Theon

• A satirical poet.— Hence, Thĕōnīnus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Theon: dens, Hor. Ep. 1, 18, 82. —
• II A celebrated Samian painter, Quint. 12, 10, 6; Plin. 35, 11, 40, § 144.

(Θέων). Of three of this name whose writings yet remain, two are mathematicians who are often confounded together. The first is Theon the elder, of Smyrna, best known as an arithmetician, who lived in the time of Hadrian. The second is Theon the younger, of Alexandria, the father of Hypatia, best known as an astronomer and geometer, who lived in the time of Theodosius the elder. Both were heathens, a fact which the date of the second makes it desirable to state; and each held the Platonism of his period. The confusion would probably be avoided, if they were named after their leaders in science : they would then be called Theon the Pythagorean, and Theon the Ptolemaist.

(Θέων), literary.

1. A grammarian, who taught at Rome in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, and was succeeded by Apion. (Suid. s. v. Ἀπιών. Works Lexicon to the Greek comedians (Κωμικαὶ λέξεις)

Theon was the author of a Lexicon to the Greek comedians (Κωμικαὶ λέξεις), which is quoted by Hesychius in the Prooemium to his Lexicon. (Also, s. v. Σκίταλοι : see Ruhnken, Praef. ad Hesych. pp. ix. foll.) It is doubtful whether he was the author of the comic lexicon quoted by the Scholiast to Apollonius Rhodius (iv. pp. 280, 305). He is one of the authors from whose works the Scholia to Aristophanes were derived. Other Commentaries ascribed to a Theon

It is very possible that one or both of these Commentaries on Homer and Apollonius, should be assigned to Aelius Theon, of Alexandria, No. 5, below. Commentary on the Odyssey

A Commentary on the Odyssey by a certain Theon is quoted in the Etymologicum Magnum (s. v. πύελος). Commentary on Apollonius Rhodius

In one of the Scholia on Aristophanes (Nub. 397), the genuineness of which, however, is doubtful (see Dindorf, Annot. ad loc.), Theon is mentioned as one of the commentators on Apollonius Rhodius. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 525, vol. ii. p. 500, vol. vi. p. 380.

2. A later grammarian, the contemporary and friend of Plutarch, in whose Quaestiones Conviviales he is often mentioned.

3. Of Alexandria, a Stoic philosopher, who flourished under Augustus, later than Areios, and wrote a Commentary on Apollodorus's Introduction to Physiology, τῆς Ἀπολλοδώρου φυσιολογικῆς εἰσαγωγῆς ὑπόμνημα, and three books on Rhetoric, περὶ τεχνῶν ῥητορικῶν βιβλία γ́. (Suid. s. v.)

4. Of Antioch, a Stoic philosopher, wrote a Defence of Socrates, Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους. (Suid. s. v.)

5. Aelius Theon, of Alexandria, a sophist and rhetorician. Works

Theon wrote a treatise on Rhetoric (τέχνη), a work περὶ προγυμνασμάτων (or, as some scholars read the text of Suidas, the words τέχνη περὶ προγυμνασμάτων form only one title), Commentaries on Xenophon, Isocrates, and Demosthenes, Rhetorical Themes (ῥητορικαὶ ὑποθέσεις), Questions respecting the Composition of Language (ζητήματα περὶ συντάξεως λόγου), and numerous other works (Suid. s.v. Eudoc. p. 231). The Προγυμνάσματα

The Προγυμνάσματα is still extant. It is an excellent and useful treatise on the proper system of preparation for the profession of an orator, according to the rules laid down by Hermogenes and Aphthonius. Editions

It was first printed, in Greek only, by Angelus Barbatus, Romae, 1520, 4to; again, with an amended text and a Latin version, by Joachim Camierarius, Basil. 1541, 8vo.; by Dan. Heinsius, from the Elzevir press, Lugd. Bat. 1626, 8vo.; by Joan. Schefferus, with the Progymnasmata of Aphthonius, Upsal. 1670 or 1680, 8vo.; and recently, with the Scholia, Notes, and Indices, by C. E. Finckh, Stuttgard. 1834. 8vo. and also in Walz's Rhetorci Graeci, vol. i. pp. 137, foll. Other Works Possibly by Aelius Theon

Küster (ad Suid. s. v.) thinks that Aelius Theon was the author of the Commentary on Apollonius, mentioned above (No. 1), and also of the extant Scholia on Aratus, which others refer to the father of Hypatia. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 97, 98; Hoffmann, Lexicon, Bibliogr. Scriptor. Graecorum, s. v.

6. Valerius Theon, a sophist, who wrote a Commentary on Andocides (Suid. s. v.), from which the suspicion arises that he is the same person as the preceding, and that there is some confusion between the names Aelius and Valerius.

7. Of Sidon, a son of the sophist Gymnasius, and himself a sophist, taught in his native city, under Constantine the Great, who conferred upon him the dignities of consul and praefect. (Suid. s. v.)

