1015 



THEOTOCOPULI, DOMINICO. 



THERAMENES. 



1016 



and we know that he also composed Panegyrics on Mausolus, Philip, 

 and Alexander. As regards his character as an historian, the ancients 

 praise him as a lover of truth, but they also state that he was extra- 

 vagantly severe in his censure, and unbounded in his praise. His 

 ardent and vehement temper did not allow him to preserve that 

 calmness which becomes the historian. He is also charged with having 

 been too fond of the marvellous, and with having for this reason dwelt 

 too much upon the mythical stories of Greece wherever he had occa- 

 sion to mention them. 



The fragments of Theopompus have been collected by Wichers : 

 ' Theopompi Chii Fragments, collegit, disposuit, et explicavit, ejus- 

 demque de Vita et Scriptis Commentationem prsemisit," &c., Lugduni 

 Batavorum, 1829, 8vo. They are also contained in C. and J. Miiller's 

 'Fragmenta Historicorum Qraecorum' (Paris, 1841), p. 278-333. 

 Compare F. Koch, Prolegomena ad Theopompum Chium, Stettin, 1803, 

 4to. ; A. J. E. Pflugk, De Theopompi Chii Vita et Scriptis, Berlin, 1827, 

 8vo. ; Aschbach, Dissertatio de Theopompo Ohio Historico, Frankfurt, 

 1823, 4to. 



THEOTOCOPU'LI, DOMINICO, called EL GRECO, was painter, 

 sculptor, and architect. He is said to have been tue scholar of Titian. 

 In 1577 he was residing in Toledo, where he appears to have settled, 

 though from his name and his surname of El Greco, the Greek, he 

 was doubtless a native of Greece. He painted many pictures in 

 Toledo, and acquired a great reputation in Spain. El Greco made the 

 marble decorations of the altar (retablo), and the altarpiece of the 

 Parting of Christ's Raiment before the Crucifixion, for the sacristy of 

 the cathedral of Toledo, on which he was occupied from 1577 until 

 1587, when he was paid for the whole work 319,600 maravedis, of 

 which 119,000 were for the picture; about 100?. sterling altogether, but 

 owing to the change in the value of Spanish money it is now perhaps 

 impossible to calculate the sum accurately. He was however not 

 engaged exclusively on this work all this time; he painted other 

 works in the meanwhile, and for Philip II. an altarpiece of the 

 martyrdom of St. Maurice for the Escorial, which however Philip was 

 dissatisfied with. It is now in the chapel of the college; a picture by 

 Romulo Cincinnato was substituted for it over the altar of the chapel 

 of St. Maurice in the Escorial. The objections to this picture were a 

 certain hardness of colour and extravagance of design which El Greco 

 is said to have introduced to prevent the picture being mistaken for a 

 work of Titian, which it seems had been the fate of some of his best 

 pictures. 



As an architect he designed the Casa del Ayuntamiento, or mansion- 

 house, of Toledo, and the churches of La Caridad and of the convent 

 of the bare-footed Franciscans at Illescas ; and he executed also a great 

 part of the paintings and sculptures of these churches. In 1590 he 

 designed the church of the Augustines at Madrid, called the Donna 

 Maria de Aragon, and painted the principal altarpiece of their college. 

 He designed also several monuments, which are among his best 

 works. He died at Toledo in 1625, according to Palomino, seventy- 

 seven years of age ; and was buried with great pomp in the church of 

 St. Bartholomew. 



El Greco's pictures were still very numerous at the end of the 

 last century ; Cean Bermudez enumerates a great many in Toledo, 

 Illescas, Escalona, Bayona, in Segovia, La Guarda, Mistoles, Casar- 

 rubois, Siguenza, Medina Celi, Valencia, Leon, at the Escorial, and in 

 Madrid. Many have probably since been removed. Mr. Ford, in his 

 'Handbook of Spain,' notices only three pictures by this painter 

 Christ bearing his Cross, and a Nativity, and an Adoration, in the 

 Salon de la Sacristia al Toledo. The pictures of El Greco are greatly 

 praised ; his best works have been considered to be the Preparation for 

 the Crucifixion and the Parting of Christ's Raiment in the cathedral of 

 Toledo ; and the Entombment of Don Gonzalo Ruiz, Count Orgaz, 

 in the church of Santo Tome" at Toledo. The burial of Conde de 

 Orgaz was painted in 1584 for the archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Don 

 Caspar de Quiroga, for the great sum of 2000 ducats according to 

 Cumberland. The Count Orgaz was the founder of the Augustine 

 convent of San Estevan at Toledo, and this picture was painted in 

 honour of the foundation the Saints Augustine and Stephen are 

 represented depositing the count in his tomb, and the picture contains 

 the portraits of many distinguished persons of the time. 



His son GEORGE MANUEL THEOTOCOPULI, was also a sculptor and 

 architect of eminence. He was appointed sculptor and architect to the 

 chapter of the cathedral of Toledo in 1625 : he died at Toledo in 

 1631. He was the architect of the ochavo of the cathedral: it is an 

 octagon decorated with precious marbles and a painted dome, and is 

 used as the treasury-house of the Virgin, where her splendid dresses 

 are kept, as well as many precious relics. 



