Docimus
(Δόκιμος), one of the officers in the Macedonian army, who after the death of Alexander supported the party of Perdiccas. After the death of Perdiccas he united with Attalus and Alcetas, and was taken prisoner together with the former when their combined forces were defeated by Antigonus in Pisidia, B. C. 320. (Diod. 18.45, Polyaen. 4.6.7.) The captives were confined in a strong fort, but, during the expedition of Antigonus against Eumenes, they contrived to overpower their guards, and make themselves masters of the fortress. Docimus, however, having quitted the castle to carry on a negotiation with Stratonice, the wife of Antigonus, was again made prisoner. (Diod. 19.16.) He appears after this to have entered the service of Antigonus, as we find him in 313 B. C. sent by that prince with an army to establish the freedom of the Greek cities in Caria. (Diod. 19.75; Droysen, Hellenismus, vol. i. p. 358.) In the campaign preceding the battle of Ipsus, he held the strong fortress of Synnada in Phrygia in charge for Antigonus, but was induced to surrender it into the hands of Lysimachus. (Diod. 20.107; Paus. 1.8.1.) It is probable that he had been governor of the adjoining district for some time : and he had founded there the city called after him Docimeium. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Δοκίμειον, Droysen, Hellenismus, vol. ii. p. 665; Eckhel, iii. p. 151.) His name is not mentioned after the fall of Antigonus. [E.H.B]
or Doci'mius. Works Synopsis Minor (τὸ μικρὸν κατὰ στοιχεῖον)
To a supposed Graeco-Roman jurist of this name has been sometimes attributed the authorship of a legal work in alphabetical order, called by Harmenopulus (§ 49) τὸ μικρὸν κατὰ στοιχεῖον, and usually known by the name of Synopsis Minor. It is principally borrowed from a work of Michael Attaliata.
Bach conjectures that the compilation of the Rhodian laws themselves was made by Docimus (Hist. Jur. Rom. lib. iv. c. I, sect. 3.26, p. 638); but Zachariae is of opinion, that the only reason for attributing to him the authorship of the Synopsis Minor was, that the manuscript of Vienna, from which the fragment in Schardius and Leunclavius was published, once belonged to a person named Docimus. Editions
A fragment of the work relating to the authority of the Leges Rhodiae, was published by S. Schardius (Basel 1561), at the end of the Naval Laws, and the same fragment appears in the collection of Leunclavius (J. G. R. ii. p. 472). Pardessus has published some further fragments of the Synopsis Minor (Collection de Lois Maritimes, i. pp. 164, 195-204), and Zachariae has given some extracts from it (Hist. Jur. G. R. p. 76); but the greater part of the work is still in manuscript. [J.T.G]
- surrenders to Lysimachus: Paus. 1.8.1