Tīmotheus

1. Greek poet of Miletus (c.450–c.360 BC), reputedly a friend of Euripides. He is famous for his nomes and dithyrambs. Although most of his eighteen books of poems are lost, some 250 lines of the nome Persae have been found on an Egyptian papyrus of the fourth century BC, the oldest surviving Greek literary text. It is an impression of the battle of Salamis written in a bombastic imitation of the elevated style of choral lyric; various metres are used (probably the music was as important as the words), and the composition is astrophic (see STROPHE). Timotheus figures in John Dryden's poem ‘Alexander's Feast’ (1697).

2. Athenian politician (d. 354 BC), son of Conon (1) and pupil of Isocrates. He promoted an imperialist policy, capturing Samos from the Persians in 365 and extending the dominion of Athens in the Thracian Chersonese and Chalcidicē. In consequence of his failure to support his fellow-general Charēs in an attack on Chios in 356 he was tried and fined.