1013 



THEOPHYLACTUS SIMOCATTA. 



THEOPOMPUS. 



1014 



according to their uses as furnishing juices, potherbs, and seeds which 

 may be eaten. The first book treats of the organs or parts of plants ; 

 the second of the reproduction of plants, and the times and mode of 

 sowing. Here he mentions the sexes of plants, and describes the 

 mode of reproduction in palms, and compares it with the caprification 

 of figs. The third, fourth, and fifth books are devoted to a considera- 

 tion of trees, their various kinds, the places they come from, and the 

 economical uses to which they may be applied. The sixth book treats 

 of undershrubs and spiny plants ; the seventh of potherbs ; the eighth 

 of plants yielding seeds used for food ; and the ninth, of those plants 

 that yield useful juices, gums, resins, or other exudations. In this 

 work there is much original and valuable observation, but at the same 

 time it is intermixed with many absurd statements with regard to the 

 functions and properties of plants. It is probable that much of the 

 valuable matter recorded in this work was the result of his own 

 observation, as he is known to have travelled about Greece, and to 

 have had a botanic garden of his own, whilst he was probably 

 dependent on the statements of soldiers and others connected with 

 the armies of Alexander for his information on Indian, Egyptian, and 

 Arabian plants. 



Theophrastus wrote also another work, ' On the Causes of Plants,' 

 irepl <pvri*>i> ed-riiv. This work was originally in eight books, six of 

 which remain entire. It treats of the growth of plants ; the causes 

 which influence their fecundity; of the times at which they should be 

 sown and reaped ; the modes of preparing the soil, of manuring it, 

 and of the instruments used in agriculture ; of the odours, tastes, and 

 properties of many kinds of plants. In this, as in the ' History of 

 Plants,' the vegetable kingdom is considered more in reference to its 

 economical than to its medical uses, although the latter are occasionally 

 referred to. In both works there is much valuable matter that deserves 

 the attention of the botanist, and a very little knowledge of botany 

 will enable the reader to separate the chaff from the wheat. Both 

 Haller and Adanson complain of the errors which translators and 

 editors of these works have fallen into for want of botanical knowledge. 

 Both works have gone through several editions : they were printed 

 together by the eons of Aldus at Venice, 8vo, in 1552, and again by 

 Heinsius, at Leipzig, in 1613. The 'History of Plants' has been 

 published separately more frequently than the ' Causes.' The best of 

 the old editions is that of Bodseus a Stapel, which was published by 

 his father after his death. It contains a preface by Corvinus ; the 

 Greek text, with -various readings ; the commentaries and remarks of 

 Constantinus and J. C. Scaliger ; the Latin translation of Gaza ; very 

 careful commentaries by Stapel ; a very copious index ; and the whole 

 is illustrated by wood-cuts. The cuts however are very inferior, and 

 are copies of those in the works of Dodonaeu?, which seem to have 

 been copied into nearly all the works published on botany at this 

 period. It appeared at Amsterdam in 1644, folio. An edition of this 

 work was published at Oxford, in 1813, by Stackhouse. This edition 

 is accompanied with a Syllabus of the genera and species of the 500 

 plants described by Theophrastus, also a glossary, and notes, with a 

 catalogue of the editions of the botanical works of Theophrastus. It 

 has also been edited by Schneider; but the most complete edition 

 is that of F. Wimmer, Vrat., 8vo, 1842. The History of Plants ' was 

 translated into German by Kurt Sprengel, and published at Altona, 

 8vo, in 1822. 



Besides his botanical works, Theophrastus wrote many others on 

 various subjects of natural history, which are enumerated with his 

 philosophical works in Diogenes Laertius (v. 42, &c.). One of them, 

 on Stones (irepi \i6onv), from which Pliny, in his account of stones, 

 derived the greatest part of his information, is still extant. De Laet 

 has prefixed it, with a Latin translation and notes, to his work ' De 

 Gemmis et Lapidibus,' 8vo, Leyden, 1647. A separate edition, with 

 an English translation, was published by Hill, 8vo, London, 1746; 

 another, with a French translation, appeared at Paris, 8vo, 1754 ; and 

 a third, with a German translation, by Baumgartner, 8vo, Niirnberg, 

 1770. 