THERA'MENES was a native of Ceos, and the adopted son of 

 Hagnon, or Agnon, an Athenian. He acted a very prominent part 

 about the close and after the end of the Peloponnesian war. He 

 first appears in the history of Greece as taking a part in public affairs 

 in B.C. 409, when, in conjunction with Antiphon, Phrynichus, and 

 Pisander, he endeavoured to upset the democratiqal constitution of 

 Athens. In B.C. 410 he took part with Thrasybulus in the battle of 

 Cyzicus, and, in B.C. 406, in the celebrated battle of Arginusae. On 

 this occasion, on which the Athenians gained a glorious victory, many 

 lives were lost in the wrecks of their ships, which it was thought 

 might have been saved if proper care bad been .taken, Therameues 



and Thrasybulus had been commissioned by the Athenian generals to 

 take care of the wrecks and to save the men, but they were prevented 

 by a storm from accomplishing this object. The generals in their 

 despatch to Athens concealed the commission they had given to 

 Theramenes and his colleague, as it was clear that the latter would be 

 severely punished for their apparent neglect. After the first report, 

 the generals themselves were summoned to return to Athens, and in 

 self-defence they were compelled to give an accurate account of the 

 occurrence, and the more so as they had reason to believe that 

 Theramenes and Thrasybulus were instigating the people against 

 them. That their suspicion was not unfounded became evident after- 

 wards, for when six of the generals were actually brought to trial, 

 Theramenes was base enough "to appear foremost among their accusers. 

 The generals defended themselves ; and the late hour of the day 

 rendering it impossible to take the votes of the assembly, the business 

 was adjourned to another day. During the interval, Theramenes and 

 the other enemies of the generals exerted themselves to excite the 

 indignation of the people. On the day appointed for the next meeting 

 a number of persons hired by Theramenes appeared in the assembly 

 dressed in mourning, to rouse the sympathies of the people for the 

 loss of their friends and exasperate them against the alleged authors of 

 their misfortune. After various debates eight of the generals were 

 condemned to death, and six of them who were present at Athens, 

 were executed immediately. The blame of this act of cruelty falls 

 mainly upon Theramenes, " who had taken advantage of the uncom- 

 mon forbearance and candour of his victims, and of his own reputa- 

 tion, which had never before been stained by any atrocious crime, to 

 effect their destruction." 



Soon after the execution of the generals, the eyes of the Athenians 

 were opened, it is said, by Thrasybulus, to their innocence, and it was 

 decided that those who had misled the people should be proceeded 

 against, and that they should give security for their appearance at the 

 trial. Theramenes however, either by his skill or by accident, not 

 only avoided the prosecution, but retained his place in the popular 

 favour. In the following year (B.C. 405), shortly after the battle of 

 -<Egos Potami, when an Athenian embassy had been rejected by the 

 Spartan ephori, Theramenes, who, though he belonged to the oligar- 

 chical party, yet kept up the appearance of a friend of the people, 

 offered to go as ambassador to Lysander, who was blockading the 

 city, while famine was raging within. Theramenes promised to 

 procure favourable terms, if the people would trust him. The 

 majority readily acceded to his proposal, and he went to the camp 

 of Lysander. Here he stayed for upwards of three months, hoping 

 that in the meantime the city would be reduced to such a state of 

 weakness as to accept any terms, or that in the interval the oligarchical 

 party would gain the ascendancy. There is moreover no doubt that 

 he made Lysander acquainted with the plans of the oligarchs. When 

 he returned to the city, he declared that he had been detained by 

 Lysander, who himself had no power to decide upon the terms of 

 peace with Athens, and that at last he had been directed by the 

 Lacedaemonian general to apply to the government at Sparta. He 

 was accordingly sent thither with nine colleagues, and invested with 

 full power to negociate peace on any terms. Deputies of the Spartan 

 allies met the ambassadors, and several of them insisted upon the 

 total destruction of Athens ; but the Spartans, with an air of generosity, 

 declared themselves willing to grant peace on condition that the long 

 walls and fortifications of Pirseeus should be demolished, that all ships 

 of war with the exception of twelve should be delivered up to them, 

 and that Athens should join the Peloponnesian confederacy, and 

 follow Sparta both by land and sea. (Xenophon, ' Hellen.,' ii. 2.) 

 When Theramenes and his colleagues returned to Athens with these 

 tidings, the famine had reached its height, but there were still some 

 who refused to submit to the humiliating conditions. Theramenes 

 and his party anxious to get rid of these few before the report was 

 laid before the assembly, gained over a man of the name of Agoratus 

 to bring accusations against them and get them all arrested. The plan 

 succeeded, and the assembly was held in the theatre of Pirseeus, where 

 Theramenes urged the necessity .of concluding peace on the terms pro- 

 posed. Notwithstanding the opposition of some citizens to the treaty, 

 and the taunts of others-, who saw through the plans of Theramenes, 

 peace was ratified, and Lysander entered Pirseeus. [LYSANDER.] 



After the withdrawal of the Spartan general from Athens, Thera- 

 menes, Critias, and their associates, who had assumed the supreme 

 power, wishing to upset the democratical constitution, but to main- 

 tain some appearance of decency, invited Lysander to attend the 

 assembly in which alterations in the Attic constitution were to be 

 discussed. Theramenes undertook the management of the business, 

 and proposed that the supreme authority should for the present be 

 placed in thirty persons who should draw up a new code of laws. 

 The presence of Lysander and the neighbourhood of the Peloponne- 

 sian troops overwhelmed all attempts of the friends of the people to 

 maintain their constitution, and the proposal of Thcramenes waa 

 adopted. Theramenes himself was one of the Thirty, and he nomi- 

 nated ten of the others. The outrages and atrocities committed by 

 these Thirty spread general alarm in Attica, and the future was 

 looked to with fearful apprehensions. Theramenes, perceiving the 

 state of feeling at Athens, remonstrated with Critias, the most cruel 

 among his colleagues. This was not from a feeling of humanity, but 



