Timotheus
- Son of Conon, leader of the Athenians, and restorer of the walls of Athens; his life is written by Nepos; cf. also Cic. Off. 1, 32, 116; id. de Or. 3, 34, 139; id. Tusc. 5, 35, 100; Nep. Con. 1 sqq.—
- II A musician, a native of Miletus, Cic. Leg. 2, 15, 39; Quint. 2, 3, 3; Macr. S. 5, 22.
- 1. zoon v. Conon, Atheens legeraanvoerder, strateeg vanaf 376/75 v. Chr.;
- 2. musicus uit Milete (ca. 450—360 v. Chr.).
(Τιμόθεος), historical.
1. Father of Conon, the famous general. (Paus. 8.52.)
2. Son of Conon, was a native of the demus of Anaphlystus, and, according to a probable conjecture of Boeckh, belonged to the priestly family of the Eumolpidae (Corp. Inscr. 393 ; see Rehdantz, Vit. Iph. Chabr. Tim. p. 45). For the statement of Athenaeus (xiii. p. 577a), that his mother was a Thracian hetaera, there appear to be no good grounds. Inheriting a considerable fortune from his father, he seems in his early years to have indulged in the display of it, as we may gather from an allusion in the Plutus of Aristophanes (B. C. 388); and we may therefore well believe the assertion, that it was through his intercourse with Isocrates that his mind was directed to higher views (Lys. de Arist. Bon. p. 155; Arist. Plut. 180 ; Schol. ad loc. ; Dem. c. Aphob. i. p. 815, c. Aphob. de F. T. p. 862; Pseudo-Dem. Erot. p. 1415). In B. C. 378, Timotheus was made general with Chabrias and Callistratus, and it is possible that, while Chabrias was occupied in Boeotia, his colleagues commanded the fleet, and were engaged in bringing over Euboea and other islands to the Athenian confederacy (Xen. Hell. 5.4.34 ; Diod. 15.29, 30; Plut. de Glor. Ath. 8; Rehdanttz, p. 57). In B. C. 375, Timotheus was sent with sixty ships to cruize round the Peloponnesus, in accordance with the suggestion of the Thebans, that the Spartans might thus be prevented from invading Boeotia. On his voyage he ravaged Laconia, and then proceeded to Corcyra, which he brought over to the Athenian alliance, behaving after his success with great moderation. This conduct, together with his conciliatory disposition and manners, contributed mainly to the prosperous issue of his further negotiations, and he succeeded in gaining the alliance of the Cephallenians and Acarnanians, as well as that of Alcetas I., the king of Epirus. A Spartan fleet under Nicolochus was sent out against him, but he defeated it off Alyzia on the Acarnanian coast, and, being strengthened shortly after by a reinforcement from Corcyra, he entirely commanded the sea, though, having brought with him only thirteen talents from home, he was greatly embarrassed for want of funds (Xen. Hell. 5.4. §§ 62-66; Dem. c. Arist. p. 686; Isocr. περὶ Ἀντιδ. § 116; Diod. 15.36; Corn. Nep. Tim. 2 ; Ael. VH 3.16; Pseudo_Arist. Oecon. 2.23 ; Polyaen. 3.10). In the following year peace was concluded between Athens and Sparta, and Timotheus was recalled. On his way, however, he stopped at Zacynthus, and forcibly restored some democratic exiles who had fled to him for refuge ; hereupon the oligarchical party in the island complained to Sparta, and the failure of her applications to Athens for redress led to a renewal of the war (Xen. Hell. 6.2. §§ 2, 3; Diod. 15.45). In B. C. 373, he was appointed to the command of sixty ships destined to act against Mnasippus in Corcyra ; but he had no means of fully manning his squadron, and he was obliged therefore to cruise about the Aegean for the purpose of collecting men and money. It would appear to have been in the course of this cruize that he formed an intimacy with Amyntas, king of Macedonia, who made him a present of a quantity of timber for a house which he was building in the Peiraeeus. A considerable time, however, was expended in these preliminary operations, the danger of losing Corcyra was becoming more and more imminent, and Timothens, being accused by Iphicrates and Callistratus, was deposed from his command, and recalled to Athens to stand his trial. This came on in the autumn of the same year, and he obtained an acquittal principally through the intervention of Jason of Pherae, and Alcetas, king of Epeirus, who had come to Athens to intercede for him. In the oration against him written for Apollodorus, son of Pasion, and ascribed to Demosthenes, there are many statements connected with the circumstances of Timotheus at this period, which we must of course regard with suspicion; but we learn from it certainly that he was now reduced to great pecuniary embarrassments, having probably expended his money in the public service, and was even compelled to borrow from Pasion wherewithal to receive his distinguished guests above mentioned (Xen. Hell. 6.2. §§ 11-13; Diod. 15.47; Dem. c. Tim. pp. 1186-1192, &c.; Corn. Nep. Tim. 4). In the following year (B. C. 372) he entered into the service of Artaxerxes II., king of Persia, find went to command against Nectanabis I. in Egypt ; but of his operations in this quarter we have no record (Dem. c. Tim. pp. 1191, 1192, 1195). It appears to have been about B. C. 367 that he was sent by the Athenians to aid Ariobarzanes, with an injunction, however, not to abet him in any enterprise against the king, his master; and accordingly, when he found that he was in open revolt from Artaxerxes, he refused to give him any assistance. He did not, however, consider himself precluded from besieging Samos, which was occupied by a Persian garrison under Cyprothemis, and, if he had felt any scruples, the rescript of the king, so favourable to Thebes at the expense of Athens, must have removed them [Pelopidas ; Leo, No. 6]. The attack on the island was successful, and at the end of eleven months Samos was restored to the Athenian alliance. Timotheus then sailed northward, and took the towns of Sestus and Crithote on the Hellespont, acquisitions which, according to Isocrates, first directed the attention of the Athenians to the recovery of the whole Chersonesus. If we may believe Cornelius Nepos, he was placed in possession of these two places by Ariobarzanes, as a reward for his services to him; but it is not easy to reconcile this statement with the account of Demosthenes, as given above, of his refusal to help the rebel satrap. (Dem. pro Rhod. Lib. pp. 192, 193; Isocr. περὶ Ἀντιδ. §§ 118, &c.; Corn. Nep. Tim. 1 ; Pseudo-Arist. Oec. 2.23; Polyaen. 3.10.)
