I

plains of Themiscyra the Amazons were said to have founded a powerful kingdom. Here they were conquered by Hercules, and many slain. The followers of Hercules, on retiring from their country, took with them on board their vessels as many Amazons as they could find alive; these, however, when at sea, rose upon the Greeks, as is said, slew them to a man, and, being ignorant themselves of navigation, were carried by the winds and the waves to Cremni on the Palus Mæotis, and their name still lingered in fable for many ages, in connexion with the regions of Caucasus. (Herod., 4, 110.-Mannert, Geogr., vol. 6, pt. 2, p. 448.)

lumps of asphaltum about two pounds in weight. I have built this city on the Thermodon (2, 44). In the The case is covered with a cement resembling plaster of Paris, in which various figures are cast. The whole is painted, generally with a yellow ground, on which are hieroglyphics and figures of green.-But to return to the ruin of Thebes: on the east side of the Nile, at Karnac and Luxor, amid a multitude of temples, there are no tombs; these are confined to the west bank. An iron sickle was lately found under one of the buried statues, nearly of the shape of those which are now in use, though thicker; it is supposed to have lain there since the invasion of Cambyses, when the idols were concealed by the superstitious to save them from destruction. Belzoni and others uncovered and carried away many specimens of these antique remains, such as sphinxes, obelisks, and stat

ues.

On this same side of the river, no palaces or traces of ancient human habitations are met with; whereas, on the western side, at Medinet Abou, there are not only propylæa and temples highly valued by the antiquarian, but dwelling-houses, which seem to point out that place as having been once a royal residence. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 10, pt. 1, p. 334, seqq. Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, London, 1835, 8vo.)

THEBAIS, I. the southernmost division of Egypt, of which Thebes was the capital. (Vid. Ægyptus, page 37, col. 1, § 4.)-II. The title of a poem by Statius. (Vid. Statius.)

THEBE. Vid. Theba.

THEBE, the wife of Alexander, tyrant of Pheræ. She assassinated him. (Vid. Alexander I., page 109, col. 2, ◊ 6.)

THEMIS, the goddess of Justice or Law. This deity appears in the Iliad among the inhabitants of Olympus (Il., 15, 87.-Ib., 20, 4); and in the Odyssey (2, 68) she is named as presiding over the assemblies of men, but nothing is said respecting her rank or origin. By Hesiod (Theog., 135, 901, seqq.), she is said to be a Titaness, one of the daughters of Heaven and Earth, and to have borne to Jupiter the Fates, and the Seasons, Peace, Order, Justice, the natural progeny of Law (Oeus), and all deities beneficial to mankind. In Pindar and the Homeridan hymns, Themis sits by Jupiter, on his throne, to give him counsel. Themis is said to have succeeded her mother Earth in the possession of the Delphic oracle, and to have voluntarily resigned it to her sister Phoebe, who gave it as a natal-gift unto Phoebus Apollo. Welcker says that Themis is merely an epithet of Earth. (Tril., p. 39.) Hermann also makes Themis a physical being, rendering her name Statina; while Böttiger, with apparently more justice, says, "She is the oldest purely allegorical personification of a virtue." (Kunst-Mythol., 2, 110.-Keightley's Mythology, p. 198.)

THEMISON, a celebrated physician, born at Laodicea, and the pupil of Asclepiades. He established himself at Rome about 90 B.CĊ. Themison wished to find a middle course between the empiric system and dogmatism. This middle course, or method, he believed he had discovered in the theory of his master. He became, therefore, the founder of the school of Methodists, which introduced a greater degree of precision into the system of Asclepiades. Themison taught that there exists not only in the vessels, but, generally speaking, in all parts of the human frame, a disproportion which is the source of all maladies.-He was the first practitioner, also, that made use of leeches, which he applied to the temples in disorders of the head. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 5, p. 338.-Spren gel, Hist. de la Med., vol. 2, p. 20, seqq.)

