beginning of the ninth century after Christ. He was the author of a work on prosody, which is still extant in manuscript, addressed to the emperor Leo, the Armenian. He also wrote a history of the reign of Michael II., surnamed the Stammerer, the successor of Leo. (Villoison, Anecd. Graec. vol. ii. p. 127 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 350.)
[C. P. M.]
TMEO'LYTUS ((
Greek characters)), of Methymna, in
Lesbos, an epic poet of an unknown, but certainly
not an early period, who is mentioned once by the
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, and twice by
Athenaeus. The latter author, in one passage
(vii. p. 296, a, b.) quotes three lines from his Buk-
(Greek characters), that is, an epic poem on the adventures
of Dionysus, to whose contest with the sea-god
Glaucus, his rival in the love of Ariadne, the lines
quoted by Athenaeus refer. The other reference
to Theolytus is a quotation from him, (Greek characters) (Ath. xi, p. 470, c), not (Greek characters), as the reading was before Schweighauser, who shows that
here, and in other references to similar works, the
genitive is not that of (Greek characters), but of (Greek characters), a word of
the same meaning as (Greek characters), but used in the plural in
the specific sense of Annals. (See Liddell and
Scott, and Seller and Jacobitz, s. v.) Another correction made by Schweighauser in this latter pas-
sage is the restoration of the true form of the
poet's name, which Casaubon had altered to (Greek characters). (Plehn, Lesbiaca, p. 201.)
[P. S.]
THEO'MEDON ((Greek characters)), a physician who
accompanied Eudoxus the astronomer and physician in his first visit to Athens, about the year
B.C. 386, and who supported him while he was
attending Plato's lectures in that cit}'. (Diog.
Laert. viii. 8. § 86.)
[ W. A. G.]
THEOMESTOR ((Greek characters)), a Samian, son
of Androdamas, commanded a vessel in the Persian
fleet at Salamis (b. c. 480), and for his services in
that battle was made tyrant of Samos by Xerxes.
(Herod, viii. 85, ix. 90.)
[E. E.]
THEOMNASTUS, one of the instruments of Verres in his oppression of the Sicilians. (Cic. Verr. ii. 21, 51, iv. 66.)
THEOMNESTUS ((Greek characters)), one of the
Greek writers on veterinary surgery, who may
perhaps have lived in the fourth or fifth century
after Christ. None of his works remain, but some
fragments are to be found in the collection of
writers on veterinary surgery, first published in
Latin by John Ruellius, 1530, fol. Paris, and afterwards in Greek by Simon Grynaeus, 1537, 4to.
Basil.
[W. A. G.]
THEOMNESTUS ((Greek characters)), artists. 1. A statuary of Sardis, of unknown time, who made the statue of the Olympic victor Ageles of Chios. (Paus. vi. 15. § 2.) He may safely be identified with the Theomnestus mentioned by Pliny among those who made athletas et armaios et venatores sacrificantesque (H.N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 34).
2. A sculptor, the son of Theotimus, flourished in Chios, under the early Roman emperors, as we learn irom a Chian inscription, in which his name occurs as the maker, in conjunction with Dionysius, the son of Astius, of the monument erected to the memory of Claudius Asclepiadea, a freedman of the emperor, by his wife, Claudia Tertulla. (Murator. vol. ii. p. mxiv. 11 ; Boeckh, Corp. Inscr. No. 2241, vol. ii. p. 210 ; R, Rochette, Leitre a` M. Schorn, pp.417, 418, 2d ed.)
3. A painter, contemporary with Apelles. All that is known of him is contained in the statement of Pliny, that Mnason, the tyrant (of Elateia), gave him one hundred minae apiece for certain pictures, each of which represented a single hera (Plin. H. N. XXXV. 10. s. 36. § 21.) [P. S.]
THEON ((Greek characters)). Of three of this name whose
writings yet remain, two are mathematicians who
are often confounded together. The first is Theon
the elder, of Smyrna, best known as an arithme-
tician, who lived in the time of Hadrian. The
second is Theon the younger, of Alexandria, the
father of Hypatia, best known as an astronomer
and geometer, who lived in the time of Theodosius
the elder. Both were heathens, a fact which tiie
date of the second makes it desirable to state ; and
each held the Platonism of his period. The confusion
would probably be avoided, if they were named
after their leaders in science : they would then be
called Theon the Pythagorean, and Theon the
Ptolemaist.
The date of " Theon of Smyrna the philosopher," to quote in full the account which Suidas gives of him, depends upon the assumption (which there seems no reason to dispute) that he is the Theon whom Ptolemy and the younger Theon mention as having made astronomical observations in the time of Hadrian. Theon of Smyrna certainly wrote on astronomy. On the assumption just made, Ptolemy has preserved his observations of Mercury and Venus (A.D. 129 — 133). Bouillaud supposes that it is Theon of Smyrna to whom Proclus alludes as having written on the genealogies of Solon and Plato, and Plutarch as having written on the lunar spots. (See Bouillaud's preface, or the quotations in Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 35.)
All that we have left is a portion of a work en-
titled,(Greek characters). The portion which now
exists is in two books, one on arithmetic, and one
on music : there was a third on astronomy, and a
fourth (Greek characters). The work on
arithmetic is of the same character as that of
NicoMACHUs ; and as both these writers name
Thrasyllus, and neither names the other, it may be
supposed that the two were nearly contemporary.
The book on music is on the simplest appli-
cation of arithmetic. The two books were pub-
lished by Bouillaud, from a manuscript in De
Thou's library, Paris, 1644, quarto (Gr. Lat.). The
book on arithmetic has been recently published,
with Bouillaud's Latin, various readings, and new
notes, by Professor J. J. de Gelder, Leyden, 1827,
8vo : the preface is the fullest disquisition on
Theon which exists. We may refer to it for an
account of the bust which was found in Smyrna by
Fouquier, with the inscription (Greek characters),
now in the museum at Rome. There are scattered
notices (for which see De Gelder) by which it
seems that Theon had written other works: a
manuscript headed (Greek characters) is mentioned as
attributed to him, which is probably only the work
known under that name, with an assumed author-
ship. Bouillaud mentions an astronomical fragment
which he found ; and also the assertion of Isaac
Vossius, made to him, that an astronomical treatise
existed in the Ambrosian library at Milan.
Of the life of Theon of Alexandria, called the
younger (described by Suidas as (Greek characters)
nothing is known except the melancholy history of
his daughter Hypatia. We shall now take the
