Theopompus the Historian
Gordon S. Shrimpton
Language: English
Pages: 365
ISBN: B01K94C9WI
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This critical study analyzes direct evidence concerning the life and lost works of Theopompus of Chios, the 4th-century BC historian and orator. In a translation of surviving citations of Theopompus' work and of the references made to Theopompus' work by other writers, the text makes available all that remains of Theopompus' writings. Theopompus was primarily known in antiquity for his historical works, which included "Hellenica", a 12-volume history of Greece, and the 58-volume "Philippica", which focused mainly on the career of Philip II of Macedon. All of Theopompus' works were lost by late antiquity except 53 volumes of the "Philippica", which survived into Byzantine times only to disappear by the 10th century. Concentrating on the "Hellenica" and the "Philippica", the author of this text studies the fragments to reveal what can be gleaned about the scope and content of Theopompus' two major works. He deals systematically with the problems of interpretation and makes clear the methodological background of his reconstructions and evaluations, furnishing the basis for further methodological debate. Theopompus' moral and political views are discussed, as are his treatment of two of the most important figures of the middle of the 4th century BC, Philip and Demosthenes. In addition, there is an index of the proper names found in the fragments.
Theopompus, who seems far less interested in the mainland, as I shall try to demonstrate in the next chapter. There was also a Cratippus, an Athenian who lived at the same time as Thucydides and continued his work down to at least the late 390s if not the King's Peace (Jacoby no.64, TT1, 2).45 Harding46 has shown that Cratippus could have been another of Ephorus' sources, used for Athenian history after 411, but since P was Ephorus' source for that period, the conclusion that P and Cratippus are
of Lysander's decarchies. But caution is needed. The evidence that Theopompus admired Agesilaus is equivocal, for there are two fragments regarding Agesilaus, both from book 11, and taken together they suggest that Theopompus was ambivalent toward the Spartan king. The laudatory passage is preserved by Athenaeus, and it illustrates precisely what he claims for it: the ability of Spartans to control their bellies (Athen. 14.657 B-C = F22 from book 11): Fatted geese and calves are mentioned by
for in 5.187D Athenaeus says: "The Pythian god proclaimed it [Athens] 'the hearth and town-hall of the Hellenes' " (C.B. Gulick, tr., L.C.L.). Where Athenaeus found the report of this Delphic response is uncertain. At first it appears that 5.187D provides the correct form of the oracle - namely, that the Pythian called Athens the hearth and town-hall of Hellas - and that Athenaeus found it in an unknown source. In this view, 6.254B would be a confused account of the oracle, attributing part of it
The description of Philip's court (F225 from book 49) attributes to the Macedonians some flagrant habits of homosexuality. Are they included for any special reason or simply to prepare the reader for the grotesque pun that closes the description of their sexual habits? Androphonoi by nature, they were by habit andropornoi. Perhaps the best way to bring out this crude pun would be to translate the first word "men-killers," and the second "menkissers," but it really means "men-whores." A few lines
Plato's rival for the leadership of the Socratic school after the master's death and, apparently, more of a moralist than Plato. Another product of the Socratic school was Aristotle himself, Plato's greatest student and close contemporary of Theopompus. He wrote a lengthy analysis of akrasia in his Nichomachean Ethics.1* Aristotle's careful systematization and definition of the moral vocabulary helps in identifying the concepts in Theopompus where they are not expressed in such philosophically