Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1028

Rh 1016 THALELAEUS. because he is said to liave been at the conference at Sirmium, which is usually placed in this year, and because the name of Thalassius, praefectus praetorio, occurs in a law dated A. D. 357. But Tilleraont has shown that the conference at Sir- mium ought probably to be referred to the year 351 ; and as Aramianus expressly places the death of Thalassius in A. d. 853, the Thalassius mentioned in the law may have been praefectus praetorio of lUyricum. The matter is discussed by Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. iv. note xxix. sur Constance. This Thalassius appears to have written some work on the history of his own times, as Suidas is. V. &e6(pios) quotes his testimony respecting his contemporary Theophilus. 2. A monk, lived in the deserts of Libya, about A. D. 662. There are extant four hecatontades of Thalassius addressed to the presbyter Paulus, and entitled Ilepi ayaTrrjs koL eyKpareias /cal TTjy KaTO. vovv troKiTeias, De carilate, vitae continentia et mentis regimine., which are printed in all the Biblio- thecae Patrum. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. pp. 113, 114.) THALEIA or THALIA (©a'Aeja, @aKia). 1. One of the nine Muses, and, at least in later times, regarded as the Muse of Comedy. (lies. Tlieog. 77.) She became the mother of the Corybantes by Apollo. (ApoUod. i. 3. § 4 ; Plut. Sympos. ix. 14.) 2. A daughter of Nereus and Doris. (Horn* //. xviii. 39 ; Hes. Tlie.og. 248 ; Virg. Georg. iv. 338, Aen. V. 826.) 3. A daughter of Hephaestus, and by Zeus, the mother of the Palici. (Serv. ad Aen. ix. 584 ; Steph. ByZ. S. V. TToAlK-f}.) 4. One of the Charites. (Hes. Tkeog. 909; Apollod. i. 1. § 3 ; Pans. ix. 35. § 1.) [L. S.] THALELAEUS {@a(aios), a jurist, lived in the time of Justinian, and was a professor of law, and probably at Constantinople, though there is no evidence for that. He is mentioned among the Antecessores, to whom ihe Constitution Omnem, &c. is addressed ; but he was not employed with Tri- bonian and others upon the compilation of any of Justinian's law books. Thalelaeus had a high re- putation : he was called the " eye of jurisprudence," (ttjs vo/xiKris 6(pdafj.6s). His great work was a Greek commentary on the Code of Justinian, which was divided into three parts. The first and most extensive part is a kind of introduction to a know- ledge of the text of the Code, which is properly called rh TrAaVoy, a name sometimes given, but perhaps incorrectly, to the whole commentary. The second part consisted of a literal Greek version (koto TTo'Sas) of the constitutions which existed in Latin in the Code, or of an extract only from those which had been copied in Greek into the same collection. The third part consists of observa- tions on the Greek and Latin Constitutions. The commentary of Thalelaeus is the most im- portant of all that has been written upon the con- stitutions contained in the Code, lie was not satisfied with taking the constitutions as they appear in the Code, but he consulted the texts of the original constitutions ; for instance, he gives the constitution 1. (Cod. 2. tit. (9), De Eirore Ad- vocat.) more complete than it is in the Corpus Juris ; and upon Constit. I. (Cod. 2. tit. 9. De Advoc. Fisci), he quotes a text of Pauhis, which is found nowhere else. This commentary was first THALES. published in Meerman's Thesaurus, iii. and v. , and since by Heimbach, Basil, i. 323 — 424. It is sometimes said that Thalelaeus wrote a commentary on the Novellae, but this notion is only founded on a mistake of a copyist, who in a scholium of the Basilica on Nov. 115. c. 5. § 1, has written Thalelaeus for Theodorus. There appears also to be no ground for the opinion that Thalelaeus translated the Pandect, or that he wrote a com- mentary on it. (Mortreuil, Histoire du Droit By- zantin., vol. i.) [G. L.] THALELAEUS (0aAeAatos) or THALLE- LAEUS (QaWeAaios), Saint, a physician, Avho was born near Mount Lebanon in Phoenicia of Christian parents, and received his medical educa- tion from a physician named Macarius, who had attained the dignity of Archiater. He displayed on all occasions great zeal in favour of Christianity, and acquired considerable reputation by his me- dical skill, so that some of his cures were said to be miraculously performed. He attended on the heathen with as much care as on Christians, and was particularly charitable towards the poor. During the persecution carried on against the Christians in the short reign of the emperors Carinus and Numerianus, Thalelaeus was seized by Tiberius the governor of Edessa in Mesopo- tamia, from whose hands he is said to have been miraculously delivered. He was afterwards taken before Theodorus, the governor of Aegae in Cilicia, by whom he was exposed to various tortures, and at last put to death, a. d. 284. His constancy and his wonderful deliverances converted several of the bystanders, and among the rest his former tutor Macarius. His memory is celebrated by the Romish Church on May 20. (Acta Sanctorum, May 20. vol. v. p. 1 78*.) [ W. A. G.] THALES (0aA.7js), the Ionian philosopher, was born at Miletus in the 35th Olympiad, ac- cording to ApoUodorus (Diog. Laert. i. 37). He is said (Herod, i. 74) to have predicted the eclipse of the sun, which happened in the reign of the Lydian king Alyattes (according to Oltmann's calculations, in the Abhandl. der KmigL Ahademie der WissenscJiaflen in Berlin, 1812, 1813, in the year b. c. 609), and under Croesus to have ma- naged the diversion of the course of the Halys (Herod, i. 75), and later, in order to unite and strengthen the lonians when threatened by the Persians, to have instituted a federal council in Teos (lb, 170). These statements, and the men- tion of Thales in the books of Xenophanes and Heracleitus (Diog. Laert. i. 33) accord very well with the reckoning of ApoUodorus, which may have been founded on the statement of Demetrius Phalereus, that Thales received the appellation of the Sage in the time of the Athenian archon Da- masius (Diog. Laert. i. 22). They confirm at the same time the statements respecting the long duration of his life, which extended to 78, or even 90 years (Diog. Laert. i. 38). In the different lists of the seven sages his name seems to have stood at the head (Diog. Laert. i. 41, &c. 22 ; comp. Cic. Acad. ii. 37), and, as his wisdom is said to have shown itself in political sagacity, so also it mani- fested itself in prudence in acquiring wealth (Arist. Elh. Nic. i. 1, comp. Diog. Laert. i. 26). And, generally speaking, the above honourable designa- tion which was given to those seven men, denoted, not scientific inquirers, but men of sound under- standing, and famed for their legislative talents, na