These successes, coupled probably with their jealousy of Iphicrates as the son-in-law of Cotys, seem to have mainly induced the Athenians to appoint Timotheus instead of him as commander in Macedonia (B. C. 364), where the recovery of Amphipolis was the great object of their wishes. In the interval between the recall of Iphicrates and the arrival of Timotheus, the Athenian forces were commanded by Callisthenes, whose disadvantageous treaty with Perdiccas III. of Macedonia contributed perhaps to hamper the new general, when he came on the scene of action. Timotheus, on taking the command, endeavored to secure the services of the adventurer Charidemus, but the latter passed over to the service of Cotys, in ships with which the Athenians themselves had furnished him; and it was now perhaps that, despairing of any effectual assault on Amphipolis, Timotheus turned his arms against the Olynthians, from whom, with the help of king Perdiccas, he took Potidaea and Torone; and followed up these successes, if we may believe Isocrates, his friend and panegyrist, with the capture of all the Chalcidian towns. It was in the same year, if we adopt the chronology of Diodorus, that he rejected an application from the nobles of Heracleia on the Euxine to aid them against the people ; and in the same year, too, he relieved Cyzicus from a siege in which it was hard pressed, perhaps by the Persian garrison, which the citizens had ejected, perhaps, according to a conjecture of Mitford, by the armament of Epaminondas, who at the time was endeavouring to make Thebes a naval power, and to contest with Athens the sovereignty of the sea. The chronology, however, of the operations of Timothens at this period is very uncertain ; but on the whole it appears probable, following the views of Rehdantz, in preference to those of Thirlwall, that his campaign in the Chersonesus against Cotys was subsequent to his attempt on Amphipolis. The latter turned out an utter failure, the enemy having collected against him with numbers so superior, that he found it necessary to burn his ships on the Strymon, and to make his retreat by land. He was more successful, however, in the war with Cotys, who was probably assisted by the Byzantians (B. C. 363 ?), and gathered from his territory booty to the value of 1200 talents. (Dem. Olynth. ii. p. 22, iii. p. 36; Schol. Aug. ad loc. ; Dem. c. Arist. pp. 669, 670; Aesch. de Fals. Leg. p. 32; Isocr. περὶ Ἀντιδ. § 119; Deinarch. c. Dem. p. 91, c. Philocl. p. 110; Diod. 15.81; Pseudo-Arist. Oec. l.c. ; Polyaen. 3.10; Just. 16.4 ; C. Nep. Tim. I; Mitford's Greece, vol. v. p. 220 ; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. v. pp. 189, 193, 206, 217, 218; Rehdantz, pp. 132, &c.) [Charidemus ; Clearchus.]