THEMISTIUS, a celebrated orator and philosopher in the fourth century of the Christian era. He was a native of Paphlagonia, but passed the greater part of his days at Constantinople, where he enjoyed the highest favour with the Emperor Constantius, who elevated him to the rank of senator. He stood high also in the estimation of Julian, who made him prefect of Constantinople, and kept up an epistolary correspondence with him. He was highly regarded, too, by the suc cessors of this prince down to Theodosius the Great, who confided to Themistius, although the latter was a pagan, the education of his son Arcadius. He was employed, also, in various public matters, and on several embassies. Themistius was the master of Libanius and St. Augustin, and, what was of rare occurrence in his day, presented a model of religious toleration and forbearance: hence we find an intimate friendship subsisting between him and Gregory of Nazianzus, and the latter styling him "the king of eloquence" (Basıλɛvç λóywv). Themistius resided for some time also at Rome, and, both in this city as well as in Constantinople, he lectured on the systems of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, but more particularly the latter. He received no fees from his auditors; on the contrary, though not rich himself, he was liberal in ministering to the necessities of his less wealthy folTHEMISCYRA, a city of Pontus, capital of a district lowers. The public discourses which remain to us of of the same name. The town of Themiscyra appears this orator, as well as his philosophical works, justify to have been one of very early origin. Scylax men- the high opinion which his contemporaries entertained tions it as a Grecian state, and Herodotus also speaks of him. His style, formed by an attentive perusal of of it. (Scylax, p. 33.— Herod., 4, 86.) Both of Plato, is marked by great perspicuity, elegance, and these writers, however, place it at the mouth of the sweetness; nor is it, at the same time, at all wanting Thermodon; whereas Ptolemy locates it in the centre in strength and energy. Although the greater part of of the district Themiscyra, that is, more inland. This his discourses have for their subject the praises of emplace appears to have been destroyed in the course of perors, and although this kind of writing is in itself the Mithradatic war. (Appian, B. Mithrad., c. 78.) both arid and devoid of interest, yet Themistius has Hence Strabo makes no mention of it; and Mela succeeded in attracting the attention of his readers by merely states, that, in the territory around the Ther- the numerous allusions which he makes both to the modon, there once stood an ancient city named The-mythology and the history of the Greeks, and by the miscyra (1, 19). It is rather surprising that many of instructive examples which he draws from the works the ancient writers, and among them even Eschylus, of the ancient philosophers.-A memorable instance never use the name Themiscyra as that of a city, but of the liberal spirit of Themistius is related by ecclealways as designating a plain. (Esch., Prom. V., siastical historians. The Emperor Valens, who fa749.-Compare Steph. Byz., s. v. Xádioia.-Apol-voured the Arian party, inflicted many hardships and lod., 2, 5.-Apoll. Rhod., 2, 370.) Diodorus, how- sufferings upon the Trinitarians, and daily threatened ever, makes the founder of the Amazonian nation to them with still greater severities. Themistius, to

whom these measures were exceedingly displeasing, addressed the emperor upon the subject in an eloquent speech, in which he represented the diversity of opinions among the Christians as inconsiderable compared with that of the pagan philosophers, and pleaded that this diversity could not be displeasing to God, since it did not prevent men from worshipping him with true piety. By these and other arguments Themistius prevailed upon the emperor to treat the Trinitarians with greater lenity.-Themistius illustrated several of the works of Aristotle, particularly the Analytics, the Physics, and the Book on the Soul.-Of his discourses Photius enumerates thirty-six: we have only, at the present day, thirty-three, and one other, the thirty-third, in a Latin translation. An edition of the entire remains of Themistius appeared from the Aldine press in 1534, fol. Of the orations, the best edition used to be that of Petavius (Petau), Paris, 1684, fol.; but now, for the text of Themistius, the best edition is that of Dindorf, Cnobloch, 1832, 8vo.

