THE 



" Tbeodofian Code." Anc. Uii. HiiK Gibbon. Geo, 



Biog. 



Thiodosius, an eminent mathematician, was born at Tri- 

 poli, and flourilhed about the fccond or third century. On 

 the doftrine of the Sphere he wrote three books, containing a 

 confiderable number of propolitions, demonftrated in the pure 

 geometrical manner of the ancients, and cftablifhing the geo- 

 metrical principles of aftronomy. Ptolemy and fucceeding 

 writers availed thcmfelves of thefe book.s,\vhich were tranflated 

 by the Arabians from the original Greek into their own lan- 

 guaac. They were afterwards tranflated from the Arabic 

 utto Latin, and printed at Venice; but the defefts of the 

 Arabic verfion v/ere fupplied in a more complete edition, 

 publidied in Greek and Latin at Paris in 1556, 410. by John 

 Pena, regius profeflTor of aftronomy. On this work there 

 have been many comments ; but the edition of Theodofius's 

 Spherics now generally ufed is that of Dr. Barrow, pubhihed 

 in 1675, illuftrat^'d and demonftrated in a new and concife 

 method. Theodofuis was alfo the author of two other trea- 

 tifes, one " De Habitationibus," and the other " De Diebus 

 et Noftibus." Greek copies of thefe were preferved 

 in the king's library at Paris, and a Latin edition was pub- 

 lifhed by Peter Dafypodius in 1572. Montucla Hift. des 

 Mathem. 



THEODULF, a learned prelate of a Gothic family, was 

 a native of Cifalpine Gaul ; and being invited to France by 

 Charlemagne, he was promoted to the bifhopric of Orleans, 

 A.D. 794, and the abbacy of the monaftery of Fleury. 

 He continued in favour at court till the death of Charle- 

 magne, and for feme time under the emperor Lewis. But 

 being implicated in the confpiracy of Bernard, king of Italy, 

 againfl; Lewis, he was committed to prifon at Angers, where 

 he remained in confinement for three years. After his 

 liberation, and before his return to his diocefe, he died at 

 Angers, about the year 821. Theodulf was the friend of 

 Alcuin, and deferves honourable mention as one of the vo- 

 taries and promoters of literature in a dark age. He was 

 the author of feveral works, publiftied by Father Sirmond, in 

 1646, 8vo. One of his hymns, beginning 



" Gloria, laus et honor tibi fit. Rex Chrifte Redemptor," 



has been adopted by the Catholic church for the fervice on 

 Palm-Sunday. Dupin. Gen. Biog. 



THEOGAMIA, ©:oyay.iu, in Antiquity, a Sicilian fef- 

 tival, in honour of Proferpine, which feems to have been in- 

 ftituted in memory of her marriage with Pluto. 



THEOGNIS, in Biography, a Greek poet, was a native 

 of Megara, in Attica, and flourifhed about the year B.C. 

 546. He has been denominated " Gnomologus," or the 

 writer of fentences : and we have extant a work written by 

 him, without order, confift;ingof moral maxims or precepts, 

 fimply expreffed and deftitute of poetical ornaments, verfi- 

 fied probably for aflifting the memory. Athensus reckons 

 him among the advocates for hcentious pleafures ; and 

 Suidas refers to a work of his compoiition, entitled " Ex- 

 hortations" or " Admontions," which contained various 

 iinpurities. In the verfes that now remain, nothing of this 

 kind appears ; fo that if the charge be true, they muft have 

 undergone caftigation. " The Sentences of Theognis" 

 have been often printed by themfelves, and with the works 

 of other minor Greek poets. Among the beft editions are 

 thofe of Camerarius and Sylburgius. Voffii Poet. Grjec. 

 Gen. Biog. 



THEOGONY, formed from ©sot, God, and ymr,gemture, 

 feed, offspring, that branch of the heathen theology which 

 taught the genealogy of their gods. 



Hehod gives us the ancient theogony, in a poem unde» 



THE 



that title. This poem treats of the origin and defcent of 

 the gods ; or rather, under the allegoricaTdrelo of theogony, 

 reprefents the formation of the world, and the liiilory 

 of eminent men. The plan of this work is intricate and 

 confufed. (SccHesIOD.) The writer feems to have made 

 uie of feveral different theogonies, and to have blended 

 them together with little regard to confiftency. He alfo 

 frequently adds, for the fake of poetical ornament, fiftiona 

 of his own, which have no relation to the hiilory and origin 

 of the world. Ariftophanes, in his comedy of " Tiie 

 Birds," has introduced a defcription of the formation of 

 the world, which was borrowed, without doubt, from the 

 ancient theogonies ; but it deferves Lttle attention. All 

 the theogonies make an eternal chaos the origin of all 

 things. Thus Ovid. Met. 1. i. v. 5. 



" Ante mare, et terras, et quod tegit omnia coelum, 

 Unus erat toto natura: vultus in orbe, 

 Quern dixere Chaos, rudis indigeftaque moles. 

 Nee quicquam niu pondus iners, congeftaque eodem 

 Non bene junfturam difcordia femina rerun;." 



" Ere fea and earth, and heav'ns high canopy 

 Were form'd, great Nature's face was one ; 

 A lifelefs, rude, and undigefted mafs 

 Of jarring feeds in one wild chaos lay." See Cn/cos. 



Whether, befides this chaotic mafs, the ancient theogo- 

 nies fuppofe an infinite, a(Sive, intelligent principle, who 

 from the firft matter formed the univerfe, is a quelUon that 

 has occafioned much debate. It is cedent, upon the moft 

 curfory review of the ancient theogonies, that God, the 

 great Creator of all things, is not exprefsly introduced ; 

 but it is doubted, whether the writers meant to exclude 

 him from their fyftem, or indirecUv to fuppofe his exift- 

 ence, and the exertion of his power in giving motion to 

 matter. In the folution of this queftion, it ought to be 

 confidered, whether the theogonifts fuppofed God to have 

 exifted before chaos, and to have created it from nothing ; 

 or thought hrm to have fprung from a pre-exifting chaos ; or 

 conceived God and matter to have been two co-exifting and 

 independent principles : whether they imagined God to have 

 been the foul of nature, informing the eternal mafs of mat- 

 ter ; or were of opinion, that God fent forth matter as an 

 emanation from himfelf ; if the latter, whether this emana^ 

 tion was the effeft of neceffity, or of a free aft of volition ; 

 whether it was from all eternity, or began at fome limited 

 period of duration. It muft alfo be inquired, whether,'ac- 

 cording to the doftrine of the theogonies, a divine mind in- 

 terpofed in the formation of the world, or the efFeft was pro- 

 duced by the neceflary laws of motion afting upon homo- 

 geneous and heterogeneous portions of matter. If the latter 

 of thefe was their doftrine, it is to be farther confidered, 

 whether it neceftarily follows, that they denied the exiilence 

 of God, or whether it may not be fuppofed, that, neglefting 

 all confideration of deity, they only endeavoured to explain 

 the phyCcal formation of the world, by laws originally im- 

 prefled upon matter by the author of nature. 



The theogonies certainly do not fuppofe God to have 

 been prior in the order of time to matter : they fpeak of 

 chaos as eternal, and feem to have been wholly unacquainted 

 with the doftrine of creation from nothing. But, on the 

 other hand, they never fuppofe the Deity to be derived from 

 chaos : for Jupiter is not to he confounded with the Su- 

 preme Being, but merely to be confidered as the chief of 

 thofe inferior divinities, who, according to the Grecian the- 

 ology, were either portions of the divinity, inhabiting and 

 animating parts of nature, or departed fpirits of heroes and 



iUuf- 



