1. Timagenes, the rhetorician (ῥήτωρ), of Alexandria, the son of the king's banker, was taken prisoner by Gabinius (B. C. 55), and brought to Rome, where he was redeemed from captivity by Faustus, the son of Sulla. He taught rhetoric at Rome in the time of Pompey, and afterwards under Augustus, but losing his school on account of his freedom of speech, he retired to an estate at Tusculum. He died at Dabanum, a town of Osrhoene in Mesopotamia.

2. Timagenes, the historian.

3. Timagenes or Timogenes, of Miletus, an historian or an orator, wrote on the Pontic Heracleia and its distinguished men, in five books, and likewise epistles.

4. Timagenes, the Syrian.

(Plut. de Fluv. 100.6.) Of these four writers it is probable that the rhetorician, the historian who wrote the Periplus, and the Syrian, are the same. [Nos. 1, 2 and 4.] Of the historian we have an account given us by the two Senecas, which differs from what Suidas says respecting the grammarian, but does not really contradict the statement of the lexicographer. It is related by the Senecas that Timagenes after his captivity first followed the trade of a cook, and afterwards of a litter or sedan bearer (leclicarius), but rose from these humble occupations to be the intimate acquaintance of Augustus. He afterwards offended the emperor by some caustic remarks on his wife and family, and was in consequence forbidden the imperial palace. Timagenes in revenge burnt his historical works, in one of which he gave an account of the deeds of Augustus, and which he had probably written at the request of the emperor. Augustus, however, did not punish him any further, but allowed him to retain the protection of the powerful friends he had formerly enjoyed. He found an asylum in the house of Asinius Pollio. (M. Senec. Controv. 34 ; L. Senec. de Ira, 3.23, Ep. 91.) Plutarch also tells us (De Adulatore et Amico, 100.27, p. 68b), that Timagenes lost the friendship of Augustus by an imprudent use of his tongue.

By putting together the accounts of Suidas and the Senecas, we obtain the following particulars respecting the life of Timagenes. He was a native of Alexandria, from which place he was carried as a prisoner to Rome, where he was first employed as a slave in menial offices, but being liberated by Faustus Sulla, the son of the dictator, he opened a school of rhetoric, in which he taught with great reputation and success. (Comp. Hor. Ep. 1.19. 15.) His fame gained him the friendship of many distinguished men, and among others of the emperor Augustus, who induced him to write a history of his exploits. But having offended Augustus by sarcastic remarks upon his family, he was forbidden the palace; whereupon he burnt his historical works, gave up his rhetorical school, and retired from Rome to the house of his friend Asinius Pollio at Tusculum. After he had discontinued writing a long while, he resumed his pen (Quint. Inst. 10.1), and composed those historical works upon which his fame was founded. How long he resided at Tusculum we do not know, nor the reason for which he quitted this retreat, but he afterwards went to the East, and died at Dabanum in Mesopotamia. It is probable that it was from the place of his death that he was called the Syrian by the author of the treatise de Fluvüs (100.6). The works of Timagenes mentioned by ancient writers are, 1. Περίπλους. (Suidas, s. v. Τιμαγένης.) It is probably from this work that Strabo quotes (xv. p. 711). 2. Περὶ βασιλέων, appears to have contained a history of Alexander the Great and his successors.

Steph. Byz. s. v. Μιλύαι; Curt. 9.5.21; Joseph. c. Apion. 2.6; Plut. Pomp. 100.49). 3. On the Gauls (Plut. l.c. ; Strab. iv. p.188; Amm. Marc. 15.9.2.) (Bonamy, Recherches sur l'historion Timagène, in the vol. xiii. p. 35, foil.; Schwab, Disputalio de Livio et Timagene, hisloriarum scriptoribus, aemulis, Stuttg. 1834; Vossius, De Historicis Graecis, p. 195, foll., ed. Westermann, who makes the rhetorician, the historian and the Syrian three distinct persons ; Clinton, Fast. Hellen. vol. iii. p. 624, who supposes the rhetorician and the historian to be two distinct persons, but makes the Syrian the same as the historian.