c; 



TIM.KTS. 



TIMES, JOHN. 



peak of it with praue. Timtous is the first Greek historian who intro- 

 duced a regular system of chronology that is, he regularly recorded j 

 event* according to Olympiads and the archons of Athens ; and 

 although in tho early period of his history his want of criticism i 

 led him into gross chronological errors, he set the example which 

 others found very useful and convenient. It must have been with a 

 view to an accurate study of chronology that he wrote a work on the 

 victors in the Olympian Games, of which we still possess a few 

 fragments. 



The fragments of Timscus are collected in Goller's work, ' De Situ 

 et Origine Syracusarum,' p. 207, &a, which also contains (pp. 179-206) 

 an elaborate dissertation on the life and writings of Timseus. The 

 fragments are also contained in C. and T. Muller, ' Fragmenta Histon- 

 corum Gnnoorum,' Paris, 1841, pp. 193-233. Compare Vossius, De 

 Jfiitoricit Gracit, p. 117, edit. Westermanu; Clinton, Pott. Hdlen., iii., 

 p. 489, &c. 



TliLEUS (T//WUOS), of Locri, a Pythagorean philosopher, was a con- 

 temporary of Plato, who is mentioned among his pupils, and is said to 

 havo been connected with him by friendship. (Cicero, * De Finibus,' 

 v. 29 ; ' De Re Publ.,' L 10.) There exists a work, Htpl rfjs TOV Kfopov 

 'JwX'i* (' De Anima Mundi,' or on the Soul of the Universe), written in 

 the Doric dialect, which is usually ascribed to Timjcus the Locrian. It 

 contains a brief exposition of the same ideas which are developed in 

 the ' Dialogue ' of Plato, which is called after him Timaeus. (Tenne- 

 mann, ' System der Platonischen Philosophic,' i. 93, &c.) Separate 

 editions of it have been published by D'Argens, 8vo, Berlin, 1762, with 

 a French translation; and by J. J. de Gelder, 8vo, Leyden, 1836. 



This Timaeus of Locri is said by Suidas to have also written the 

 Life of Pythagoras; but tho usual carelessness of Suidas renders this 

 a doubtful point, as he may possibly have confounded the Locrian with 

 the Sicilian Timaous, who in his great historical work must have treated 

 of the History of Pythagoras at considerable length. 



(Fabricius, BMioth. Orcec., iii. 94, &c. ; Goller, De Situ et Origine 

 Stfracutarum, p. 200, &c.) 



TIMAEUS, a Greek sophist, who, according to the supposition of 

 Ruhuken, lived in the 3rd century of the Christian era. Concerning 

 his life nothing is known ; his name has only come down to us in con- 

 nection with a vocabulary containing the explanation of words and 

 phrases which occur in the writings of Plato. It bears the title 

 in -riav rov Tl\a.Ttavos \Qttav, and is dedicated to one Gentianus, of 

 whom likewise nothing is known. Whether we possess the genuine 

 aud complete Vocabulary of Tiinaeus is doubtful ; and from the title, 

 as well as from certain articles in it which have no reference to Plato, 

 and must undoubtedly be regarded as interpolations, one might feel 

 inclined to consider the work as it now stands as an abridgment of 

 the Glossary of Timseus, if Photius, who must have had the genuine 

 work before him, did not describe it as a very little work (/3/>axi 

 iroinjfuirtov tv kvl A(y$>). But notwithstanding its brevity, the work is 

 very valuable ; and Ruhnken owns that he has not discovered in it a 

 single instance of a word or a phrase being explained incorrectly. 

 There is only one manuscript of this Glossary, which appears to have 

 been made in the 1 Oth century of our era, and which was unknown 

 until Montfaucon drew attention to it. It was first edited, with an 

 excellent commentary, by Ruhnken, at Leyden, 8vo, 1754 ; a second 

 and much improved edition appeared in the same place, 8vo, 1789. 

