Timaeus (historian)
Timaeus of Tauromenium (
Biography
Timaeus was born 356 or 350 to a wealthy Greek family in
In 316 or 315 BC, Timaeus is said to have been driven out of Sicily by Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse, possibly because of his hostility towards him, although it is likely that he left his hometown considerably earlier. Timaeus stated that he spent at least 15 years in Athens, where he studied under Philiscus of Miletus, a pupil of Isocrates. He wrote at that time his major work on history.[3]
Timaeus may have returned to Sicily in c. 265 BC, under the reign of Hiero II. He died shortly after 264 BC, allegedly at the age of 96.[2][3]
Work
While in Athens, he completed his great historical work, the Histories, which comprised thirty-eight books.
Timaeus devoted much attention to
Timaeus can claim to be the first to recognize in his work the rising power of the Roman Republic,[6] although it is not clear whether he regarded Rome as a potential friend or foe, and how he understood its significance for the history of the Mediterranean world as a whole.[2] According to scholar Craige B. Champion, "Timaeus may well have been the first writer to see clearly the importance to the western Greeks of the victor of the great Sicilian War, whether it be Rome or Carthage, which he could not have divined."[2]
Very few parts of the elaborate work of this historian were preserved after Antiquity:[citation needed]
- Some fragments of the 38th book of the Histories (the life of Agathocles);
- A reworking of the last part of his Histories, On Pyrrhus, treating the life of this king of Epirus until 264 BC;
- History of the cities and kings of Syria (unless the text of the Suda is corrupt);
- The chronological sketch (The victors at Olympia) perhaps formed an appendix to the larger work.
Reception
Timaeus was highly criticized by other historians, especially by Polybius, and indeed his unfairness towards his predecessors, which gained him the nickname of Epitimaeus (Επιτίμαιος, "fault-finder"), laid him open to retaliation. While Polybius was well-versed in military matters and a statesman, Timaeus is depicted as a bookworm without military experience or personal knowledge of the places he described. The most serious charge against him was that he willfully distorted the truth when influenced by personal considerations: thus, he was less than fair to Dionysius I of Syracuse and Agathocles, while loud in praise of his favourite Timoleon.[5]
On the other hand, as even Polybius admitted, Timaeus consulted all available authorities and records. His attitude towards the myths, which he claimed to have preserved in their simple form, can be contrasted to the rationalistic interpretation under which it had become the fashion to disguise them. This is probably the origin of his nickname graosyllektria (γραοσυλλεκτρία; "Old Ragwoman", or "collector of old wives' tales"), an allusion to his fondness for trivial details.[5]
Both
See also
Notes
- ^ Pearson 1987, p. 1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Champion 2012.
- ^ a b c d Meister 2016.
- ^ Pearson 1987, p. 271.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 977.
- ^ F. W. Walbank. "Polemic in Polybius," The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 52, Parts 1 and 2 (1962), p. 10
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 978.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-1-4443-3838-6.
- Meister, Klaus (2016). "Timaeus (2), of Tauromenium, western Greek historian". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
- ISBN 978-1-55540-151-1.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Timaeus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 977–978. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Brown, Truesdell S. (1958). Timaeus of Tauromenium. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Baron, Christopher A. (2013). Timaeus of Tauromenium and Hellenistic Historiography. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-00097-1.
- Meister, Klaus (1989). "The role of Timaeus in Greek historiography". Scripta Classica Israelica. 10: 55–65.
- Momigliano, A. (1987) "Athens in the third century BC and the discovery of Rome in the Histories of Timaeus of Tauromenium." In Essays in ancient and modern historiography: 37–66.
- Schepens, Guido (1994). "Politics and Belief in Timaeus of Tauromenium". Ancient Society. 25: 249–278. JSTOR 44079743.
- Walbank, F. W. (2002) "Timaeus' views on the past." In Polybius, Rome and the Hellenistic world: essays and reflections: 165–77.