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TIMAEUS (c. 345—c. 250 B.e.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 978 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TIMAEUS (c. 345—c. 250 B.e.)  ,1 Greek historian, was born at Tauromenium in Sicily . Driven out by Agathocles, he migrated to Athens, where he studied rhetoric under a pupil of Isocrates and lived for fifty years . During the reign of Hiero II. he returned to Sicily (probably to Syracuse), where he died . While at Athens he completed his
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great
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historical
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work . The Histories, in at least 38 (Bury says 33) books, was divided into unequal sections, containing the
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history of Italy and Sicily in early times; of Sicily alone; of Sicily and
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Greece; of the cities and kings of
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Syria (unless the text of SuIdas is corrupt) ; the lives of Agathocles and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus . The
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chronological sketch ('OXv/o tovigat, the victors at
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Olympia) perhaps formed an aPPendix to the larger work . Timaeus was bitterly attacked by other historians, especially by Polybius, and indeed his unfairness towards his predecessors, which gained ,him the
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nickname of Epitimaeus (fault-finder), laid him open to
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retaliation . Polybius was a
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practical soldier and statesman, Timaeus a bookworm without military experience or
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personal knowledge of the places he described . The most serious charge against Timaeus is. that he wilfully distorted the truth, when influenced by personal considerations: thus, he was less than
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fair to Dionysius and Agathocles, while loud in praise of his favourite Timoleon . On the other hand, as even Polybius admits, Timaeus consulted all available authorities and records . His attitude towards the myths, which he claims to have preserved in their
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simple form (hence probably his nickname ypaoovXXesrpia, "
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collector of old wives' tales," though some authorities render this "old rag-woman," in allusion to his fondness for trivial details), is preferable tothe rationalistic interpretation under which it had become the fashion to disguise them . Timaeus also devoted much attention to chronology, and introduced the
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system of reckoning by Olympiads, with which he compared the years of the Attic archons, the Spartan ephors, and the priestesses of
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Argos .

, This system, although not adopted in everyday

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life, was afterwards generally used by the Greek historians . Although a pupil of Philiscus of Miletus, a
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disciple of Isocrates, Timaeus is a representative of the
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Asiatic style of Hegesias of 1 J . E . Sandys, c . 350-c . 260; J . B . Bury, 340-256 . Mognesia rather than of the Attic (see Norden, Griech . Kunstprosa i . 136) . Both Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the pseudo-Longinus characterized him as a model of " frigidity." ('vXpbv), although the latter admits that in other respects he is a competent writer .

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Cicero, who was a diligent reader of Timaeus, expresses a far more favourable opinion, specially commending his copiousness of
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matter and variety of expression . Timaeus was one of the chief authorities used by Trogus Pompeius, Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch in his life of Timoleon .

End of Article: TIMAEUS (c. 345—c. 250 B.e.)
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