 Two other editions have since been published in Germany, with 

 additional notes by G. A. Koch (8vo, Leipzig, 1828 and 1833). 



Suidas (*. v. Tifuuos) ascribes to Timaeus, the Sicilian historian, a 

 rhetorical work, called SuAAoy}; prj-ropiKtav cupop/jiiav, in 68 books, which 

 Ruhnken, with great probability, ascribes to Timaeus the Sophist, who 

 wrote the Glossary to Plato. 



(Ruhnken, Prafatio ad Timaei Glossarium Platonicum.) 



TIMANTHES, a native of Sicyon or of Cythnos, was one of the 

 most celebrated painters of Greece ; he was contemporary with Zeuxis 

 and Parrhasius, and lived about B.C. 400. The works of Timanthes 

 were distinguished particularly for their invention and expression, and 

 one of the chief merits of his invention was, that he left much to be 

 supplied by the imagination of tho spectator. There is a remark in 

 Pliny (' Hist. Nat.,' xxxv. 36), probably a quotation, which bestows the 

 highest praise upon Timanthes : it says, though in execution always 

 excellent, the execution is invariably surpassed by the conception. 

 As an instance of the ingenuity of Timanthes' invention, the same 

 writer tells us of a picture of a sleeping Cyclops, painted upon a small 

 panel, but in which the painter had conveyed a perfect idea of the 

 giant's huge size, by adding a few satyrs measuring his thumb with a 

 thyrsus. 



Though Timanthes was evidently one of the greatest painters of 

 antiquity, ancient authors have mentioned only five of his works: 

 Pausanias makes no mention of him at all, and Cicero classes him 

 among the painters who used only four colours. He painted a cele- 

 brated picture of the stoning to death of the unfortunate Palamedes, 

 the victim of the ignoble revenge of Ulysses for having proclaimed his 

 apparent insanity to be feigned a subject worthy of the pencil of a 

 great master. This picture is said to have made Alexander shudder 

 when he saw it at Ephcaus. (Tzetzes, ' Chil.,' viii. 198 ; Junius, ' Cat. 

 Artif.,' v. 'Timanthes.') Timanthes entered into competition with 

 Parrhasius at Samos, and gained the victory ; the subject of the paint- 

 ings was the cqntest of Ajax and Ulysses for the arms of Achilles 



[PARBHABIOS.] His most celebrated work however was that with 

 which he bore away the palm from Colotes of Teos; the subject was 

 the Sacrifice of Iphigeuia ; and perhaps no other work of ancient art 

 has been the object of so much criticism, for and against, as this 

 painting, on account of the concealment of the face of Agamemnon in 

 his mantle. The ancients have all given the incident their unqualified 

 approbation, but its propriety has been questioned by several modern 

 critics, especially by Falconet and Sir Joshua Reynolds; Fuseli, how- 

 ever, in an elaborate and excellent criticism in his first lecture, has 

 amply justified the conception of the painter. The Sacrifice of Iphi- 

 genia was given as the subject of a prize-picture to the. students of 

 the Royal Academy in 1778, and all the candidates imitated the 'trick' 

 of Timanthes, as Sir Joshua Reynolds terms it, which was the origin 

 of his criticism upon the subject in his eighth lecture : he says, 

 " Supposing this method of leaving the expression of grief to the 

 imagination to be, as it was thought to be, the invention of the 

 painter, and that it deserves all the praise that has been given it, still 

 it is a trick that will serve but once ; whoever does it a second tiuie 

 will not only want novelty, but be justly suspected of using artifice to 

 evade difficulties." 