or else must take up a new position, and rise to a new rank in Greece: and this it was evident she could only do by cultivating the capacity she had received from nature, and of becoming a great maritime power. Early in the interval between the first and second Persian invasion, he had dexterously prevailed on the people to appropriate the profits of the silver-mines t Laurium (which they had hitherto shared among themselves) to the enlargement of their navy. Yet it wa not by holding out the danger of a new Persian sion that he gained their consent, but by appealing to their hatred and jealousy of Egina, which was still al war with them, and was mistress of the sea. To be able to cope with this formidable rival, they boa a hundred new galleys, and thus increased their caral force to two hundred ships; and it was probabysi the same time that they were persuaded to pass a d cree, which directed twenty triremes to be built every year. (Bôckh, Staatshaushalt. der Ath., 2, c. 19.) While the storm of the Persian invasion was slowly THEMISTOCLES, a celebrated Athenian statesman approaching, Themistocles was busied in allaying at and leader. His father Neocles was a man of high mosity and silencing disputes among the Grecian birth after the Athenian standard, but his mother was ies; and when, not long after this, the Athea not a citizen, and, according to most accounts, not alarmed for their safety, had sent to Delphi for advice, even a Greek. His patrimony seems to have been he is supposed, on very good grounds, to have ind ample for a man of less aspiring temper. The anec-enced the well-known answer of the oracle, "that jove dotes related of his youthful wilfulness and wayward- had granted the prayer of his daughter Minerva, and ness; of his earnest application to the pursuit of use- that, when all beside was lost, a wooden wall should ful knowledge; of his neglect of the elegant arts, which still shelter the citizens of Athens." This wooden wal already formed part of the Athenian education; of his which was to afford the only refuge in the hour of profusion and his avarice; of the sleepless nights in danger, seemed best explained by the fleet, wh which he meditated on the trophies of Miltiades, all since it had been increased according to the advice f point, with more or less of particular truth, the same Themistocles, might well be deemed the surest way; to a soul early bent on great objects, and form- wark of Athens. The elder citizens, however, thoughs ed to pursue them with steady resolution, incapable it incredible that Minerva should abandon her an ent of being diverted by trifles, embarrassed by scruples, citadel, and resign her charge to the rival deity, with or deterred by difficulties. The end he aimed at whom she had anciently contended for the possesses was not merely the good of his country, still less of Attica. To them it seemed clear that the orace was it any petty mark of selfish cupidity. The pur- must have spoken of the hedge of thorns, which pose of his life was to make Athens great and pow- fenced in the rock of Pallas, and that this, if repa erful, that he himself might move and command in a and strengthened with the same materials, wood to large sphere. The genius with which nature had en- an impregnable barrier against all assaults. The dowed him warranted this noble ambition, and it was istence of Athens hung on the issue of these deter marvellously suited to the critical circumstances in tions. The people, in their uncertainty, looked to The which he was placed by fortune. The peculiar faculty mistocles for advice. His keen eye had probab of his mind, which Thucydides contemplated with ad- caught a prophetic glimpse of the events that were a miration, was the quickness with which it seized every hallow the shores of Salamis; and he now reminced object that came in its way, perceived the course of his hearers that a Grecian oracle would not have caled action required by new situations and sudden junc- the island the divine (this term had been used in the tures, and penetrated into remote consequences. response just alluded to) if it was to be afflicted with Such were the abilities which, at the period when he the triumph of the barbarians, and was not rather i came forward, were most needed for the service of be the scene of their destruction. He therefore er Athens. At the time when Themistocles was be- horted them, if all other safeguards should fail them, ginning to rise into credit with his fellow-citizens, an- to commit their safety and their hopes of victory o other man of very different character already possessed their newly-strengthened navy. This counsel prevail their respect and confidence. This was Aristides, son ed. When intelligence of the capture of Athens wa of Lysimachus. (Vid. Aristides.) Like Themisto- brought to the Greeks assembled with their vessels f cles, he too had the welfare of Athens at heart, but Salamis, and, amid the consternation that ensued simply and singly, not as an instrument, but as an was resolved in council to retire from Salamis and end. On this he kept his eye, without looking to any give battle near the shore of the Isthmus, it was owing mark beyond it, or stooping to any private advantage to the bold deportment of Themistocles alone that the that lay on his road. It is not surprising that a man allies were induced to change their determination and of such a mould should have come into frequent con- give battle in the straits. According to the accents flict with a statesman like Themistocles, though their that have been given of this transaction, as Themisto immediate object was the same, and though there was cles was returning to his ship from the counc no great discordance between their general views of which it had been resolved to sail away from Salus, the public interest. When Aristides, without having he was met by Mnesiphilus, an Athenian officer, w incurred accusation or reproach, without being sus- on hearing the issue of the conference, exclaimed t pected of any ambitious designs, was sent by the os- Greece was lost if such a counsel were adopted; for tracism into honourable banishment, because he had the allies, if now allowed to retreat, could no longer no equal in the highest virtue, his removal left The- be kept together, but would be scattered to their se mistocles in almost undivided possession of the popu-eral cities. This suggestion falling in with the opin lar favour. His thoughts had long been turned to-ion of Themistocles, induced him to return to the Sparwards the straggle that was now approaching. He tan Eurybiades who commanded in chief, and pressing had seen that Athens could not remain stationary; that on him, with many additions, the arguments of Me she must either cease to exist as an independent state, siphilus, he persuaded him to reconvene the council

