(Θεόκριτος).
1. Of Chios, an orator, sophist, and perhaps an historian, in the time of Alexander the Great.
He was the disciple of Metrodorus, who was the disciple of Isocrates. (Suid. s. v.) He was contemporary with Ephorus and Theopompus; and the latter was his fellow-citizen and political opponent, Theopompus belonging to the aristocratic and Macedonian, and Theocritus to the democratic and patriotic party. (Strab. xiv. p.645; Suid.) There is still extant a passage of a letter from Theopompus to Alexander, in which he charges Theocritus with living in the greatest luxury, after having previously been in poverty. (Ath. vi. p. 230f.; Theop. Frag. 276, ed. Müller, Frag. Hist. vol. i. p. 325, in Didot's Bibliothcca). Theocritus himself, too, is said to have given deep offence to Alexander by the sarcastic wit, which appears to have been the chief cause of his celebrity, and which at last cost him his life. When Alexander was making preparations for a magnificent celebration of his Asiatic victories on his return home, he wrote to the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the islands, to send him a large supply of purple cloth; and when the king's letter was read at Chios, Theocritus exclaimed that he now understood that line of Homer, --
ἔλλαβε πορφύρεος θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταίη.
(Plut. Op. Mor. p. 11a.; Ath. xii. p. 540a.) It is observed by C. Muller (loc. inf. cit.) that Arrian mentions (Anab. 4.13.4), among the boys concerned in the conspiracy of Hermolaüs against Alexander, one Anticles, the son of Theocritus ; and that, if this was Theocritus the Chian, the fate of his son would account for his enmity against Alexander. A very bitter epigram upon Aristotle, by Theocritus, is preserved, in separate portions, by Diogenes Laertius (5.11), Plutarch (Op. Mor. p. 303c.), and Eusebius (Euseb. Praep. Ev. 15.1), and is contained in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 184; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. i. p. 117, comp. vol. xiii. p. 958). Numerous examples of his satirical wit might be quoted from the ancient authors : as a specimen we may mention his description of the speeches of Anaximenes as " a stream of words, but sense drop by drop" (λέξεων μὲν ποταμὸς, νοῦ δὲ σταλαγμός, Stob. Serm. xxxvi. p. 217, ed. Gesner, comp. Ath. i. p. 21c.; and, for other examples, see Stob, Serm. ii., iv., xxi., xxxviii., lxxxi., cxxiii.; Ath. viii. p. 344b.; Plut. Mor. pp. 534, c., 631, f.). At last he was put to death by Antigonus Gonatas, in revenge for a jest upon the king's single eye, though perhaps he might have escaped, it he had not included the king's cook also in his witticism. That functionary, the story goes, having been despatched by Antigonus, to require the orator's attendance, " I perceive," replied Theocritus, " that you mean to serve me up raw to the Cyclops." " Yes ! and without your head," retorted the cook, and repeated the conversation to Antigonus, who at once put Theocritus to death. (Plut. Mor. p. 633c.; Macr. 7.3.) This must have happened before B. C. 301, when Antigonus fell in battle.