At this period Timotheus would probably be at the height of his glory and popularity, not only among the Athenians, but with many of the other Greeks, a popularity, however, not unmixed with envy, if we may believe the anecdote related by Aelian, that painters were wont to represent him as sleeping in his tent, while Fortune, standing over his head, drew cities for him into a net. (Dem. c. Lept. pp. 482, 483; Isocr. Ep. ad Myt. p. 426 ; Paus. 1.3; Ael. VH 13.43; Plut. Reg. et Imp. Apoph. Tim. l.) It seems most likely also that at this time, about B. C. 360, he increased his political influence by a reconciliation with Iphicrates, to whose son Menestheus he gave his daughter in marriage. [Iphicrates; Menestheus.] To the suit instituted against him by Apollodorus, the son of Pasion, for sundry sums of money alleged to have been borrowed by him from the latter, it is not possible to assignn any exact date; but there is no period at which it can be fixed more satisfactorily than between B. C. 360 and 356. The oration, written for the plaintiff on this occasion, and ascribed to Demosthenes, is still extant. (See Rehdantz. pp. 195, 196.) In B. C. 358, when the Thebans had sent a military force over to Euboea, Timotheus, by an energetic appeal and fervid eloquence, incited the Athenians to raise an armament for the purpose of opposing them there, and saving their own interests in the island. (Diod. 16.7 ; Dem. Olynth. i. p. 11, de Chers. p. 108, c. Androt. p. 597; Aesch. c. Ctes. p. 65.) In the following year the Social War broke out; and in the second campaign of it (B. C. 356) Timotheus, Iphicrates, and Menestheus were joined with Chares as commanders of the Athenian fleet. The circumstances which followed are variously related. According to Diodorus, Chares vainly endeavoured to induce his colleagues to engage the enemy in a storm, and, on their refusal, wrote to the people, accusing them of treachery. The account of C. Nepos is that Chares, having risked a battle in spite of the weather, was defeated, and, in order to screen himself, laid the blame on the other generals for not supporting him. Any how they were recalled, and Iphicrates and Menestheus were brought to trial first, the prosecution being conducted by Aristophon the Azenian. They were acquitted; but Timotheus was nevertheless afterwards arraigned, probably in B. C. 354, and condemned to the crushing fine of 100 talents (more than 24,000l.). From Deinarchus we learn that the main charge against him was the having received bribes from the Chians and Rhodians, and the truth of this, if we follow the common reading in the passage (Dein. c. Dem. p. 92), he himself confessed. According to Isocrates, his condemnation was caused chiefly by his haughty and unbending demeanour, and by his refusal to pay court to the people and the popular orators. Be that as it may, he was unable to pay the fine, and withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died shortly after. The Athenians subsequently remitted nine-tenths of the penalty, and allowed his son Conon to expend the remainder on the repair of the walls, which the famous Conon had restored. (Isocr. Περὶ Ἀντιδ. §§ 137, &c.; Diod. 16.21; C. Nep. Tim. 3, 4 ; Deinarch. c. Philocl. p. 110; Ael. VH 3.47, 14.3; Perizon. ad loe.)
The character of Timotheus was marked by mildness and amiability, even though we should set against this the haughtiness and the somewhat presumptuous self-reliance which his brilliant successes seem to have produced in him. Like his contemporaries Chabrias and Chares, he preferred residing abroad when he could,--a preference which may be ascribed at least as much to the glaring evils of the Athenian democracy as to the luxurious propensities which have been, on no very strong grounds, imputed to him. The eloquence and learning which were united with his military talents, must be traced in a great measure to his intimate friendship with Isocrates, who frequently attended him in his campaigns, and wrote his despatches for him. As a general he possessed some of the highest qualities, and held in contempt that fiery rashness which, as in the case of Chabrias, forgets the special duties of the commander in the mere dashing gallantry of the soldier. (Ael. VH 2.10, 18; Ath. x. p. 419c., d., xii. p. 532b. ; Cic. Tusc. Quaest. 5.35, de Orat. 3.34, de Off. 1.32; Nep. Chabr. 3 ; Plut. Sull. 6, Reg. et Imp. Apoph. Tim. 2.)
3. Son of Clearchus, the tyrant of Heracleia on the Euxine. After the death of his father in B. C. 353, he succeeded to the sovereignty, under the guardianship, at first, of his uncle Satyrus, and held the rule for fifteen years. There is extant a letter addressed to him by Isocrates, in which the rhetorician commends him for his good qualities, gives him some very common-place advice, and recommends to his notice a friend of his, named Autocrator, the bearer of the epistle. (Diod. 16.36; Wess. ad loc. ; Memn. apud Phot. Bibl. 224 ; Isocr. Ep. ad Tim.) [Clearchus.]
4. An Athenian, of the priestly family of the Eumolpidae, whom Ptolemy Lagi brought over to Egypt, to preside over and interpret religious rites and ceremonies. He was consulted by the king when, in consequence of a dream, he was contemplating the introduction of the foreign deity Serapis. (Tac. Hist. 4.83; Plut. de Is. et Osir. 28.) [E.E]
(Τιμόθεος), literary.
1. An Athenian comic poet of the Middle Comedy, of whose plays we have the following titles, Κυνάριον (Ath. vi. p. 243d; Suid.), Πύκτης, Παρακαταθήκη, and Μεταβαλλόμενος or Μεταφερόμενος. The only fragments of his dramas extant are the three lines quoted by Athenaeus from the first of the above plays, and three other lines, without the title of the comedy to which they belong (Append. Florent. ad Stob. p. 23. 7, ed. Gaisford). Three of the above titles are identical with those of plays ascribed to other poets; namely, there is a πύκτης by Timocles, a Παρακαταθήκη by Aristophon, Sopater, Sophilus, and Timostratus, and a Μεταφερόμενος by Poseidippus. The Κύκλωψ, which Harless adds to the list of the comedies of Timotheus, is evidently the title of a work of the celebrated dithyrambic poet Timotheus. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 505; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 428, vol. ii. p. 589; Editio Minor, p. 798.)
