Timocles
(Τιμοκλῆς).
1. A tragic poet of uncertain date, who is distinguished from the comic poet (No. 2) by Athenaeus (ix. p. 407b.) in the following words, Τιμοκλῆς ὁ τῆς κωμῳδίας ποιητής, ἦ δὲ καὶ τραγῳδίας, which Schweighäuser has unaccountably misunderstood, as if they implied the identity of the comic and the tragic poet, whereas they mean " Timocles the comic poet, but there was also a tragic" (poet of the same name). There is, however, no other mention of this poet; for, although a quotation, from Sophocles in Plutarch (Timol. 36) is ascribed by some MSS. to Timocles, it is so evident that the latter reading may have arisen, according to a frequent and well-known error of transcription, out of a confusion with the word Τιμολέοντος just before, that the balance of probability is in favour of the common reading, and accordingly the passage is placed by Dindorf and Ahrens among the fragments of Sophocles (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 325; Welcker, die Griech. Tragöd. p. 1100; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 430; Wagner, Frag. Com. Graec. p. 146, in Didot's Bibliotheca).
2. A distinguished Athenian comic poet of the Middle Comedy, who lived at a period when the revival of political energy, in consequence of the encroachments of Philip, restored to the Middle Comedy much of the vigour and real aim of the Old, is conspicuous for the freedom with which he discussed public men and measures, as well as for the number of his dramas, and the purity of his style, in which scarcely any departures from the best standards of Attic diction can be detected. His time is indicated by several allusions in his plays, especially to the Attic orators and statesmen. Like Antiphanes, he made sarcastic allusions to the vehement spirit and rhetorical boldness of Demosthenes, whom he also attacked, with Hyperides, and the other orators who had received money from Harpalus. (Pseudo-Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 845b.; Timoc. Heroes, ap. Ath. vi. p. 224a., Delus or Delius, ap. Ath. viii. p. 341e.; Clinton, F. H. s. aa. 343, 336, 324, where, as well as in Meineke, other such personal allusions are mentioned.) Hence the period during which he flourished appears to have extended from about the middle of the fourth century B. C. till after B. C. 324, so that at the beginning of his career he was in part contemporary with Antiphanes, and at the end of it, with Menander. (Comp. Ath. vii. p. 245c.) There is also an allusion to one of his plays, the Icarii, in a fragment of Alexis (Ath. iii. p. 120a). From these statements it is clear that he is rightly referred to the Middle Comedy, although Pollux (10.154) reckons him among the poets of the New (Τοῖς νεωτέροις), perhaps on account of the late period down to which he flourished. He is the latest of the poets of the Middle Comedy, excepting Xenarchus and Theophilus. Works
Suidas, who has here fallen into his frequent error of making two persons out of one, assigns to Timocles, in his two articles upon him, nineteen dramas, on the authority of Athenaeus, in whose work are also found some titles not mentioned by Suidas, and a few more are gathered from other sources. The list, when completed and corrected, stands thus : -- Αἰγύπτιοι Βαλανεῖον Δακτύλιος Δῆλος or perhaps Δήλιος δημοσάτυροι Διονυσιάζουσαι Διόνυσος Δρακόντιον Ἐπιστολαί Ἐπιχαιρέκακος Ἥρωες ʼἰκάριοι σάτυροι Καύνιοι κένταυρος ἢ Δεξαμενός Κονίσαλος Λήθη Μαραθώνιοι Νέαιρα Ὀρεσταυτοκλείδης Πολυπράγμων Ποντικός Πορφύπα (but perhaps this belongs to Xenarchus) Πύκτης Σαπφώ Συνέπιθοι (doubtful) Φιλοδικαστής Ψευδολῃσταί Some of these titles involve important questions, which are fully discussed by Meineke. Edition
Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 428-433, vol. iii. pp. 590-613; Editio Minor, pp. 798-811. Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 503, 504.
3. Of Syracuse, a supposed author of one of the pretended works of Orpheus, namely, the Σωτήρια, which was also ascribed to Persinus of Miletus (Suid. s. v. Ὀρφεύς; Eudoc. p. 318). Nothing more is known of him. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 158; Meineke, vol. i. pp. 430, 431.)
4. There is also an almost unintelligible passage in Photius (Epist. 55, p. 111), about a certain mendacious writer of the name of Timocles. (Meineke, l.c.) [P.S]
artist. [Timarchides].
- Paus. 10.34.6