Of his two books on Fire (irepl irvp6s), only one is now extant ; of 

 his other works on natural history, which are now lost, we possess a 

 considerable number of fragments. 



The editio princeps of all the works of Theophrastus is that of 

 Aldus, printed, together with the works of Aristotle, in 5 vols. fol., 

 Venice, 1495-98. Theodorus Gaza published a Latin translation, 

 which was made from the same manuscript from which the Aldiue 

 text was taken. The first edition of this translation is without date 

 or place ; a second appeared at Tarvisium in 1483. The last and best 

 edition is that of J. G. Schneider, 5 vols. 8vo, Leipzig, 1818-21. 



(Haller, Bibliotheca Botanica, torn, i., p. 31 ; Schulte, Geschichte der 

 Botanik ; Adanson, Families des Plantes ; Bischoff, Lehrbuch der 

 Botanik; Stackhouse, Theoph. Hist. Plant.; Fabricius, Biblioth. Grcec., 

 iii., p. 408, &c. ; RiUer, History of Philosophy; Krug, Geschichte der 

 Philosophic, 99.) 



THEOPHYLACTUS SIMOCATTA, of Locri, an historian, sophist, 

 and natural philosopher, who was living about A.H. 610-629. He wrote 

 a 'Universal History' in eight books, from the death of the emperor 

 Tiberius II., in 582, to the murder of Maurice and his children by 

 Phocas, in 602. This work is known by the Lathi title of ' Historic 

 Rerum a Mauritio gestarum Libri VIII.' It was printed, with a Latin 

 translation, by J. Pontanus, at Ingolstadt, 4to, 1604. An improved 



edition was published by Fabrotti, fol., Paris, 1648, reprinted 1729. 

 It is also contained in Niebuhr's collection of the Byzantine writers. 



He also wrote eighty -five short letter*, ' Epiatolao Morales, Rustic, 

 et Amatoriao,' which were published in the collections of Aldus, Cujacius, 

 and Henry Stephens; and a work entitled 'Problems in Natural 

 History ' (Airoplcu fyvaixal, Quaestiones Physicae), which wa published 

 at Leyden, 1596, and at Leipzig, 1653. The two last-mentioned works 

 have been edited by Boissonade, Paris, 1835. 



(Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca ; Scholl, Geschichte der Griech. Litt.) 



THEOPHYLACTUS, a native of Constantinople, was Archbishop 

 of Achris, the chief city of Bulgaria, about the year 1070 or 1077. 

 He wrote a work on the ' Education of Princes ' (IlatJfi'a /3a<r<A<^), 

 for the perusal of Constantinus Porphyrogennetus, the son of 

 Michael VII. and the empress Maria. This work forms a part of the 

 collections of Byzantine writers. 



Theophylactus is better known by his valuable commentaries on the 

 twelve minor prophets and the greater part of the New Testament, 

 which are chiefly compiled from the works of Chrysostom. He also 

 wrote seventy-five epistles and several tracts. These works were 

 printed in Greek and Latin, at Venice, 1754-63, 4 vols., fol. 



(Fabricius, Bibl. Graec., vii., p. 765 ; Lardner's Credibility, pt. ii., 

 c. 163 ; Scholl, Geschichte der Grie':h. Litt., iil 286.) 