The shallow remark of Falconet about Timanthes' exposing his own 

 ignorance by concealing Agamemnon's face, is scarcely worthy of an 

 allusion. It may be questioned whether Agamemnon, under such 

 circumstances as he was placed, could have been well or even natu- 

 rally represented in any other way : although many things might 

 combine to render his presence at the sacrifice absolutely necessary, 

 still it is not to be supposed that he could calmly stand by and be an 

 eye-witness of his own daughter's immolation ; notwithstanding his 

 firm conviction that his attendance was necessary to sanction the 

 deed, he could not look upon it, it would be unnatural. The criticism 

 of Quintilian, Cicero, and others, that the painter, having represented 

 Calchas sorrowful, Ulysses much more so, and having expressed extreme 

 sorrow in the countenance of Menelaus, was in consequence compelled 

 to conceal the face of the father, is not more pertinent than that of the 

 modern critics. "They were not aware," says Fuseli, "that by making 

 Timanthes waste expression on inferior actors at the expense of a 

 principal one, they call him an improvident spendthrift, and not a wise 

 economist." Falconet observes that Timanthes had not even the 

 merit of inventing the incident, but that he copied it from Euripides : 

 upon this point P'useli remarks, " It is observed by an ingenious critic 

 that in the tragedy of Euripides the procession is described ; and 

 upon Iphigenia's looking back upon her father, he groans and hides 

 his face to conceal his tears; whilst the picture gives the moment 

 that precedes the sacrifice, and the hiding has a different object, and 

 arises from another impression" (v. 1550). 



" I am not prepared with chronologic proofs to decide whether 

 Euripides or Timanthes, who were contemporaries about the period 

 of the Peloponnesian war, fell first on this expedient ; though the 

 silence of Pliny and Quintiliau on that head seems to be in favour of 

 the painter, neither of whom could be ignorant of the celebrated 

 drama of Euripides, and would not willingly have suffered the honour 

 of this master-stroke of an art they were so much better acquainted 

 with than painting, to be transferred to another from its real author, 

 had the poet's claim been prior." As far as regards priority, the 

 ' expedient ' was made use of by Polygnotus long before either Timan- 

 thes or Euripides ; in the Destruction of Troy, in the Lesche at 

 Delphi, an infant is holding his hands over his eyes, to avoid the 

 horrors of the scene. (Pausanias, ' Phoc.,' x. 26.) 



The fifth work of Timanthes mentioned by the ancients was the 

 picture of a hero, preserved in the time of Pliny in the Temple of 

 Peace at Rome, an admirable performance. 



There was another ancient painter of the name of Timanthes ; he 

 was contemporary with Aratus, and distinguished himself for a 

 painting of the battle of Pellene, in Arcadia, in which Aratus gained 

 a victory over the yEtolians, Olym. 135.1 (B.C. 240). Plutarch praises 

 the picture ; he terms it an exact and animate representation. 

 ('Aratus,' 32.) 



* TIMES, JOHN, was born in 1801, at Clerkenwell, London. He 

 was educated under the Rev. Joseph Hamilton, D.D., and his brother, 

 Mr. Jeremiah Hamilton, at New Marlows, Hemel Hempstead, where 

 he issued a manuscript newspaper for the edification of his school- 

 fellows. At the age of fourteen he was articled to a druggist and 

 printer at Dorking, in Surrey, where, at his master's table, he first 

 met Sir Richard Phillips, the publisher, who kindly encouraged him to 

 contribute to his ' Monthly Magazine,' and he furnished to that work 

 ' A Picturesque Promenade round Dorking,' in 1822. lu 1821 John 

 Timbs came to London, and for some years served as amanuensis to 

 Sir Richard Phillips, in Blackfriars. About this time Mr. Tiinbs 

 became acquainted with Mr. Britton, F.S.A., with whom he long main- 

 tained an unbroken friendship. In 1825-26 Mr. Timbs published 

 anonymously ' Laconics,' an excellent selection of moral passages, the 

 result of a course of ethical reading. In 1827 he became editor of 

 ' The Mirror,' and so continued until 1838 ; compiling also an annual 

 volume of records of Discoveries in Science and Art. This design 

 he improved as ' The Year-Book of Facts ' in 1839, fitly characterised 

 as "a laborious production of patient industry." Besides contributing 

 to periodicals, Mr. Timbs has written, compiled, and edited at least a 

 hundred volumes. His most recent and most successful works are 



