Timaeus
Who was Timaeus?
Greek historian (died c. 260 BC)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Timaeus (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Timaeus of Tauromenium was an ancient Greek historian born around 356 or 350 BC in Tauromenium, a city on the east coast of Sicily. He is considered the most important Greek historian between Ephorus in the fourth century BC and Polybius in the second century BC. His main work, the Sicilian History, detailed the history of Sicily and the Greek West and was the go-to source on the topic for nearly five centuries after it was written.
Timaeus spent much of his adult life in Athens after being exiled from Sicily by the tyrant Agathocles of Syracuse around 317 BC. He stayed in Athens for about fifty years, where he did thorough research using the city's libraries and records. This long stay gave him access to sources that most ancient historians didn't have, and his work became known for its detailed timeline and use of primary sources.
Despite his scholarly success, Timaeus was a controversial figure in ancient times. Polybius, who became the leading expert on Western Greek affairs after him, harshly criticized Timaeus in the twelfth book of his own Histories. Polybius accused Timaeus of relying too much on written documents instead of personal experience, arguing that a historian without firsthand political or military experience was unfit to write history. However, even Polybius admitted the scope and significance of Timaeus's work, and his strong criticism shows the authority Timaeus held among ancient readers.
Timaeus is also credited with a major contribution to ancient chronology. He is thought to have popularized, if not invented, the system of dating events by Olympiads, the four-year intervals marked by the Olympic Games. This method provided a common timeline that could be used across the various local calendars of Greek city-states, making it much easier to align historical accounts from different areas. His use of this system had a lasting impact on how Greek historians organized and presented their material.
Timaeus died around 260 BC in Syracuse, the city whose rulers had once exiled him. His Sicilian History, only surviving in fragments cited by later authors, remained a key text for understanding the Greek West, influencing writers like Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Cicero, and others.
Before Fame
Timaeus was born into a prominent family in Tauromenium, a Greek colonial city on the slopes of Mount Etna in northeastern Sicily. His father, Andromachus, founded and ruled the city, placing Timaeus among the upper class of the Greek Sicilian world from the start. This background gave him early insight into political matters and the complex power struggles that marked Sicily in the fourth century BC.
His path to becoming a historian was significantly influenced by political misfortune. When the Syracusan leader Agathocles took control of much of Sicily around 317 BC, Timaeus, whose family had ties with rival factions, was forced into exile. He settled in Athens, where he spent about fifty years engaged in scholarly work. At that time, Athens was still the intellectual hub of the Greek world, with its philosophical schools, extensive archives, and a culture of deep inquiry that greatly influenced the historian Timaeus would become.
Key Achievements
- Authored the Sicilian History, the definitive ancient account of Sicily and the Greek West
- Served as the principal historical authority on Western Greek affairs for nearly five centuries
- Helped establish the Olympiad system as a standard chronological framework for Greek historical writing
- Conducted pioneering archival research in Athens, setting a precedent for documentary-based historiography
- Influenced major subsequent historians including Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, and Roman writers such as Cicero
Did You Know?
- 01.Timaeus spent approximately fifty years living in Athenian exile, a period longer than many ancient historians' entire lifespans, and used this time almost exclusively for research and writing.
- 02.Polybius coined the mocking nickname 'Epitimaeus,' meaning 'fault-finder,' to describe Timaeus, yet devoted an entire book of his Histories to criticizing him, indicating how seriously he took the older historian's influence.
- 03.Timaeus is credited with helping to standardize the use of Olympic Games cycles as a chronological dating system, a method that allowed historians across the Greek world to align events from different cities on a single timeline.
- 04.Despite dying in Syracuse, Timaeus had been exiled from Sicily by Agathocles of Syracuse, making his death in that city a historically ironic conclusion to his life.
- 05.Lionel Pearson, a modern scholar of Greek historiography, described Timaeus as having maintained his authority as the leading source on Western Greek history for nearly five centuries after his death.