2. The celebrated musician and poet of the later Athenian dithyramb, was a native of Miletus, and the son of Thersander (Steph. Byz. s. v. Μίλητος; Marm. Par. Ep. 77; Alex. Aetol. apud Macr. 5.22; Suid. s.v.). Suidas calls him a son of Thersander, or Neomysus, or Philopolis ; but, as Schmidt observes, when Suidas mentions several names for a person's father, the first is usually the one which he has obtained from the best authorities; and the same scholar has suggested that the name Νεομύσου should perhaps be read Νεομούσου, which is very likely to be the invention of a comic poet, in allusion to the innovations made by Timotheus in music. (Diatribe in Dithyramb. pp. 96, 97.)
The date of Timotheus is marked by the ancients with tolerable precision. According to the Parian marble, he died in B. C. 357, in the ninetieth year of his age, which would place his birth in B. C. 446; but Suidas (s. v.) says that he lived ninety-seven years. The period at which he flourished is described by Suidas as about the times of Euripides, and of Philip of Macedon ; and he is placed by Diodorus with Philoxenus, Telestes, and Polyeidus, at Ol. 95, B. C. 398. (Diod. 14.46). The absence of any mention of Timotheus by Aristophanes (unless we suppose him to have been one of the many Timothei who, as the Scholiast on the Plutus, 5.180, tells us, were attacked by the poet) is a proof that he could not have attained to much eminence before the date mentioned by Diodorus; but yet it must have been before that year that his innovations in music began to attract public attention; for we have the testimony not only of Suidas, but also of Plutarch (see below) to the fact of his commencing his career during the life-time of Euripides, and we have also the decisive evidence of the celebrated passage from the comic poet Pherecrates, in which the musicians of the day are violently attacked as corrupters of the art (Plut. de Mus. 30, p. 1141f.; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 326-335). It is evident that this attack was aimed principally at Timotheus, whom the personification of Music mentions last of all, as having inflicted more numerous and more serious injuries upon her than either of his predecessors, Melanippides, Cinesias, or Phrynis. The following are the lines referring to him :-- ὁ δὲ Τιμόθεός μʼ, ὦ φιλτάτη, κατορώρυχεν καὶ διακέκναικʼ αἴσχιστα. Δ. ποῖος οὑτοσὶ Τιμόθεος; Μ. Μιλήτιός τις Πυρρίας τηε μεανινγ οφ τηις επιτηετ ις δουβτφυλ. σεε σξημιδτ, ππ. 97, 98, ανδ λεηρς, θυαεστ επιξ. ππ. 20, 21. κακά μοι παρέσχεν · οὗτος ἅπαντας οὓς λέγω παρελήλυθʼ, ᾄδων ὲκτραπέλους μυρμηκιάς ἐξαρμονίους ὑθερβολαίους τʼ ἀνοδίους, καὶ νιγλάρους, ὥσπερ τε τὰς ῥαφάνους ὅλην κάμπτων με κατεμέστωσε κἂν ἐντύχῃ πού μοι βαδιζούσῃ μόνῃ, ἀπέδυσε κἀνέλυσε χορδαῖς δώδεκα.
Respecting the details of his life we have very little information. He is said to have spent some time at the Macedonian court; and reference will presently be made to a visit which he paid to Sparta. He appears to have formed his musical style chiefly on that of Phrynis, who was also a native of Miletus, and over whom he on one occasion gained a victory. He was at first unfortunate in his professional efforts. Even the Athenians, fond as they were of novelty, and accustomed as they were to the modern style of music introduced by Melanippides, Phrynis, and the rest, were offended at the still bolder innovations of Timotheus, and hissed off his performance. On this occasion it is said that Euripides encouraged Timotheus by the prediction that he would soon have the theatres at his feet (Plut. An seni sit gerend. Rcspub. 23, p. 795c. d.). This prediction appears to have been accomplished in the vase popularity which Timotheus afterwards enjoyed. Plutarch records his exultation at his victory over Phrynis (De se ipsum laudand. 1, p. 539b. c.); and even when, on one occasion, he was conquered by Philotas, a disciple of Polyidus, he could console himself with the rebuke administered to the boasting master of his successful competitor by the witty Stratonicus, ὅτι αὐτὸς μὲν (i. e. Polyidus) ψηφίσματα ποιεῖ, Τιμόθεος δὲ νόμους. (Ath. viii. p. 352b. : the point of the saying is in the double meaning of νόμους, laws and musical strains, and is untranslateable into English.) The Ephesians rewarded him, for his dedicatory hymn to Artemis, with the sum of a thousand pieces of gold (Alex. Aetol. apud Macr. 5.22) : the last accomplishment, by which the education of the Arcadian youth was finished, was learning the nomes of Timotheus and Philoxenus (Plb. 4.20; Ath. xiv. p. 626c.) : and there is still extant a decree of the Cnossians, probably of the second century B. C., in which Timotheus and Polyidus are mentioned with the highest praise. and their names associated with those of the ancient Cretan poets (see Polyidus, p. 467b.). Timotheus died in Macedonia, according to Stephanus of Byzantium (l.c.), who has preserved the following epitaph upon him. (Also in Jacobs, Anth. Pal. App. No. 295. vol. ii. p. 851.) πάτρα Μίλητος τίκτει Μούσαισι ποθεινὸν Τιμόθεον, κιθάρας δεξιὸν ἡνίοχον. Works