Themistocles now urged the commanders to remain, | foreigners that had ever entered Sparta, they sent the both on account of the advantage which the narrow three hundred knights to escort him as far as the borstraits of Salamis gave to the Greeks, inferior as well ders of Tegea on his return. He himself subsequently in the speed as in the number of their ships, and also dedicated a temple to Diana, as the goddess of good because, by so doing, they would preserve Megara, counsel.-Immediately after the battle of Platea, the Salamis, and Ægina, with the Athenian women and Athenian people had begun to bring back their fami children deposited in the latter places. When he lies, and to rebuild their city and ramparts. But the found them still obstinate, he declared that the Athe-jealousy excited in the Peloponnesians by the power nians, if their feelings and interests, after all they had and spirit which Athens had displayed was far stronger done, were so little regarded, would abandon the arma- than their gratitude for what it had done and suffered ment, and, taking on board their families, would seek in the common cause. An embassy arrived from Pea settlement elsewhere. This threat prevailed, and it loponnesus to urge the Athenians not to go on with was agreed to remain; but at the approach of the en- their fortifications, but rather, as far as in them lay, to emy the Peloponnesians again were eager to depart and demolish the walls of all other cities out of the Peloponprovide for the defence of their own territories; on nesus, that the enemy, if he again returned, might have which Themistocles, to prevent the mischiefs he fore- no strong place to fix his headquarters in, as recently saw, and partly, also, with the double policy which in Thebes. If this demand had been complied with, marked his character, to secure to himself, in case of Athens would have become entirely subject to Lacedefeat, an interest with the conquerors, sent private dæmon. At the same time, it was dangerous to refuse, information to the Persian admiral of the flight which since from the past conduct of Lacedæmon there was was meditated by the Greeks, and advised him to little ground to expect that gratitude would prevent it guard against it by occupying both ends of the strait from any action prompted by jealousy or ambition; between Salamis and the main-land. After the glori- while it was vain to hope, that the military force of ous day of Salamis, when the remnant of the Persian Athens, weakened by the number of citizens absent fleet had been pursued as far as the island of Andros, with the fleet, would be able to maintain itself without Themistocles proposed to continue the chase, and then the aid of walls against the united strength of Peloto sail to the Hellespont and break down the bridge. ponnesus. In this difficulty Themistocles advised Eury biades opposed him, on the ground that there was them immediately to send away the Lacedæmonian danger lest the Persians, being rendered desperate, ambassadors, to raise up the walls with the utmost might yet be successful; and the Peloponnesians gen- possible celerity, men, women, and children joining in erally agreeing with Eurybiades, the proposal was re- the work, and, choosing himself and some others as jected. On this, Themistocles persuaded the Atheni- ambassadors to Sparta, to send him thither at once, but ans, who had been most eager for pursuit, to acqui- to detain his colleagues until the walls had attained a esce; while, if we believe in the motives commonly sufficient height for defence. He was accordingly ascribed to him, he took advantage of the incident to sent to Lacedæmon, where he put off his audience secure for himself, in case of banishment, a refuge in from day to day, excusing himself by saying that he Persia, by sending a secret messenger to Xerxes, to waited for his colleagues, who were daily expected, and inform him of the plan which had been proposed, and wondered that they were not come. But when resay