roasted misu, with myrrh, omphakion, and saffron, in Khian or other dry old wine and
Attic honey, 7.45 (p. 299). The name is too common to risk identification with any homonym.
RE 5A.2 (1934) 2148 (#15), K. Deichgräber.
PTK
Theophilos son of Theogene ̄s (250 BCE – 300 CE)
Jewish Egyptian mineralogist and alchemist said by Z P to have written
about “all the gold-mines of the Cho ̄rographia (Description of the Country)” (Festugière 1950: 365).
S A preserves a small fragment of his work (Ideler 2 [1842/1963]
246) and he may be the same Theophilos of whose work Z preserves a fragment
(CAAG 2.198).
(*)
Bink Hallum
T (A.) ⇒ H
Theophrastos of Eresos (ca 340 – 287/6 BCE)
Born in Eresos, in 372/1 or 371/0 BCE, where he studied under Alkippos, went to Athens
as a young man, and is said to have studied under P. Theophrastos probably met
A at the Academy, whom, after Plato’s death in 348/7, he accompanied to Assos.
Theophrastos may have persuaded Aristotle to move to Mutile ̄ne ̄ on Lesbos in 345/4. When
Philip summoned Aristotle to Macedon in 342 to tutor his son Alexander, Theophrastos
apparently accompanied him. After seven years, both returned to Athens where Aristotle
began to teach in the Peripatos. When Aristotle, fearing anti-Macedonian sentiments, fled
Athens to Khalkis where he soon died, Theophrastos assumed leadership of the school in
Athens, remaining scholarch for 36 years until his death at age 85 in 288/7 or 287/6 BCE.
Theophrastos’ intellectual pursuits were as wide-ranging as Aristotle’s. In his vita
Theophrasti, D L includes a catalogue of 225 titles of Theophrastos’ works,
some monographs, others in several volumes. Despite some duplication of titles and split-
ting of larger works, the list reveals Theophrastos’ astonishing output; it also reveals how
much has perished. From this enormous corpus Theophrasteum, all that survives are the two
large works on botany (Research on Plants and Plant Explanations), nine opuscula treating various
aspects of natural science (On Sense-Perception, On Stones, On Fire, On Odors, On Winds, On
Fatigue, On Dizziness, On Sweat, On Fish), Metaphysics, Meteorology, six summaries from scientific
works made by Pho ̄tios, Patriarch of Constantinople in the 9th c. CE, and the well-known
Characters. We can recover some idea of many of Theophrastos’ scientific works from
numerous fragments, recently published (Fortenbaugh et al.).
The two large botanical works, Research on Plants (nine books) and Plant Explanations (six
books), complement one another. In general, the latter explains physiology and underlying
causes and developments of plants and discusses common or unique characteristics of
plants described in the former. Theophrastos follows Aristotle’s division in his zoological
works, ascertaining the different features (diaphorai) which characterize species and genera,
moving from fundamental universal principles (kath’ holon) to individual matters (kath’
hekasta). Theophrastos’ botanical researches so far eclipsed his predecessors’ that he may
rightly be entitled “the father of botany.” Moreover, his attention to the relation between
THEOPHILOS SON OF THEOGENE ̄S