The general character of the music of Timotheus, and the nature of his innovations, are pretty clearly described in the fragment of Pherecrates above quoted, and in other passages of the ancient writers. He delighted in the most artificial and intricate forms of musical expression, " windings like the passages in ant-hills " (Pherecr. l.c.) : he used instrumental music, without a vocal accompaniment, to a greater extent than any previous composer (at least if Ulrici is right in his interpretation of the words μόνῃ βαδιζούσῃ in Pherecrates) : and, in direct opposition to the ancient practice, he preferred the chromatic to the other genera of music, and employed it to such an extent, as to be by some considered its inventor. (Boeth. de Mus. i. l, p. 1372, ed. Basih) But perhaps the most important of his innovations, as the means of introducing all the others, was his addition to the number of the strings of the cithara. Respecting the precise nature of that addition the ancient writers are not agreed; but it is most protable, from the whole evidence, that the lyre of Timotheus had eleven strings. The eight-stringed cithara, formed by the addition of the chord of the octave which was wanting in the heptachord of Terpander, was used in the time of Pindar [Terpander]. The ninth string appears to have been added by Phrynis (Plut. Apophthleg. Lacon. p. 220c.). There were already ten strings to the cithara in the time of Ion of Chios, the contemporary of Sophocles (Ion, Epigr. ap. Euclid. Introd. Harmon. p. 19. ed. Meibom.); and the conjecture appears therefore probable that the tenth was added by Melanippides. There remains, therefore, only the eleventh string to be ascribed to Timotheus, for it is most probable that the mention of a twelve-stringed lyre, in the above passage of Pherecrates, according to the present text, arises from some error, and the word ἕνδεκα may be substituted for δώδεκα in the last verse, without injuring the metre. The positive testimonies for ascribing the eleventh string to Timotheus, are that of Suidas (s. v.), who, however, makes him the inventor of the tenth string also, which the testimony of Ion proves to be an error; and the tradition that, when Timotheus visited Sparta, and entered the musical contest at the Carneia, one of the Ephors snatched away his lyre, and cut from it the strings, four in number, by which it exceeded the seven-stringed lyre of Terpander, and, as a memorial of this public vindication of the ancient simplicity of music. and for a warning to future innovators, the Lacedaemonians hung up the mutilated lyre of Timotheus in their Scias. (Paus. 3.12.8; Plut. Instit. Lacon. 17, p. 238c., Agis, 10 ; Artemon. apud Ath. xiv. p. 636e.; Cic. de Legg. 2.15; the number of the additional strings is only stated in the first of these passages, but, besides the agreement of that number with the other evidence, it must be remembered that Pausanias actually saw the lyre hanging in the Scias at Sparta). It is quite a mistake to argue, in the spirit of a pseudo-rationalistic criticism, against the truth of this tradition, from the fact of the very same story being told about the nine-stringed lyre of Phrynis (Plut. Agis, 10. Apophth. Lacon. p. 220c.); for the conduct ascribed to the Ephor is so characteristic of the state of Spartan feelings with reference to the ancient music, that we may easily believe such an incident to have occurred every time that the attempt was made to violate that feeling; so that the two stories rather confirm one another; and, moreover, they are mentioned together, as two distinct events, by Plutarch (Agis, 10). The tradition is also embodied, with other particulars of the innovations of Timotheus, in the alleged decree of the Spartans, preserved by Boethius (de Mus. l.c.). It has been, however, very clearly proved, that this decree is the forgery of a grammarian of an unknown date. (See especially Müller, Dor. b. 4.6.3, vol. ii. pp. 316-319, ed. Schneidewin). Still it is of importance, as embodying what the grammarian, who forged it, had collected from the ancient writers respecting the musical innovations of Timotheus. The substance of it is an order to the Ephors to censure Timotheus the Milesian, for that he had dishonored the ancient music, and had corrupted the ears of the youth by deserting the seven-stringed lyre, and introducing a multiplicity of strings, and a novelty of melodies, in which ignoble and diversified strains took the place of the old simple and sustained movements, and by changing the genus from the Enharmonic to the Chromatic as an Antistrophic variation, and also for that, when invited to perform at the festival of the Eleusinian Demeter, he had given an indecent representation of the myth, and had improperly taught the youth the travail of Semele; and, besides this censure, he was to be ordered to cut away the strings of his lyre which exceeded seven.