that Themistocles, through friendship to him, had ports arrived that the walls were gaining height, he procured its rejection. This view of the case, howev- bade the magistrates not to trust to rumour, but to send er, can hardly be the correct one. It may be easily some competent persons to examine for themselves. conceived that a man like Themistocles loved the arts They sent accordingly, and, at the same time, Themisin which he excelled for their own sake, and might ex- tocles secretly directed the Athenians to detain the ercise the faculties with which he was pre-eminently Lacedæmonian commissioners, but with the least posgifted upon very slight occasions. In devising a plan, sible show of compulsion, till himself and his colconducting an intrigue, surmounting a difficulty, in leagues should return. The latter were now arrived, leading men to his ends without their knowledge and and brought news that the walls had gained the height against their will, he might find a delight which might required: and Themistocles declared to the Lacedæoften be in itself a sufficient motive of action. We monians that Athens was already sufficiently fortified, should be led, therefore, to suppose that this was the and that henceforth, if the Lacedæmonians and their inducement which caused him to send this other secret allies had anything to do, they must do it as to persons message to Xerxes. For that, in the very moment of able to judge both of the common interest and their own. victory, when he had just risen to the highest degree The Spartans were secretly mortified at their failure, of reputation and influence among his countrymen, he and probably not the less so from the consciousness should have foreseen the changes which fortune had in that the attempt had been an unhandsome one; but store for him, and have conceived the thought of pro- their discontent did not break out openly, and the amviding a place of refuge among the barbarians, to which bassadors on each part went home unquestioned -No he might fly if he should be driven out of Greece, is a Greek had yet rendered services such as those of Theconjecture that might very naturally be formed after mistocles to the common cause; no Athenian except the event, but would scarcely have been thought prob- Solon had conferred equal benefits upon Athens. able before it.-All Greece now resounded with the Themistocles was not unconscious of his own merit, fame of Themistocles. The deliverance just effected nor careful to suppress his sense of it. He was was universally ascribed, next to the favour of the thought to indicate it too plainly when he dedicated gods, to his foresight and presence of mind; and when his temple above mentioned to Diana, and the offence the Grecian commanders met in the temple of Neptune was aggravated if he himself placed his statue there, on the Isthmus, to award the palm of individual merit, where it was still seen in the days of Plutarch, who no one was generous enough to resign the first place pronounces the form no less heroic than the soul of the to another, but most were just enough to award the man. In the same spirit are several stories related by second to Themistocles. Still higher honours, how- Plutarch, of the indiscretion with which he sometimes ever, awaited him from Sparta, a severe judge of Athe- alluded to the magnitude of the debt which his counnian merit. He went thither, according to Plutarch, trymen owed him. He would seem, indeed, not to invited; wishing, Herodotus says, to be honoured. have discovered, till it was too late, that there are obliThe Spartans gave him a chaplet of olive leaves it gations which neither princes nor nations can endure, was the reward they had bestowed on their own admi- and which are forfeited if they are not discharged. ral Eurybiades. They added a chariot, the best the After the battle of Salamis, and while the terrors of city possessed; and, to distinguish him above all other the invasion were still fresh, his influence at Athens

