Timotheus of Gaza

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Timotheus of Gaza (

Anastasius, i.e. 491–518. His works became very popular within the Byzantine and Arabic scientific literature.[1]

Life and work

Timotheus was likely linked to the

rhetorical school of Gaza, an academy that combined classical Hellenistic tradition with Christian thought.[2] His teacher was Horapollo the grammarian from the village Phenebythis.[3] He was the author of a book on animals[4] which may have been one of the sources of the Arabic Nu'ut al-Hayawan.[5] He also wrote a work in four volumes titled Indian Animals or Quadrupeds and Their Innately Wonderful Qualities or Stories about Animals that survives only in an 11th-century prose summary. This prose summary was a very popular school text, and includes accounts of the giraffe, tiger, and other animals.[6]

Timotheus might have also composed a tragedy lampooning the chrysargyron tax.[7]

References

  1. . Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  2. . Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  3. ^ Stephanos Matthaios, “Greek Scholarship in the Imperial Era and Late Antiquity,” in History of Ancient Greek Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Byzantine Age, ed. Franco Montanari (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 287.
  4. ^ Gaza, Timothy of (1949). F.S. Bodenheimer, A. Rabinowitz (ed.). On Animals... Paris/Leiden.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. S2CID 147651396
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  6. .
  7. . Retrieved 7 January 2024.