Timocrates
- an Epicurean philosopher of the third century B. C., Cic. Fin. 2, 31, 101; id. N. D. 1, 33, 93.
(Τιμοκράτης).
1. A Lacedaemonian, was one of the three counsellors (Brasidas and Lycophron being his colleagues) who were sent to assist Cnemus after his first defeat by Phormion in the Corinthian gulf, in B. C. 429. In the second battle there shortly after, Tímocrates was on board of a Leucadian galley, which was one of the twenty fast-sailing ships appointed to prevent the Athenians from escaping to Naupactus. This vessel, in the pursuit, far outstripped the rest of the squadron, and the hindmost Athenian galley, closely chased by it, wheeled suddenly round a merchant ship which was lying at anchor, struck her pursuer in the centre, and sank her. Timocrates hereupon slew himself, and his body was washed into the harbour of Naupactus (Thuc. 2.85-92).
2. An Athenian, was one of the commissioners for concluding the fifty years' truce between Athens and Sparta, in B. C. 421, and also the separate treaty between these states in the same year. (Thuc. 5.19, 24.) We may perhaps identify him with the father of the Athenian commander, Aristoteles. (Thuc. 3.105.)
3. (Unless he is to be identified with No. 2.) An Athenian, who, in B. C. 406, was a member of the Council of Five Hundred, before which the generals who had conquered at Arginusae gave in their account. Having heard it, Timocrates made and carried a proposal that they should all be kept in custody and handed over to the judgment of the people (Xen. Hell. 1.7.3.)
4. A Rhodian, who was sent into Greece by the satrap Tithraustes in B. C. 395, taking with him fifth talents wherewith to bribe the leading men in the several states to excite a war against Sparta at home, and so to compel the return of Agesilaus from his victorious career in Asia. Plutarch calls him Hermocrates (Xen. Hell. 3.5.1; Paus. 3.9; Plut. Artax. 20.)
5. A Lacedaemonian, was one of the ambassadors who were sent to Athens in B. C. 369, to settle the terms of alliance between the Athenians and the Spartans (Xen. Hell. 7.13.) [Cephisodotus, No. 2.]
6. A Syracusan, who commanded a squadron of twelve galleys, sent by Dionysius the Younger to the aid of Sparta in B. C. 366. The arrival of this force enabled the Spartans to reduce Sellasia, which had revolted from them. (Xen. Hell. 7.4.12.)
7. An Athenian, the proposer of a law providing that a public debtor should be exempt from imprisonment on his giving security for payment within a certain time. For this, Timocrates was prosecuted by Diodorus and Euctemon, and for them Demosthenes wrote the oration (κατὰ Τιμοκράτους), which was delivered by Diodorus in B. C. 353 [Androtion; Melanopus.] It is a question whether this Timocrates should be identified with a person of the same name, who was the first husband of the sister of Onetor, and who surrendered her to Aphobus. (Dem. c. Onet. i. pp. 865, &c.) [E.E]
- Persian emissary in Greece: Paus. 3.9.8