was predominant, and his power consequently great | ostracism which he had himself before directed against wherever the ascendancy of Athens was acknowledg- Aristides. He took up his abode at Argos, which be ed: and he did not always scruple to convert the glory had served in his prosperity, and which welcomed, if with which he ought to have been satisfied into a not the saviour of Greece, at least the enemy of Sparsource of petty profit. Immediately after the retreat ta. Here he was still residing, though he occasionally of Xerxes, he exacted contributions from the islanders visited other cities of the Peloponnesus, when Pause who had sided with the barbarians, as the price of di- nias was convicted of his treason. In searching fr verting from them the resentment of the Greeks. An- farther traces of his plot, the ephori found some parts other opportunity for enriching himself he found in the of a correspondence between him and Themistocles, factions by which many of the maritime states were which appeared to afford sufficient ground for charging divided. Almost everywhere there was a party or in- the Athenian with having shared his friend's cre dividuals who needed the aid of his authority, and were They immediately sent ambassadors to Athens to acwilling to purchase his mediation. Themistocles, in cuse him, and to insist that he should be punished m short, accumulated extraordinary wealth on a less than like manner with the partner of his guilt. We have moderate fortune. When his troubles had commen- no reason to believe that there was any more soud ced, a great part of his property was secretly conveyed foundation for the charge than what Plutarch relates; into Asia by his friends; but that part which was dis- that Pausanias, when he saw Themistocles based covered and confiscated is estimated by Theopompus believing that he would embrace any opportunity di at a hundred talents, by Theophrastus at eighty; avenging himself on his ungrateful country, opened his though, before he engaged in public affairs, all he pos- project to him in a letter. Themistocles thought sessed did not amount to so much as three talents. the scheme of a madman, but one which he was (Plut., Vit. Themist., c. 25.)-But if he made some bound, and had no inducement, to reveal. He may enemies by his selfishness, he provoked others, whose have written, though his prudence renders it impre resentment proved more formidable, by his firm and ble, something that implied his knowledge of the se enlightened patriotism. Sparta never forgave him the cret. But his cause was never submitted to an imp shame he brought upon her by thwarting her insidious tial tribunal: his enemies were in possession of the attempt to suppress the independence of her rival, and public mind at Athens, and officers were sent with the he farther exasperated her animosity by detecting and Spartans, who tendered their assistance, to arrest baffling another stroke of her artful policy. The Spar- and bring him to Athens, where, in the prevailing de tans proposed to punish the states which had aided the position of the people, almost inevitable death awaited barbarians, or had abandoned the cause of Greece, by him. This he foresaw, and determined to avoid. depriving them of the right of being represented in the the Peloponnesus he could no longer hope to find a s Amphictyonic congress. By this measure, Argos, refuge. He sought it first in Corcyra, which was Thebes, and the northern states, which had hitherto debted to him for his friendly mediation in a diape composed the majority in that assembly, would have with Corinth about the Leucadian peninsula, and tad, been excluded from it, and the effect would probably by his means, obtained the object it contended t have been that Spartan influence would have prepon- The Corcyreans, however willing, were unable to shel derated there. Themistocles frustrated this attempt ter him from the united power of Athens and Sparia, by throwing the weight of Athens into the opposite and he crossed over to the opposite coast of Epra scale, and by pointing out the danger of reducing the The Molossians, the most powerful people of this cour council to an instrument in the hands of two or three try, were now ruled by a king named Admetus, w of its most powerful members. The enmity which he Themistocles, in the day of his power, had thwarted in thus drew upon himself would have been less honour- a suit which he had occasion to make to the A able to him, if there had been any ground for a story, ans, and had added insult to disappointment. The which apparently was never heard of till it became mistocles adopted the desperate resolution of throwing current among some late collectors of anecdotes, himself upon the mercy of this his personal enca from whom Plutarch received it: it has been popular The king was fortunately absent from home when the because it seemed to illustrate the contrast between stranger arrived at his gate, and his queen Pria i the characters of Themistocles and Aristides, and to whom no vindictive feelings stifled her womanly com display the magnanimity of the Athenians. Themis-passion, received him with kindness, and instructed tocles is made to tell the Athenians that he has some-him in the most effectual manner of disarming her h thing to propose which will be highly beneficial to the band's resentment and securing his protection. W commonwealth, but which must not be divulged. The Admetus returned, he found Themistocles seated people depute Aristides to hear the secret, and to judge his hearth, holding the young prince whom Phihi d of the merit of the proposal. Themistocles discloses placed in his hands. This among the Molossians was a plan for firing the allied fleet at Pagasæ, or, accord- the most solemn form of supplication, more powerful ing to another form of the story adopted by Cicero (Off., 3, 11), the Lacedæmonian fleet at Gythium. Upon this, Aristides reports to the assembled people that nothing could be more advantageous to Athens than the counsel of Themistocles, but nothing more dishonourable and unjust. The generous people reject the proffered advantage, without even being tempted to inquire in what it consisted.-Themistocles was gradually supplanted in public favour by men worthy indeed to be his rivals, but who owed their victory less to their own merit than to the towering pre-eminence of his deserts. He himself, as we have observed, seconded them by his indiscretion in their endeavours to persuade the people that he had risen too high above the common level to remain a harmless citizen in a free state: that his was a case which called for the extraordinary remedy prescribed by the laws against the power and greatness of an individual which threatened to overlay the young democracy. He was condemned to temporary exile by the same process of

