Theodotos of Chios

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theodotos von Chios (also Theodotos von Samos ) († 43 or 42 BC) was the rhetoric teacher of the young Egyptian king Ptolemy XIII.

Life

Theodotos of Chios had learned the profession of a rhetorician and was a teacher of the young Ptolemy XIII. after the minister Potheinos and the general Achillas the third most powerful man in the regency council of the underage king. These three influential courtiers were able to enforce their protégé's participation in the government against his older sister wife Cleopatra VII , who had ruled almost alone after her accession to the throne (beginning of 51 BC). Finally, Cleopatra was born at the end of 49 BC. Driven completely from Egypt.

The dethroned queen tried to achieve their return with a recruited mercenary army, so that Ptolemy XIII. with his three guardians and his army had to take a position against his sister's army near the Egyptian border post Pelusion . At this time (end of July 48 BC) Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus - who had lost the decisive battle at Pharsalus in the Roman civil war against Gaius Julius Caesar - escaped on the Egyptian coast near Pelusion in order to receive admission and further support from the allied Egyptian king ask.

To buy time, Ptolemy XIII's advisers voted. officially to the request of Pompey. After the departure of the Roman messengers, a council of state discussed how to proceed with Pompey. In addition to Potheinos and Achillas, Theodotos also took part. Even if neither Caesar in his civil war nor Lucan in his Pharsalia even mention the participation of the rhetorician in this deliberation, Theodotos' proposal to murder Pompey was accepted (against other opinions such as the priest Akoreus ). Theodotos justified his plan with professional eloquence: If Pompey were accepted, he would subjugate Egypt and Caesar would mutate into an enemy; in the event of a rejection of the request, however, Pompey would be disgruntled because of his rejection and Caesar because of his adversary's escape. If, on the other hand, Pompey is killed, Caesar will be satisfied and there is no longer any need to fear those who have been killed, because a corpse does not bite. Above all, Egypt was supposed to be kept out of the Roman civil war and the victor Caesar was to be won by killing his opponent. The murder plan was carried out by Achillas.

Caesar arrived in Alexandria with his fleet just two days later . According to Livy and Plutarch , Theodotos brought the Roman general the signet ring and the severed head of Pompey, which Caesar allegedly received with disgust and tears, immediately after his arrival. Since Caesar did not show himself grateful as expected, but instead decided in favor of Cleopatra in the Egyptian controversy for the throne and also demanded large sums of money, allegedly still owed to him, from the Ptolemaic government, the Alexandrian War broke out , which the Roman general only ended victoriously after long and difficult battles could.

Theodotos was able to escape from Egypt and for years led an unsteady and miserable life. He found 43 or 42 BC. He died when he was arrested and cruelly executed by Marcus Iunius Brutus or Gaius Cassius Longinus in the province of Asia . Quintilian calls a "consultation with Caesar about the punishment for Theodotos" as material for rhetoric schools.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ According to Plutarch ( Pompeius 77, 3; Brutus 33, 3) Theodotos came from the island of Chios , according to Appian ( Civil Wars 2, 84, 354) from Samos .
  2. ↑ Plutarch, Pompey 80, 9; Brutus 33, 3; Appian, Civil Wars 2, 84, 354.
  3. ↑ Plutarch, Pompey 77, 3; Brutus 33, 3; Appian, Civil Wars 2, 84, 354; Livy , periochae 112; Florus 2, 13, 60.
  4. ↑ C. Schäfer, 2006, p. 34f.
  5. ↑ Plutarch, Pompeius 77, 5ff .; Brutus 33, 2ff .; coincidentally Appian, Civil Wars 2, 84 and Livy, periochae 112; see. Lucan, Pharsalia 8, 484-535 (Potheinos puts the advice to assassinate Pompey in his mouth with the justification that Egypt should not be drawn into acts of war against Caesar); Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 104, 1f .; on this, C. Schäfer, 2006, pp. 48–51.
  6. ↑ Livius, periochae 112; Plutarch, Caesar 48, 2; the author of De viris illustribus (77, 9) wrongly makes Achillas the bearer of the macabre gift; see. J. Brambach, 1996, pp. 65f .; C. Schäfer, 2006, p. 53f.
  7. ↑ So Plutarch, Pompey 80, 9; Brutus 33, 6.
  8. ↑ So Appian, Civil Wars 2, 90, 377.
  9. ↑ Quintilian , institutio oratoria 3, 8, 55f.
personal data
SURNAME Theodotos of Chios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Theodotos of Samos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greco-Egyptian rhetorician and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC BC or 1st century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Chios or Samos
DATE OF DEATH 43 BC BC or 42 BC Chr.