8. A sophist and rhetorician, who was the instructor of Damascius in oratory. (Phot. Bibl. Cod. 181, p. 126b. 40, ed. Bekker.) He must therefore have flourished at the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth centuries of our era. Some particulars respecting him are preserved, from Damascius. by Photius (Phot. Bibl. 242, p. 339b. 7), and by Suidas (s. v.), who tells us that Theon was the descendant of S. Marcella, and the son and pupil of Ecdicius. The passage of Damascius, quoted by Photius, is to the effect that Theon was naturally somewhat obtuse, but so fond of learning and so laborious was he, that he acquired the most perfect knowledge of the ancient poets and orators, and the most thorough technical acquaintance with the art of both; but he was never able, though very desirous, to reduce his knowledge to practice, and to write either poems or orations. His only work known to Suidas was a Treatise on Rhetoric, τέχνη ῥητορική.

A list of some other persons of this name is given by Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 98, 99). [P.S]

(Θέων), the name of three physicians : --

1. A native of Alexandria (Galen, De San. Tu. 3.3, vol. vi. p. 182), who was originally an athleta, lad afterwards a gymnasta (ibid. 2.4. p. 114); and who wrote two works on the subject of gymnastics, one entitled Περὶ τῶν κατὰ Μέρος Γυμνασίων, De Particularibus Exercitiis, the other Περὶ τῶν Γυμναστικῶν, De Gymnasticis (ibid. 3.8. pp. 208, 209). These works are several times mentioned by Galen, butt are not now extant. With respect to Theon's date, it can only be positively determined that he lived after Hippocrates (ibid. 2.4. p. 105), and before Galen; but, as Galen does not speak of him as having lived shortly before his own time, he may perhaps be placed in the third or second century B. C.

2. A physician who acquired some reputation in Gaul in the latter half of the fourth century after Christ. (Eunap. Vit. Ionici.)

3. A physician of Alexandria, who wrote a comprehensive medical work entitled Ἄνθρωπος, " Man," in which he treated of diseases in a systematic order, beginning with the head, and descending to the feet, and also of pharmacy. As Photius calls him (Biblioth. § 220) by the title of "Archiater," he must have lived after the beginning of the Christian era; and as Galen does not mention him, he may be supposed to have lived later than the second century. If (as is not improbable) he is the same physician, one of whose medical formulae is quoted by Aetius (1.3. 58. p. 127), he must have lived before the sixth century. Haller places him in the reign of Theodosius, that is, in the fourth century (Bibl. Medic. Pract. vol. i. p. 287), which may be quite correct, but he does not state the reason for his assigning so precise a date.

Theon, the commentator on Nicander mentioned by Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v. Κορώπη), is reckoned as a physician by Fabricius (Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 434) and Haller (l.c. p. 138), but it is perhaps more probable that he was a grammarian by profession, as he appears to have written a commentary also on Apollonius Rhodius and on Lycophron. [W.A.G]

of Samos, is mentioned by Quintilian (12.10.6) as one of those painters who flourished from the time of Philip to that of the successors of Alexander, the age of Pamphilus and Melanthius, Apelles and Protogenes. The peculiar merit of Theon was his prolific fancy (concipiendis visionibus, quas φαντασίας vocant), a characteristic denoting that excessive refinement in which the decline of art was already commencing, and which is still more strongly exhibited in the description given by Aelian (Ael. VH 2.44) of Theon's picture of a soldier rushing to the battle. If we may believe Aelian, Theon even transgressed the limits of his own art in his attempt to produce a striking effect ; for he never exhibited the picture without first causing a charge to be sounded on trumpets, and when the excitement produced by the music was at its highest, he drew up the curtain, and showed the warrior as if he had suddenly started into the presence of the spectators. Pliny places Theon among the painters who were primis proximi, and mentions two of his works, namely, Orestis insania, and Thamyrus citharoedus (H. N. 35.11. s. 40.40). The former picture is also mentioned in the treatise of the Pseudo-Plutarch, de Audiendis Poctis, p. 18, from which we learn, what might be inferred from Pliny's words, that it represented (Orestes slaying his mother. (See further, respecting this picture, R. Rochette, Monum. Ined. p. 177.) [P.S]

(Θέων). (1) Of Samos. A Greek painter who flourished in the second half of the fourth century B.C. His pictures were celebrated for their powerful effect on the imagination, which caused those who looked at them to forget that they were only counterfeits of reality. The picture of a young hoplite charging the enemy was especially celebrated for this effect of illusion (Aelian, V. H. ii. 44).

(2) Of Smyrna. A Platonist living in the first half of the second century A.D. He was the author of a work of great value in connection with ancient Greek arithmetic: on the principles of mathematics, music, and astronomy required for the study of Plato. It is edited by Hiller (Leipzig, 1878).

(3) Of Alexandria. One of the last students at the Alexandrian Museum, born about A.D. 365. He is the author of a commentary on Euclid and on the astronomical tables of Ptolemaeus. He was the father of the celebrated Hypatia (q.v.). His works are edited by Halma (Paris, 1822).

(4) Aelius. A rhetorician of Alexandria, who wrote, in the fifth century A.D., a book on rhetoric, to which were appended exercises on style, called Προγυμνάσματα, deserving of commendation both for their conciseness and lucidity of exposition, and for their criticisms on the style of the Attic orators. Edited by Finckh (Stuttgart, 1834).