than the olive-branch among the Greeks. The g was touched; he raised the suppliant with an rance of protection, which he fulfilled, when the Ae nian and Lacedæmonian commissioners dogged the prey to his mansion, by refusing to surrender his guest. Themistocles, however, would seem not to bare tended to fix his abode among the Molossians, and no had probably very early conceived the design of seek ing his fortune at the court of Persia. He is said to have consulted the oracle at Dodona, perhaps less or a direction than for a pretext: the answer seemed to point to the great king; and Admetus, practising hospitality of the heroic ages, supplied his guest the means of crossing over to the coast of the gen At the Macedonian port of Pydna he found a merchant-ship bound for Ionia, and, after a narrow escape from the Athenian fleet, which was then bestegg Naxos, and to the coast of which island he had been carried by a storm, Themistocles was safely landed the harbour of Ephesus. It was by letter that be first

the

republished in 1722. Bremer's edition is little more than a reprint of this, Lemgov., 1776, 8vo. (Hoffmann, Lex. Bibliograph., vol. 3, p. 661.)

made himself known to Artaxerxes, who was then on the Persian throne. In his communication he acknowledged the evil he had inflicted on the royal house in the defence of his country, but claimed the merit of THEOCRITUS, a celebrated Greek Bucolic poet, a having sent the timely warning by which Xerxes was native of Syracuse, who flourished under Ptolemy enabled to effect his retreat from Salamis in safety, Philadelphus, king of Egypt, and Hiero II. of Syraand of having diverted the Greeks from the design of cuse, B.C. 270. He was instructed, in his earlier intercepting him. He ventured to add, that his perse- years, by Asclepiades of Samos, and Philetas of Cos; cution and exile were owing to his zeal for the inter-subsequently he became the friend of Aratus, and passests of the King of Persia, and that he had the power ed a part of his days at Alexandrea, and the remainof proving his attachment by still greater services; but der in Sicily. It has been supposed that he was stranhe desired that a year might be allowed him to acquire gled by order of Hiero, king of Sicily, in revenge for the means of disclosing his plans in person. His re- some satirical invectives; but the passage of Ovid, on quest was granted, and he assiduously applied himself which the supposition rests, mentions only "the Syrato study the language and manners of the country, with cusan poet," and it does not follow that this was our which he became sufficiently familiar to conciliate the bard. (Ovid, Ib., 561.) Theocritus distinguished favour of Artaxerxes by his conversation and address, himself by his poetical compositions, and has carried no less than by the promises which he held out, and Bucolic verse to its highest perfection. No one of the prudence of which he gave proofs. If we may be- those who have endeavoured to surpass him, whether lieve Plutarch, he even excited the jealousy of the among the ancients or moderns, has been able to equal Persian courtiers by the superior success with which his simplicity, his naïveté, and his grace. He is not, he cultivated their arts: he was continually by the however, free from the faults of his age, in which the king's side at the chase and in the palace, and was ad- decline of pure taste had already become apparent. mitted to the presence of the king's mother, who hon- His Bucolics are written in the Doric dialect. They oured him with especial marks of condescension. He consist of thirty poems, which bear the title of Idyls was at length sent down to the maritime provinces, | (Eiðóññía), and twenty one other smaller pieces unperhaps to wait for an opportunity of striking the blow, der the name of epigrams. The thirty Idyls, howby which he was to raise the power of Persia upon the ever, are not all by Theocritus. It appears that they ruin of his country. In the mean time, a pension was had been composed by different poets, and united into conferred upon him in the Oriental form; three flour-one body by some grammarians. These thirty pieces ishing towns were assigned to him for his maintenance, are not all, strictly speaking, of the Bucolic order; of which Magnesia was to supply him with bread, Myus some appear to be fragments of epic poems; two of with viands, and Lampsacus with the growth of her them would seem to resemble mimes; several belong celebrated vineyards. He fixed his residence at Mag- to lyric poetry.