Suidas (s. v.) describes his style in general terms as a softening of the ancient music (τὴν ἀρχαίαν μουσικὴν ἐπὶ τὸ μαλακώτερον μετήγαγεν). And Plutarch mentions him,with Crexus and Philoxenus, and the other poets of that age, as φορτικώτεροι καὶ φιλόκαινοι, and as especially addicted to the style called τὸν φιλάνθρωπον καὶ θεματικόν (de Mus. 12. p. 1135d.).
With regard to the subjects of his compositions, and the manner in which he treated them, we have abundant evidence that he even went beyond the other musicians of the period in the liberties which he took with the ancient myths, in the attempt to make his music imitative as well as expressive, and in the confusion of the different subjects and department of lyric poetry; in one word, in the application of that false principle, which also misled his friend Euripides, that pleasure is the end of poetry. Unfortunately the fragments of the poems of Timotheus and the other musicians of the period are insufficient to guide us to a full knowledge of their style; but we can judge of its general character by the choral parts of the tragedies of Euripides, and by the description of Plato (de Legg. iii. p. 700e.), aided by the ancient testimonies, and the few fragments collected by later writers. The subject is well, though briefly, treated by Müller (Hist. of Lit. of Anc. Greece, vol. ii. pp. 61, 62), who remarks that in the late dithyramb " there was no unity of thought; no one tone pervading the whole poem, so as to preserve in the minds of the hearers a consistent train of feelings; no subordination of the story to certain ethical ideas; no artificially constructed system of verses regulated by fixed laws; but a loose and wanton play of lyrical sentiments, which were set in motion by the accidental impulses of some mythical story, and took now one direction, now another; preferring, however, to seize on such points as gave room for an immediate imitation in tones, and admitting a mode of description which luxuriated in sensual charms." And a little above (p. 60)-- " At the same time the dithyramb assumed a descriptive, or, as Aristotle says, a mimetic character (μεταβολή). The natural phenomena which it described were imitated by means of tunes and rhythms and the pantomimic gesticulations of the actors (as in the antiquated Hyporcheme); and this was very much aided by a powerful instrumental accompaniment, which sought to represent with its loud full tones the raging elements, the voices of wild beasts, and other sounds. A parasite wittily observed of one of these storm-dithyrambs of Timotheus, that ` he had seen greater storms than those which Timotheus made in many a kettle of boiling water' (Ath. viii. p. 338a.)." A striking example of this mimetic and sensuous mode of representation is furnished by the dithyramb of Timotheus, entitled " the Travail of Semele" (Σεμέλης ὠδίν), which is censured in the pseudo-Lacedaemonian decree already quoted, and on one passage of which Stratonicus is said to have asked, " If she had been bringing forth a mechanic, and not a god, what sort of cries would she have uttered ?" (Ath. viii. p. 352a.; comp. Dio Chrysost. Orat. 77, p. 426, ed. Reiske.)
The language of Timotheus was redundant and luxuriant, as we see by a fragment from his Cyclops, preserved by Athenaeus (xi. p. 465d.). Of the boldness of his metaphors we have a specimen, in his calling a shield φίαλην Ἄρεος, for which he was attacked by the comic poet Antiphanes (Ath. x. p. 433c.), and which Aristotle has noticed no less than three times (Poet. 21.12, Rhet. 3.4, 11). There is another example of his bold figures in a fragment of Ann. xandrides (Ath. x. p. 455f.). In the celebrated passage of Aristotle respecting the representation of actual and ideal characters, in poetry and painting (Poet. 2), reference is made to " the Persae and Cyclopes of Timotheus and Philoxenus ;" but unfortunately there is nothing in the present text to show which of the two poets Aristotle meant to represent as the more ideal. Lyric poems other than dithyrambs
Like all the dithyrambic poets of the age, Timotheus composed works in every species of lyric. poetry, and that in such a manner as to confound the distinctions between the several species, mingling Threnes with Hymns, Paeans with Dithyrambs, and even performing on the lyre the music intended for the flute (Plato, de Legg. l.c.). The crowning step in this process appears to have been that which is ascribed to Timotheus alone, namely, the giving a dithyrambic tone and expression to the Nomes, which seem to have been hitherto preserved almost in their original form, and the adapting them to be sung by a chorus, instead of by a single performer (Plut. de Mus. 4, p. 1132d.; Clem. Al. Strom. i. p. 365).
