Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/271

Rh herdsman, sung by the shepherd Thyrsis to a goatherd. The second is the magical chant which Simaetha pours forth to the magic moon, in the hope of recovering her lover. In the third a goatherd sings to his love, Amaryllis. The fourth is an interchange of rude banter between two country fellows; and the fifth is of the same kind. The scenes are in southern Italy. The sixth is a Sicilian singing match between two ideal herdsmen, not contemporary rustics, but poets of nobler themes. The scene of the seventh is in Cos, where the poet introduces himself at a singing match. He may have been attached to the Asclepian medical school in Cos; his friend Nicias was a physician. Sicily and rival minstrels occupy the ninth idyl. The tenth contains probably some real popular ditties, chanted by the reapers. The eleventh, addressed to Nicias, is a piece of artificial mythological genre, "The Cyclops in Love." The twelfth is a lyric, almost of passionate affection. The thirteenth is another idyl on a mythical topic, the adventures of Hercules and Hylas. The fourteenth and fifteenth are sketches of military and urban life, the mercenary soldier in love, and the gathering at the Adonis feast in Alexandria. Theo critus had wandered to the court of Ptolemy, and joined the literary society of his court. The sixteenth is a patriotic piece: the poet urges Hiero to assail the Carthaginians in Sicily. The seventeenth is a conven tional hymn to Ptolemy Philadelphus on his marriage with his sister. The eighteenth is an epithalamium; the nineteenth a tiny picture of Eros stung by a bee; the twentieth is the complaint of a herdsman rejected by a girl of the town; the twenty-first an idyl of fisher life: two poor old fishermen recount their dreams. The twenty-second idyl is a piece of heroic myth, the adven tures of Castor and Polydeuces; and the twenty-fourth is a tiny epic on the infancy of Hercules. The twenty-third is an amorous complaint. The twenty-fifth describes the slaughter by Hercules of the Nemean lion. The twentysixth justifies, in the interests of the ritual of Dionysus, the murder of the curious Pentheus. The twenty-seventh is the "Wooing of Daphnis," or "Oaristys," an amorous discourse between a girl and a swain. The twenty-eighth is a graceful piece of vers de societe, sent to a lady with the gift of an ivory distaff. The twenty-ninth is amorous; and there remain an imperfect and a spurious piece, and a set of twenty-three epigrams.

On a general view, Theocritus's surviving poems turn out to be (1) rural idyls, the patterns of Virgil's eclogues, and of all later pastoral poetry; (2) minute epics, or cabinet pictures from mythology; (3) sketches of contemporary life in verse; (4) courtly compositions; and (5) expressions of personal kindliness and attachment. The first category and the third are those on which the fame of Theocritus depends. His verse has a wonderful Doric melody; his shepherds are natural Southern people: it is not his fault that what he wrote truly of them has become a false commonplace in the pastoral poetry of the North.

Of Theocritus's own life we only know what has been recorded, that he lived in Syracuse, Cos, and Alexandria, and that he was acquainted with Nicias, with Aratus, the astronomical writer, and with Philinus, head of a school or sect of physicians. The rest is silence or conjecture. Suidas says that, in addition to the surviving poems, the Prcetidx, the Hopes, Hymns, the Heroines, Dirges, Elegies, and Iambics were attributed to him.

The charm of Theocritus can only be tasted in his original Doric, but the best English version is by Mr C. S. Calverley. M. Couat's book on the Alexandrine school of poetry may be re commended. J. Hauler, De Theoc. Vita et Carminibus (Freiburg, 1855), Hempel, Qusest. Theoc. (Kiel, 1881), and Rannow, Studio, Tfieocritea (Berlin, 1886), may also be found useful. The best Eng lish edition of the poems is that of Bishop Wordsworth.

 THEODOLITE.See.  THEODORA, the wife of the emperor (q.v.), was born probably in Constantinople, though according to some in Cyprus, in the early years of the 6th century, and died in 547. We shall first give the usually received ac count of her life and character, and then proceed to inquire how far this account deserves to be accepted. According to Procopius, our chief, but by no means a trustworthy authority for her life, she was the daughter of Acacius, a bear-feeder of the amphitheatre at Constantinople to the Green Faction, and while still a child was sent on to the stage to earn her living in the performances called mimes. She had no gift for either music or dancing, but made her self notorious by the spirit and impudence of her acting in the rough farces, as one may call them, which delighted the crowd of the capital. Becoming a noted courtesan, she accompanied a certain Hecebolus to Pentapolis (in North Africa), of which he had been appointed governor, and, having quarrelled with him, betook herself first to Alex andria, and then back to Constantinople through the cities of Asia Minor. In Constantinople (where, according to a late but apparently not quite groundless story, she now endeavoured to support herself by spinning, and may there fore have been trying to reform her life) she attracted the notice of Justinian, then patrician, and, as the all-powerful nephew of the emperor Justin, practically ruler of the em pire. He desired to marry her, but could not overcome the opposition of his aunt, the empress Euphemia. After her death (usually assigned to the year 523) the emperor yielded, and, as a law, dating from the time of Constantine, forbade the marriage of women who had followed the stage with senators, this law was repealed. Thereupon Justinian married Theodora, whom he had already caused to be raised to the patriciate. They were some time after (527) admitted by Justin to a share in the sovereignty; and, on his death four months later, Justinian and Theodora became sole rulers of the Roman world. He was then about forty -four years of age, and she some twenty years younger. Procopius relates in his unpublished history ( AvcKSora) many repulsive tales regarding Theodora's earlier life, but his evident hatred of her, though she had been more than ten years dead when the Anecdota were written, and the extravagances which the book contains, oblige us to regard him as a very doubt ful witness. Some confirmation of the reported opposition of the imperial family to the marriage has been found in the story regarding the conduct of Justinian's own mother Vigilantia, which Nicholas Alemanni, the first editor of the Anecdota, in his notes to that book, quotes from a certain "Life of Justinian" by Theophilus, to which he frequently refers, without saying where he found it. Since the article JUSTINIAN (q.v.) was published, the pre sent writer has discovered in Rome what is believed to be the only MS. of this so-called life of Justinian; and his examination of its contents, which he has lately published, makes him think it worthless as an authority. See article .

Theodora speedily acquired unbounded influence over her husband. He consulted her in everything, and allowed her to interfere directly, as and when she pleased, in the government of the empire. She had a right to interfere, for she was not merely his consort, but empress regnant, and as such entitled equally with himself to the exercise of all prerogatives. In the most terrible crisis of Justin ian's reign, the great Nika insurrection of 532, her courage and firmness in refusing to fly when the rebels were attack ing the palace saved her husband's crown, and no doubt strengthened her command over his mind. Officials took an oath of allegiance to her as well as to the emperor (Nov., viii.). She even corresponded with foreign ambassadors, and instructed Belisarius how to deal with the popes. 