-Theocritus has sometimes been cennesia, in the vale of the Mæander, where the royal sured for the rusticity, and even indelicacy, of some of grant invested him with a kind of princely rank. his expressions. The latter charge admits of no deThere death overtook him, hastened, as it was com- fence. With regard to the former, it must be observmonly supposed, by his consciousness of being unable ed, that they who conceive that the manners and sentito perform the promises which he had made to the ments of shepherds should always be represented, not king. Thucydides, however, evidently did not believe as they are or have been in any age or country, but the story that he put an end to his own life by poison. greatly embellished or refined, do not seem to have a That fear of disappointing the Persian king should just idea of the nature of pastoral poetry. The Idyls have urged him to such an act is indeed scarcely cred- of Theocritus are, in general, faithful copies of nature, ible. Yet we can easily conceive that the man who and his characters hold a proper medium between rudehad been kept awake by the trophies of Miltiades, ness and refinement.-The "Epithalamium of Helen,” must have felt some bitter pangs when he heard of the one of the thirty, has been supposed to bear a resemrising glory of Cimon. Though his character was not blance to the Song of Solomon. Some have concluso strong as his mind, it was great enough to be above ded from this that Theocritus was acquainted with the the wretched satisfaction implied in one of Plutarch's latter piece. The discussion is a very interesting one anecdotes that, amid the splendour of his luxurious for biblical critics; since, if it can be shown that Thetable, he one day exclaimed, "How much we should ocritus knew of the Song of Solomon, the commonly have lost, my children, if we had not been ruined." received opinion, according to which this poem did not It must have been with a far different feeling that he exist in Greek at the time of Theocritus (Ptolemy desired his bones to be secretly conveyed to Attica, Philadelphus having only caused the Pentateuch to be though the uncertainty which hangs over so many ac- translated into Greek), is completely refuted. Our tions of his life extends to the fate of his remains. A limits forbid any investigation of this subject. It is splendid monument was raised to him in the public believed, however, that an examination of the point place at Magnesia; but a tomb was also pointed out will end in the conviction that Theocritus never saw by the seaside, within the port of Piræus, which was the composition in question.-"The poetry of Theocgenerally believed to contain his bones. His descend- ritus," observes Elton, "is marked by the strength ants continued to enjoy some peculiar privileges at and vivacity of original genius. Everything is distinct Magnesia in the time of Plutarch; but neither they and peculiar; everything is individualized; and is nor his posterity at Athens ever revived the lustre of brought strongly and closely to the eye and underhis name. Themistocles died in his 65th year, about standing of the reader, so as to stamp the impression 449 B.C. (Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. 2, p. of reality. His scenes of nature, and his men and 265, seqq.) There are certain letters which go under women, are equally striking for circumstance and manthe name of Themistocles, and which have come down ners, and may equally be described by the epithet picto our times. These letters have been ascribed to the turesque. His humour is chiefly shown in the porAthenian commander of the same name, but without traiture of middle-rank city-life, where it abounds with sufficient evidence. They are the production of some strokes of character that are not confined to ancient one who has amused himself with this species of lit-times or national peculiarities, but suit all ages and all erary imposture, and has placed himself, in imagina-climates. He is not limited to rustic or comic diation, in the position occupied by the conqueror of Sal-logue or incident, but passes with equal facility to reamis, after he had experienced the ingratitude of his countrymen. The deception is well kept up. The best edition is that of Schoettgen, Lips., 1710, 8vo,

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fined and elevated subjects; and they who have heard only of the rusticity of Theocritus, will be unexpectedly struck by the delicacy of his thoughts, and the