Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1083

Rh THEODOSIUS. Theodosian Code. (Gibbon, Hist. vol. v. vi. 8vo. ed.:Tiliemont, //tsfotVe des Empereurs, vol. vi.; and as to the Theodosian Code, Puchta, Instit. vol. i. ; and Rocking, Instit. i. p. 50.) [G. L.] THEODO'SIUS III., was compelled, perhaps, against his will, to be proclaimed emperor of the East in A. D. 716, by the fleet, which also declared that Anastasius, his predecessor, was unfit to reign. Theodosius filled the unimportant office of a col- lector of the revenue when he was taken to Con- stantinople to be crowned Emperor of the East. In January 716, he was proclaimed emperor, and in the following year he prudently abdicated, and left the throne for Leo the Isaurian, who com- manded the troops in the East. Theodosius spent the rest of his life in the tranquil retirement of a monastery. [G. L.] THEODO'SIUS, literary. 1. Of Bithynia, a mathematician, who is referred to by Vitruvius (ix. 9. s. 8. § 1, Schneid.) as the inventor of a universal sun-dial {horologium Trphs irav K^a). Strabo (xii. p. 6QQ) mentions him among the emi- nent natives of Bithynia, and informs us that his sons were also mathematicians. He must have lived before the time of Augustus, and therefore he cannot be, as some have supposed, the same person as Theodosius of Tripolis, who appears to have flourished later than the reign of Trajan. (See No. 2.) 2. Of Tripolis, a mathematician and astronomer of some distinction, was a philosopher of the sect of the Sceptics, or, to speak more exactly, a fol- lower of Pyrrhon, whose philosophy, Theodosius himself contended, ought not properly to be called sceptical (Diog. Laert. ix. 70). Among other works of his, Suidas (s. v.) mentions a Commentary on the K€(pdaia of Theudas, who appears from another passage of Diogenes (ix. 116) to have lived not very long before the time of Sextus Em- piricus, and therefore about the reign of Trajan. Suidas also enumerates aiceTrTiKa K^cpdKaia among the works of Theodosius (s. v. and also s. v. Hvp- pwvws)^ and the same work is mentioned by Diogenes (ix, 70). Of the ancient mathematicians, i'tolemy does not refer to Theodosius, but his works are quoted by Theon, in his Commentary on Ptolemy, by Pappus, in his (rvvayuyf), and by Proclus, in his Hypoiyposis Astronomica., p. 7. Suidas mentions the following as his mathema- tical and astronomical works : — '2,(paipiKh eV fiiS- Kiois Tpiaiu, Tlepl Tj/jLfpwv Kol vvktwv Svo, viro- ftfTj/ia els tJ) ' Apxtf^V^ovs *E(p6Biov, Aiaypa<pas oiKidv iv $i§iois 7', 'A<TTpooyiKd, Ilepl oiic-fj- aewv. Of these works, some have been printed. The work on the Sphere, which is a treatise on the properties of the sphere, and of the circles described on its surface, was first published in an ancient Latin version, edited by John Vbgelin, Paris, 1529, 4to. ; and other Latin versions were published by F. Maurolycus, with the Spkaerica of Menelaus, and the work of Autolycus on the Sphere, Messanae, 1568, fol. ; by Jos. Auria, with Autolycus, from six MSS. in the Vatican, 1588, 4to.; by Dr. Isaac Barrow, in his edition of Archimedes, Lond. 1675, 4to. ; and by And. Celsius, Upsal. 1730, 12mo. The first edition of the Greek text was published by Joannes Pena, the royal mathematician of France, Bellov. 1558, 4to. : many of the demon- strations, which are defective in the work of Theodosius, were supplied by Pena from Euclid's Elements, and other geometrical works, both an- THEODOSIUS. 107 cient and modern. Another edition, founded on that of Pena, with the further aid of some MSS. at Oxford, from which, however, no readings of consequence were obtained, was published by Joseph Hunt, Oxon. 1707. 8vo. There are also translations of the work into English, by Edward Sherbourne, as an appendix to his version of the Spliaerica of Manilius, Lond. 1675, fol., and into German, by E. Nizze, whose notes are of high value, Stralsund, 1826, 8vo. His work irepX r),uepau Koi vvktwv, de Diebus et Noctibus, was published from a MS. in the Vati- can, in Latin only, with ancient Scholia, and figures, by Jos. Auria, Romae, 1591, 4to. ; the propositions, without demonstrations, having been previously edited by Conrad Dasypodius, Argen- torat. 1572, 8vo. Fabricius states that the book Ilept olK-fjaewu was also published in Latin, by Jos. Auria, Romae, 1587, 4to. ; but the edition is not mentioned in Hoffmann's Lexicon Bibliographicum. In the great collection of the works of the ancient mathematicians, planned by Edward Bernard, after whose death the synopsis of the intended edition was published by Thomas Smith, Lond. 1704, 8vo., the known works of Theodosius were to have had a place in the seventh volume. There are many MSS. of the above three works, in the principal libraries of Europe, in Greek, Latin, and Arabic. The other works of Theodosius appear to be en- tirely lost. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. pp. 21 — 23, 213 ; Menag. ad Diog. La'irt. ix. 70.) 3. Another native of Tripolis of this name, is mentioned by Suidas (s. v.) as the author of an heroic poem on the Spring, and of various other works {iypa^e Si' itrwv ds rh eap, koi 'drepa Sid- (popa). Eudocia (p. 229) identifies him with the preceding. 4. A Neo-Platonist, the disciple of Ammonias, and the father-in-law of Zethus, the disciple of Plotinus. (Porphyr. Vit. Plot. 7.) 5. Of Alexandria, a grammarian, whose Com- mentary on the rexJ^r] 'ipa/j./xaTiKij of Dionysius Thrax, as well as a work b}"^ him irepl opov, and other grammatical works, and also a Commentary on Theodosius himself, by Georgius Choeroboscus, exist in MS. in various libraries. A full account of these MSS. is given by Fabricius and Harless {Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 301, 308, 350). He is supposed to have lived about the time of Constan- tine the Great. His chief grammatical work, the commentary on Dionysius, amplified by the addi- tions of later Byzantine grammarians, was pub- lished by C. G. Gottling, under the title of Tkeo- dosii Alcxandrini Grainmatica, Lips. 1822, 8vo. ; the Frooeviium having been published before in Osann's Fhilemonis Grammatici quae supersunt, Berol. 1821, 8vo,, and a portion of the work, under the title of Theodori Grammatici Alex. Canones de Declinationc Nominum et Conjugatione Verborum., by Imm. Bekker, in the third volume of his Anecdota, Berol. 1821, 8vo. (Hoffman, Lexicon Biblingrapft. Scriptor. Graecorum.) 6. Respecting Theodosius, sumamed d fiiKpSs, a supposed Epitomator of Dion Cassius, but appa- rently in fact only a copyist, see Harless's ad- ditions to the notice of him by Fabricius. {BibL Graec. vol. v. p. 142.) 7. MELiTiNUs,aByzantine historian, a MS. copy of whose Chro?ncon was brought from Constanti- nople to Tubingen by Stephen Gerlach, a fragment of which, respecting the marriage of the emperor