of which the genuineness is that of Aldus, containing the Idyls, and a vast
is the most doubtful, are the 12th, 17th, 18th, 19th, mass of other matter, Venet. 1495, fol. For a full
20th, 26th, 27th, 29th, and 30th.
account of this and the other ancient editions, see
The Metre chiefly employed in these poems is Hoffmann. The chief among the more receut
the heroic hexameter, adapted to the purposes of editions are those of Reiske, Viennae, 1765, 1766,
Theocritus by having a more broken movement 2 vols. 4to. ; of Warton, Oxon. 1770, 4to. ; of
substituted for the sustained and stately march of the Brunck, in the Analecta, 1772, 4to. ; of Valcke-
Homeric verse. In a few cases other metres are naer, 1779—1781, 8vo. ; of Schaefer, 1810, fol. ; of
employed. The dialect of Theocritus has given the Heindorf, 1810, 8vo. ; of Gaisford, in his Poetae
grammarians considerable trouble. The ancient Minores, Oxon. 1816, 1820, 1823, 8vo. ; of Kiess-
critics regarded it as a modification of the Doric dia-ling, Lips. 1819, 8vo. , reprinted, with Bion and
lect, which they called véa Awpis, and some of the Moschus, Notes, Scholia, Indices, and Portus's
modern editors have carried this notion so far as to Lexicon Doricum, Lond. 1829, 2 vols. 8vo. ; of
try to expunge all the epic, Aeolic, and Ionic Jacobs, Halae, 1824, 8vo. , only vol. i. published; of
forms, which the best MSS. present. The fact, Meineke, Lips. 1825, 12mo. ; and, the most useful
## p. 1035 (#1051) ##########################################
THEODECTES.
1035
THEODECTES.
of all for ordinary purposes, that of Wüstemann, 1 4, B. C. 333; and, if we assume that the statue of
in Jacobs and Rost's Bibliotheca Graeca, Gothae, which he took such special notice had been but
1830, 8vo. (a new edition is expected). For an recently erected, we may suppose that Theodectes
account of the numerous Delectuses, and of the died about B. C. 335 or 334, and therefore, accord.
translations of the whole, or separate portions, of ing to Suidas's account of the length of his life,
the Idyls, and of the works upon Theocritus, the that he was born about B. C. 376 or 375. He
reader is referred to Hoffmann. The chief English would then be about 23 or 24 at the time of the
versions are those of Creech, Lond. 1681, 1684, funeral of Mausolus ; about the same age as
1713, 1721, 12mo. ; Fawkes, Lond. 1767, 8vo. ; Theopompus, his rival on that occasion, and his
and Polwhele, Lond. 1786, 4to. , 1792, 1811, 8vo. fellow-pupil under Isocrates ; and about ten years
(Fabric. Bibl. Gracc. vol. iii. pp. 764, foll. ; Wüs younger than Aristotle, a result agreeing with the
temann's Prolegomena; Bernhardy, Gesch. d. Gricch. account which makes him not merely the friend,
Lit.