THEOPOMPUS, an eminent Greek historian, was a native of the 

 island of Chios, son of Damasistratus, and brother of Caucalus, the 

 rhetorician. He was born about B.C. 380, and was instructed in rhe- 

 toric by Isocrates during his stay in Chios. (Plutarch, Vit. dec. Orat., 

 p. 837 C. ; Photius, Cod. 260, p. 793.) Photius in another passage 

 states that Damasistratus and his son were obliged to quit their native 

 island on account of their partiality towards Sparta : this seems to 

 have occurred about B.C. 360, when Chios was distracted by two parties, 

 the popular and the most powerful one being in favour of Thebes, 

 while a small number pf aristocrats supported the interest of Sparta. 

 To the latter belonged Theopompus and his father. The influence of 

 the instruction of Isocrates on Theopompus appears to have been very 

 great, for although he did not apply his oratorical powers to politics 

 or to speaking in the courts of justice, yet he wrote, like his master, a 

 considerable number of orations, which were recited at rhetorical con- 

 tests, and in which he is said to have even excelled his master. When 

 he was obliged to leave Chios, he went with his father to Asia Minor, 

 where he spent several years in travel and study, and acquired great 

 celebrity for his eloquence. At the age of forty-five he obtained leave 

 to return to his country through the interference of Alexander the 

 Great. After this event he took an active part in the political affairs 

 of his native island, and by his talents he became one of the principal 

 supports of the aristocratic party. So long as Alexander the Great 

 lived, his adversaries could not venture anything openly against him ; 

 but no sooner had the king died than the popular party again expelled 

 Theopompus. He now took refuge in Egypt under the protection of 

 Ptolemaeus, the son of Lagus, during whose reign he remained un- 

 molested. But his successor Ptolemaeus Philadelphus was ill dis- 

 posed towards him, and if Theopompus had not been advised by some 

 friends to quit the country, he would have been put to death. 

 Whither he now fled, what were his subsequent fortunes, and where 

 he died, are questions to which no answer can be given, though it is 

 highly probable that he died about or shortly after 308 B.C. 



The loss of the works of Theopompus, of which we now only pos- 

 sess numerous fragments, is one of the greatest that ancient history 

 has sustained. The following list contains the works he is known to 

 have written : 



1. An abridgment of the work of Herodotus ('EiriTO/j.)i TWV 'HpoS6rov 

 iffToptwv). This epitome is mentioned by Suidas and several other 

 grammarians. Modern critics think it highly improbable that Theo- 

 pompus should have undertaken such a task, and that it was probably 

 the work of some grammarian, who published it under the name of 

 the historian. The reasons adduced for this opinion are not satis- 

 factory, and it is not improbable that Theopompus may have made 

 this abridgment as a first attempt at historical composition. A few 

 fragments of it are still extant. 2. A more important work was a 

 history of Greece ('E\\riviKal icrTopicu, or 'Swra^is 'EAATjw/cwi'.) It took 

 up the history of Greece where Thucydides breaks off, B.C. 411, and 

 carried the events down to the battle of Cnidus, B.C. 394. The work 

 consisted of twelve books, and many fragments are still preserved. 

 3. The history of Philip of Macedonia and his time (*tAi7nrio, or 

 simply 'Iffropiat). It contained in fifty-eight books the history of Greece 

 from the accession of Philip, or more properly from the foundation of 

 Philippi, down to his death. Five books of it were lost as early as the 

 time of Diodorus Siculus (xvi. 3), and they were probably the same 

 which Photius (Cod., 176, p. 390) mentions as being lost in his time, 

 viz. books 6, 7, 9, 20, and 30. This voluminous work not only embraced 

 the history of Greece in the widest sense of the word within the period 

 mentioned, but also treated of those earlier parts of Greek history and 

 of the history of such barbarous nations as he had occasion to mention. 

 These things formed numerous and long digressions in the work, and 

 of their extent we may judge from the fact that Philip III. of Mace- 

 donia, after cutting out these digressions, reduced the work from 58 to 

 16 books. (Photius, Cod., 176.) We still possess many fragments of 

 the work, which the ancient writers refer to and quote. 

 Besides these historical works, Theopompus wrote many orations, 



