Theopompus

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Theopompos (disambiguation) .

Theopompos of Chios ( Greek Θεόπομπος Theópompos ; * around 378/377 BC in Chios ; † between 323 and 300 BC probably in Alexandria ) was an ancient Greek historian and rhetorician .

Life

In his early youth, Theopompus seems to have spent some time in Athens , together with his father, who was exiled from Chios because of his sympathy for Sparta . Here he became a pupil of Isocrates and made rapid progress in rhetoric; It is reported that Isocrates used to say that Ephorus of Kyme needed the spur, while Theopompus needed reins.

Initially, Theopompus seems to have written epideictic speeches in which he attained such a skill that he received the prize for rhetoric donated by Artemisia II in honor of her husband in 352/351 , although Isocrates was among the competitors. It is said to have been the advice of his teacher that ultimately determined his future as a historian - a career for which his father and his extensive knowledge of people and places made him particularly suitable. Through the influence of Alexander the great he was able to 333 BC. To return to Chios, where for a time he was the leader of the aristocratic party of his native city. After Alexander's death he was exiled again and took refuge with Ptolemy I in Egypt, where he was apparently received in a rather cool way. The year of his death is unknown.

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Theopompos' writings are mainly historical in nature and are frequently cited by later authors. These include an excerpt from Herodotus' story (the authenticity of which is doubtful), the Hellenika ( Hellenikai istoriai ), the story of Philip ( Philippikai istoriai ) as well as various praise and warning texts, including the letter to Alexander .

Only a few fragments of his works were known until 1907. The papyrus fragment by a 4th century Greek historian, discovered by BP Grenfell and AS Hunt and published by them in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri , vol. (Oxford, 1908) (see Hellenika Oxyrhynchia ), was viewed by Eduard Meyer , Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and Georg Busolt as part of the Hellenika . This identification has been challenged by Friedrich Blass , John Bagnell Bury , EM Walker and others, most of whom use the fragment, which is an extensive account of the year 395 BC. . These AD, Kratippos attribute. Recently, however, Bruno Bleckmann also stood up for Theopompos as an author.

The Hellenica treats the history of Greece in twelve books from 411 BC. BC (the year in which Thucydides breaks off) to 394 BC BC, the year of the battle of Knidos (cf. Diodor 13:42, with 14, 84).

A much more elaborate work was the story of Philip's reign (360-336), with digressions about the names and customs of the various peoples and countries, about which he had so many opportunities to speak that Philip V later expanded the story from 58 reduced to 16 books by leaving out the parts that had no relation to Macedonia . The Roman historian Pompeius Trogus , from whose Historiae Philippicae the excerpt of Junianus Justinus exists, derived much from this work by Theopompus. 53 books still existed at the time of Photios (9th century), who in turn left an excerpt from the 12th book. Various fragments, mainly anecdotes and summaries of various kinds on the characters of countries and individuals, have come down to us from Athenaios , Plutarch and others. Plutarch later freely used the section On the Athenian Demagogues from Book 10 of the Philippica , which contains bitter attacks on many Athenian statesmen, in some of his biographies.

The Attack on Plato and the Treatise On Piety , 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 quoted by Athenaeus, where immorality and debauchery of Harpalos be severely reprimanded.

The defamatory attack on the three cities of Athens , Sparta and Thebes was published by his opponent Anaximenes of Lampsakos under Theopompus' name.

The nature of the fragments preserved generates a wide variety of criticisms of Theopompus from antiquity. Their style is clear and pure, full of carefully chosen clear expressions, but lacking weight and dignity. The artistic uniformity of Philip's story suffers severely from the frequent and long digressions already mentioned.

Another mistake of Theopompos was his excessive predilection for romantic and incredible stories; a collection of this kind was later produced and published under his name. He was also severely reprimanded in antiquity for his flaws, and across the fragments there is no feature more conspicuous than this. On the whole, however, he seems to be reasonably unbiased. He severely reprimands Philip himself for drunkenness and immorality, while Demosthenes receives all his praise. - See also Meropis .

Editions and translations

The surviving fragments of Theopompos can be found at: Felix Jacoby , The Fragments of the Greek Historians (FGrHist) , No. 115. An English translation of the historical fragments is offered by Shrimpton (see under literature).

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

literature

• Michael Attyah Flower: Theopompus of Chios. History and Rhetoric in the Fourth Century BC. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1994, ISBN 0-19-814079-7 (also: Diss., 1986).
• Kurt von Fritz : The historian Theopompos - His political convictions and his conception of historiography. In: American philological review 46, 1941, pp. 765-787.
• Italo Lana: L'utopia di Teopompo . In: Paideia. Rivista letteraria di informazione bibliografica 6, 1951, ISSN  0030-9435 , pp. 3-22.
• Richard Laqueur : Theopompus 9). In: Pauly-Wissowa . Real encyclopedia of classical antiquity. Volume II 10, Stuttgart 1934, Col. 2176-2223.
• Arnaldo Momigliano : .Teopompo. In: Ders .: La storiografia greca. Turin 1982, pp. 174-203.
• Heinz-Günther Nesselrath : Theopomps Meropis and Plato: imitation and parody . In: Göttingen Forum for Classical Studies 1, 1998, pp. 1–8, gfa.gbv.de (PDF)
• Carlo Scardino: Theopompus of Chios. In: Bernhard Zimmermann , Antonios Rengakos (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Greek literature of antiquity. Volume 2: The Literature of the Classical and Hellenistic Period. CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-61818-5 , pp. 633-635
• Gordon S. Shrimpton: Theopompus the Historian. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montréal et al. a. 1991, ISBN 0-7735-0837-6 .
• Gabriella Ottone: Per una nuova edizione dei frammenti di Teopompo di Chio: riflessioni su alcune problematiche teoriche e metodologiche. In: Ktèma. Civilizations de l'Orient, de la Grèce et de Rome antiques 29, 2004, pp. 129-143, ISSN  0221-5896 .

Web links

• Jona Lendering: Theopompus . In: Livius.org (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ Cicero , Brutus 204.