The account which has now been given of the character of Timotheus as a musician and a poet must not be misunderstood. It is one thing to judge an artist by pure aesthetic standards, or by a comparison with the severe simplicity of an early stage of the development of his art; it is quite another thing to form a genial estimate of his character with reference to the prevailing taste of the tines in which he lived, or to the impression he would probably make on the mind of our own age. There was undoubtedly great power and beauty in the compositions of Timotheus, and if they could be restored, even as mere writings, and much more if they could be reproduced as they were publicly performed, they would certainly excite our admiration, whatever might be the judgment of calm criticism. The few fragments which have come down to us afford ample proof of this. Such a line, for instance, as that with which he led off his nome entitled Persae, κλεινὸν ἐλευθερίας τεύχων μέγαν Ἑλλάδι κύσμον, bears upon it the impress of the true poet. (Paus. 8.50.3; Plut. Philopoem. 11.) Lists of his works
He composed, according to Stephanus of Byzantium (l.c.), eighteen books of citharoedic nomes, containing eight thousand verses, and προνόμια αὐλῶν χίλια, according to the correction of Gronovius, αὐλῶν for ἄλλων, and, perhaps too, for προνόμια we should read προοίμια, but even so the meaning is not very clear, for we have no account of any flute-music by Timotheus : possibly there is some confusion between him and the flute-player of the same name, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great. Suidas gives a much fuller account of his works, and ascribes to him nineteen Musical Nomes, thirty-six Prooems, eight Diasceuae (διασκευαί, which Meineke supposes to mean compositions by other poets, which Timotheus recast and adapted to his own style of music, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 32), eighteen Dithyrambs, twenty-one Hymns, some Encomiums, and other works; and, besides this general classification of his works, Suidas mentions the following special titles, Ἄρτεμις, Πέρσαι ἢ Ναύπλιος, Φινείδαι, Λαέρτης. Probably, instead of Πέρσαι ἤ Ναύπλιος, we ought to read Πέρσαι, Ναύτιλος, as two distinct titles, for the Ναύτιλος of Timotheus is quoted by Athenaeus (viii. p. 338) and by Eustathius (ad Od. v. p. 1538). The Κύκλωψ, which appears to have been one of the most celebrated of his Dithyrambs, has already been referred to. The few extant fragments of these poems are collected by Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci, pp. 860-863, and by Kayser, Diatribe in Dithyrambum, pp. 96-120. Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 747, vol. ii. p. 325; Müller, Hist. of Lit. of Anc. Greece, vol. ii. pp. 59-62; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. ii. pp. 604-610; Bode, vol. ii.; Bernhardy, Gesch. d. Griech. Litt. vol. ii. pp. 551-554; Kayser, l.c. ; Clinton, Fast. Hellen. vol. ii. s. aa. 398, 357.
3. A very distinguished flute-player of Thebes, concerning whom a few particulars are mentioned in Lucian's dialogue Harmonides, in which Timotheus is introduced as discoursing to his disciple Harmonides concerning the means of obtaining success in his art. We learn from Suidas that Timotheus flourished under Alexander the Great, on whom his music made so powerful an impression that once in the midst of a performance by Timotheus, of an Orthian Nome to Athena, he started from his seat, and seized his arms. (Suid. s. vv. Ἀλέξανδρος, Ὀρθιασμάτων, Τιμόθεος.) We have a suspicion, notwithstanding the opinions of eminent scholars, that this Timotheus has been invented, through a series of confusions, out of the celebrated Milesian musician; but it is impossible in such a work as this to discuss every complicated question of criticism which may present itself.
4. A philosopher, follower of Patron the Epicurean, is mentioned by Strabo among the distinguished natives of Sinope (xii. p. 546; the words are Τιμόθεον τὸν Πατρίονα).
5. Of Athens, the author of a biographical work, from which Diogenes Laertius (3.5, 4.3, 5.1, 7.1) quotes statements respecting Plato, Spensippus, Aristotle, and Zeno. Nothing is known of his age, unless these references be supposed to furnish any guide to it. Vossius is probably right in supposing him to be a different person from the Timotheus whose ʼἈργολικά and the eleventh book of whose work on Rivers are quoted by Plutarch (de Fluv. 18. 3), and also different from the writer to whom Eustathius (ad Dion. Perieg. 421) refers. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 507, ed. Westermann.)
6. A mythological writer, from whom Arnobius (5.5) quotes some statements respecting the Phrygian worship of the mother of the gods. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 506, ed. Westermann.)
7. Of Gaza, an eminent grammarian, in the time of the emperor Anasiasius, whose financial admimstration he is said to have attacked in a tragedy entitled Χρυσάργυρος, of which no fragments are extant. He flourished therefore at the end of the fifth century of our era. He also wrote a poem in epic verse, and in four books, on the quadrupeds of India, Arabia, Egypt, and Libya, and on foreign and extraordinary birds and serpents. (Suid. s.v. Tzetz.
Chil. 4.128.)
8. Bishop of Alexandria towards the close of the fourth century, was distinguished for his opposition to Gregory of Nazianzus. He succeeded his brother Peter in the see of Alexandria in A. D. 379, and was present at the second general council at Constantinople, in the year 381, where He was one of the most active agents in the attack upon Gregory of Nazianzus, which caused the retirement of that great and good man, and in the appointment of his successor Nectarius. He died in A. D. 385. He wrote a work on the lives of the fathers and monks, which is quoted by Sozomen (H. E. 6.25), but is now lost. (Cave, Hist. Litt. s. a. 380, p. 274, ed. Basil.; Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. vol. x. pp. 138-293; Clinton, Fast. Rom. s. a. 381).
