THEOCRACY THEODORIC. 



581 



tributed to Shakspeare, but which, in the opinion of 

 doctor Farmer, belongs to Shirley. He died in 1744. 



THEOCRACY (from e., God, and K>*r S) 

 power) is that government of which the chief is, or 

 is believed to be, God himself, and the laws the 

 commandments of God. The priests, in such a 

 government, are the promulgators and expounders 

 of the divine commands, the representatives of 

 the invisible Ruler, who, however, can also call 

 other persons to this dignity. (See Hebrews, and 

 Moses.) In early periods, in which belief predomi- 

 nates over the spirit of investigation, theocracy will 

 often enjoy more authority than other forms of 

 government. The human and divine are yet mix- 

 ed, and the law is considered as sent from above. 



THEOCRITUS, the chief of pastoral poets, was 

 born at Syracuse, and flourished about B. C. 280. 

 Having gone to Egypt, he was treated with much 

 distinction by Ptolemy Lagus and Ptolemy Phila- 

 delphus, but afterwards returned to Syracuse, 

 where he is said to have been put to death by Hiero 

 II., on account of some offensive expressions. We 

 have under his name thirty idyls, or pastoral poems, 

 of which, however, several are probably by other 

 authors. Although he is one of the oldest idyllic 

 poets whose works are known to us, he is not to be 

 considered the first who wrote in this manner, 

 which originated, and was carried to perfection, in 

 Sicily. Most of his idyls have a dramatic form, 

 and consist of the alternate responses of musical 

 shepherds. Writing in the Doric dialect, which is 

 peculiarly adapted to the simplicity of rural life, his 

 language is strong and harmonious. The best edi- 

 tions of his works (which are usually joined with 

 those of Moschus and Bion) are Reiske's (Leipsic, 

 1765), Warton's (Oxford, 1770, 2 vols., 4to.), Val- 

 kenaer's (Leyden, 1773, 1779, 1781 or 1810), 

 Kiessling's (Leipsic, 1819), Scheefer's (1809 

 1812). Elton's Specimens of the Classic Poets (3 

 vols., 8vo., 1814) contains translations from Theo- 

 critus in English verse. 



THEODIO&A (from ei f , God, and ?/;*, I 

 acknowledge as right, vindicate) ; a vindication of 

 the Deity in respect to the organization of the 

 world, and the freedom of the human will. The 

 word is not happy, as God does not need a defence : 

 a theodicaea is rather a defence of theism against 

 atheism, which Leibnitz first undertook on a broad 

 scale, by publishing, in French, in 1710, his Essai 

 de Theodicce (Essay towards a Theodicaea), re- 

 specting the Goodness of God, the Liberty of Man, 

 and the Origin of the Bible. In this work Leibnitz 

 maintained the notion that God had chosen, among 

 all possible worlds, the most perfect. This was 

 called optimism, and gave rise to much discussion 

 until the second half of the eighteenth century. 

 Voltaire attacked it with the weapons of wit in his 

 Candide. Plato, St Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, 

 and, among later writers, particularly Campanella, 

 have attempted to reconcile human liberty and evil 

 with the power and holiness of God. J. J. Wagner 

 has published a new Theodicaea (Bamberg, 1809). 

 Every theodicaea must lead to teleology, (q. v.) 



THEODOLITE. This instrument serves to 

 measure angles between heavenly bodies, as well as 

 objects on the earth, with great accuracy. The 

 theodolite consists of two concentric horizontal cir- 

 cles, the inner of which has, at the ends of one of 

 its diameters, two perpendicular columns, on which 

 rests the horizontal axis of a small meridian tele- 

 scope. The vernier of the inner circle is made fast 

 to an arbitrary division line of the outer one, and 



both circles are moved together with the telescope, 

 until the object sought for appears in its field. The 

 outer circle is now fixed, and the inner one is turned 

 round, until the telescope strikes the second ob- 

 ject, whose angular distance from the first is to be 

 measured. The inner circle is now fastened to the 

 outer, and, by means of the micrometer screw, the 

 thread of the telescope is brought exactly upon the 

 object. The arc which the vernier of the inner 

 circle has described on the outer one, now measures 

 the angle which the two objects make at the com- 

 mon centre of the two circles. Of late, several 

 improvements have been made in this instrument. 



THEODORA ; empress of the East, the wife of 

 Justinian, famous for her beauty, intrigues, ambi- 

 tion, and talents. Her father was the keeper ol 

 the beasts for public spectacles at Constantinople, 

 and she herself was a dancer at the theatre, and a 

 courtesan notorious for her contempt of decency, 

 before her elevation to the throne. Justinian saw 

 her on the stage, and made her his mistress during 

 the reign of his uncle Justin, whose consent he at 

 length obtained for his marriage with Theodora; 

 and a Roman law, which prohibited the marriage of 

 the great officers of the empire with actresses, was 

 repealed in her favour. She was crowned with 

 Justinian in 527 ; and the death of Justin shortly 

 after left her in possession of sovereign authority, 

 through the blind partiality and weakness of her 

 imperial consort. She made use of the power she 

 had attained to raise from obscurity her friends and 

 favourites, and to avenge herself on her enemies. 

 According to Procopius, she continued to indulge 

 herself in the most degrading sensuality after she 

 became empress ; and if the disgusting detail which 

 he gives of her crimes is to be believed, seldom, 

 indeed, has a brothel been disgraced by scenes of 

 more infamous profligacy than those exhibited in 

 the palace of Theodora. With all her faults, how- 

 ever, this woman displayed courage and presence of 

 mind in circumstances of difficulty and danger ; for 

 in the alarming sedition at Constantinople, in 532, 

 her counsels animated Justinian, and induced him 

 to forego his inglorious design of fleeing before the 

 rebels, who were subsequently reduced to subjec- 

 tion by Belisarius. Theodora died of a cancer, in 

 548, much regretted by her husband. See Gibbon's 

 Decline and Fall, ch. xl. 



THEODORE, king of Corsica. See Neuhof. 



THEODORIC, king of the Ostrogoths, sur- 

 named the Great, descended of the royal Gothic 

 race of the Amali, was born near Vienna, in the 

 year 455. His father, Theodomir, was one of the 

 three brothers who jointly ruled the Ostrogoths 

 settled in Pannonia ; and he sent him, when only 

 eight years of age, to Constantinople as a hostage, 

 to secure the conditions of a treaty between the 

 Goths and the emperor Leo. After residing two 

 years with that emperor, he was restored to his 

 father, then sole monarch of the Ostrogoths, under 

 whom he gave various indications of his warlike 

 spirit and ability for command. On the death of 

 Theodomir, in 475, he succeeded to the crown, and 

 commenced a course which, after menacing the 

 safety of the Greek empire, and Constantinople 

 itself, terminated in an expedition against Odoacer, 

 who had assumed the title of king of Italy. After 

 several bloody engagements, the latter was finally 

 induced to yield, on condition that he and Theodo- 

 ric should govern Italy with equal authority. The 

 murder of Odoacer at a banquet soon followed this 

 agreement ; on which Theodoric caused himself to 



