Theodotus of Chios
Theodotus of Chios
Biography
Theodotus of Chios was a trained rhetorician
The dethroned queen soon organized her own army by recruiting mercenaries in Palestine. Ptolemy XIII and his advisers were forced to move with their army into position near the Egyptian border fortress
The advisers of Ptolemy XIII officially agreed to the petition of Pompey to gain time. After the departure of the Roman messengers a council of state was held to discuss the next steps. Caesar in his
Only two days later, Caesar arrived with a fleet in Alexandria. According to the Roman historian Livy and the Greek biographer Plutarch, it was Theodotus who delivered the signet ring and the head of Pompey to Caesar. But the Roman general was allegedly disgusted and wept.[5] Ancient and modern historians have different opinions if the tears of Caesar were honest. Caesar stayed in Egypt and tried to win influence in the political affairs by claiming to decide the Ptolemaic struggle for the throne. He also demanded the payment of a large sum of money that the Ptolemaic government allegedly owed him for the military restoration of Ptolemy XII in 55 BC. This behaviour caused a war between the Roman dictator and the supporters of Ptolemy XIII. Because Caesar’s army was much too small he could only win the war after long and hard fighting.
Pothinus and Achillas were assassinated during the war, but Theodotus escaped from Egypt and for some years eked out a miserable existence. He died in Asia in 43 or 42 BC when Marcus Junius Brutus[6] or Gaius Cassius Longinus[7] put him cruelly to death. The Roman rhetorician Quintilian tells that a discussion with Caesar about the punishment of Theodotus was a subject in schools of rhetoric.[8]
In media
- Theodotus is one of the characters in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. He was played by Ernest Thesiger in the 1946 film adaptation.
- Theodotus is played by Herbert Berghof in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's epic long 1963 film adaptation of Cleopatra.
- In the 1983 TV mini-series The Cleopatras, Theodotus is portrayed by Graham Crowden.
- Theodotus plays a major role In the Last Pharaoh series by Jay Penner
- In the episode "Caesarion" of the television series Rome (2005–07) Theodotus is portrayed by actor David de Keyser. He is decapitated by the Romans and his head is placed on a spike on the outer wall of the pharaoh's palace.
- See also C.P. Cavafy's poem "Theodotus."
Notes
- Samos.
- ^ Plutarch, Pompey 80.9; Brutus 33.3; Appian, Civil Wars 2.84.354.
- Ab urbe condita, epitome of book 112; Florus2.13.60.
- Lucan, Pharsalia 8, 484-535 (who let Pothinus suggest to murder Pompey) and Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Civili3.104.1-2.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe condita, epitome of book 112; Plutarch, Caesar 48.2; the author of De viris illustribus (77.9) wrongly states that Achillas was the deliverer of the macabre present.
- ^ According to Plutarch, Pompey 80.9; Brutus 33.6.
- ^ According to Appian, Civil Wars 2.90.377.
- ^ Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 3.8.55-56.
References
- Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. 5 A, 2 (1934), col. 1956-1957.