Notices of some other ecclesiastics and Christian writers of the name will be found in the works of Cave, Fabricius, and Schröckh. None of them seem to require specific mention, except a chronographer, who is quoted by G. Cedrenus and Jo. Malala. (See Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 507, ed. Westermann.) [P.S]
(Τιμόθεος), a statuary and sculptor, whose country is not mentioned, but who evidently belonged to the later Attic school of the time of Scopas and Praxiteles; for he was one of the artists who executed the bas-reliefs which adorned the frieze of the Mausoleum, about Ol. 107, B. C. 352. Timotheus sculptured the southern side of the frieze, the other three sides being wrought by Scopas, Bryaxis, and Leochares. (Plin. Nat. 36.5. s. 4. § .9; Vitruv. vii. Praef. § 12 ; Scopas; Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Mausoleum, 2d ed.) This statement also shows the eminence of Timotheus as an artist; for Pliny expressly tells us that it was an undetermined question, which of the four artists had been the most successful (hodieque certant manus). It must, however, be mentioned, that the Greek writers on the Mausoleum were not agreed as to the share of Timothens in its execution, some ascribing to Praxiteles that side of the frieze which others assigned to our artist. (Vitruv. l.c.)
The Artemis of Timotheus was esteemed worthy to be placed by the side of the Apollo of Scopas and the Latona of Praxiteles, in the temple which Augustus erected to Apollo on the Palatine (Plin. l.c. § 10; the lines of Propertius, describing these statues, are quoted under Scopas, p. 756b.). The head of this statue, however, was only a restoration by Aulanius Evander. (Plin. l.c.)
Pausanias (2.32.3. s. 4) mentions Timotheus as the maker of a statue at Troezen, which the Troezenians themselves believed to represent Hippolytus, but which he considered to be the statue of Asclepius. Pliny also enumerates Timotheus among the artists who made athletas et armatos ct venatores sacrificantesque (H. N. 34.8. s. 19.34). There is no ground for the doubt expressed by Sillig respecting the identity of the Timotheus referred to in all these passages. It is quite true that the artists of the later Attic school of sculpture wrought chiefly in marble; but there is sufficient evidence that they also practised the art of casting in bronze. [P.S]
(Τιμόθεος). (1) A celebrated musician and poet of the later Athenian dithyramb. He was a native of Miletus, and the son of Thersander. He was born B.C. 446, and died in 357, in the ninetieth year of his age. He was at first unfortunate in his professional efforts. Even the Athenians, fond as they were of novelty, were offended at the bold innovations of Timotheus, and hissed his performance. On this occasion it is said that Euripides encouraged Timotheus by the prediction that he would soon have the theatres at his feet. This prediction appears to have been accomplished in the vast popularity which Timotheus afterwards enjoyed. He delighted in the most artificial and intricate forms of musical expression, and he used instrumental music, without a vocal accompaniment, to a greater extent than any previous composer. Perhaps the most important of his innovations, as the means of introducing all the others, was his addition to the number of the strings of the cithara, which he seems to have increased to eleven.
(2) The son of Conon , the famous general. He was himself a distinguished Athenian soldier. He was first appointed to a public command in B.C. 378; and from this time his name frequently occurs as one of the Athenian generals down to 356. In this year he was associated with Iphicrates, Menestheus, and Chares in the command of the Athenian fleet. In consequence of his failure to relieve Samos he was arraigned in 354, and condemned to the crushing fine of 100 talents (more than $100,000). Being unable to pay the fine, he withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died shortly after. The Athenians subsequently remitted nine-tenths of the penalty, and allowed his son Conon to expend the remainder on the repair of the walls, which the famous Conon had restored. (His life is written by Nepos; see Diod. xv. 81, xvi. 7, 21; and the article Iphicrates).
(3) Son of Clearchus, the tyrant of Heraclea on the Euxine, whom he succeeded in the sovereignty, B.C. 353 (Diod. xvi. 36). There is extant a letter addressed to him by Isocrates.
(4) A sculptor, whose country is not mentioned, but who belonged to the later Attic school of the time of Scopas and Praxiteles. He was one of the artists who executed the basreliefs which adorned the frieze of the Mausoleum. He is also mentioned as the author of a statue of Asclepius at Troezen and one of Artemis which was at Rome (Pausan. ii. 32, 3; Pliny H. N. xxxvi. 32).
- Paus. 8.52.4
- Paus. 9.14.6
- Paus. 8.50.3
- condemned by Lacedaemonians for adding four new strings to lute: Paus. 3.12.10
- his lute hung in the Scias: Paus. 3.12.10
- Paus. 2.32.4
- statues of: Paus. 1.3.2, Paus. 1.24.3, Paus. 6.3.16
- his grave: Paus. 1.29.15