Theopompus

Theopompus (Greek: Θεόπομπος ), also: Theopompus of Chios (c. 378/377 BC Chios; † btw 323 and 300 BC, probably in Alexandria ) was an ancient Greek historian and rhetorician.

Life

In early youth Theopompus seems to have spent some time in Athens, together with his father, who was exiled from Chios because of his sympathies for Sparta. Here he became a pupil of Isocrates, and made rapid progress in the rhetoric; it is reported that Isocrates used to say, Ephorus of Kyme need the spur, Theopompus, however, reins ( Cicero, Brutus, 204).

At first this seems to have written Theopompus epideictic speeches in which he attained such a skill that he 352/351 to the honor of her husband donated by Artemisia II prize for oratory received, even though Isocrates was among the competitors. It is the advice of his teacher have been, who eventually determined his future as a historian - a career for which he was well suited with his father and his extensive knowledge of people and places. Through the influence of Alexander the Great, he was able to return to 333 BC to Chios, where he was for a time the leader of the aristocratic party of his native city. After Alexander's death, he was exiled again, took refuge with Ptolemy I in Egypt, where he was apparently received quite cool. Year of his death is unknown.

Work

The writings of Theopompus are mainly historical in nature and are frequently quoted by later authors. They include a summary of Herodotus' history ( the authenticity of which is doubtful), the Hellenica ( Hellenikai istoriai ), the story of Philip ( Philippikai istoriai ) and various Lobschriften and admonitory texts, including especially the letter to Alexander.

Of his works only a few fragments were known until 1907. The discovered papyrus fragment of a Greek historian of the fourth century, by BP Grenfell and AS Hunt and of them published in the Oxyrhynchus papyri, Volume v. ( Oxford, 1908) (see Hellenika Oxyrhynchia ), was by Eduard Meyer, Ulrich von Wilamowitz - Moellendorff and Georg Busolt considered part of the Hellenica. This identification was doubted by Friedrich Blass, John Bagnell Bury, EM Walker and others, of which ascribe most of the fragment, which is to be a comprehensive report on the year 395 BC, Kratippos. Recently, however, is also Bruno Bleckmann occurred again for Theopompus as an author.

The Hellenika deals with the history of Greece in twelve books of 411 BC (the year in which Thucydides breaks off ) to 394 BC, the year of the Battle of Cnidus ( cf. Diodorus 13,42, 14, 84).

A much more elaborate writing was the story of Philip's reign ( 360-336 ) with digressions on the names and customs of different nations and countries over which he had to speak so many occasions that Philip V later the scope of the history of 58 reduced to 16 books by leaving out the parts that had no relationship to Macedonia. The Roman historian Pompeius Trogus, whose Historiae Philippicae the extract of Junianus Justin has existed, much of this work derived Theopompus '. 53 books there were in the time of Photius ( 9th century ), which in turn left an extract of the 12th book. Various fragments, mainly anecdotes and summaries of various kinds to the characters of countries and individuals have been handed down from Athenaeus, Plutarch and others. Plutarch used the section About the Athenian demagogues from the 10th book of the diatribe, the bitter attacks on many Athenian statesmen contains, later released in some of his biographies.

The attack on Plato and the treatise On Piety, which are sometimes seen as separate works were perhaps only two of the many digressions in the history of Philip; some authors have questioned its authenticity.

From the letter to Alexander, we have one or two fragments, which are quoted by Athenaeus, in which the immorality and debauchery of Harpalus be severely reprimanded.

The slanderous attack on the three cities of Athens, Sparta and Thebes but was released from his opponent Anaximenes of Lampsacus under Theopompus ' names.

The nature of the resulting fragments generated varied criticism of antiquity to Theopompus. Her style is clear and pure, full of selected clearer expressions, but they lack weight and dignity. The artistic unity of the history of Philip suffers heavily from the aforementioned long and frequent digressions.

Another mistake of Theopompus was his excessive fondness for romantic and incredible stories; a collection of this type was later produced and released under his name. Also, he was severely criticized in antiquity for its Mäkeleien, and across the fragments no feature is more striking than this. However, on the whole he seems to be reasonably unbiased. Philip himself he blames strictly for drunkenness and immorality, while Demosthenes gets all his praise. - See also Meropis.

Editions and translations

The surviving fragments of Theopompus can be found at: Felix Jacoby, The fragments of Greek historians ( FGrHist ), No. 115 An English translation of the historical fragments provides Shrimpton (see literature).

• Jörg- Dieter Gauger, Barbara Gauger (ed.): fragments of historians Theopompus of Chios. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-7772-1000-1 ( German translation of the historical fragments).