The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek tradition and its many heirs

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work offered seemingly complete monographs on animals, mixing anatomical and etho-
logical remarks with various mythological, lexicographical, medical, magical and paradoxo-
graphical data. Timotheos, showing vivid interest in special powers of animals, insisted also
on the themes of sympathy and hybridism.


Ed.: F.S. Bodenheimer and A. Rabinowitz, Timotheus of Gaza, On animals (1949).
M. Wellmann, “Timotheos,” Hermes 62 (1927) 179–204; RE 6A.2 (1937) 1339–1341 (#18), A. Steier;
KP 5.851 (#8), Th. Wolbergs.
Arnaud Zucker


Timotheos of Metapontion (500 – 400 BCE)


Greek physician, who, according to the L  (8.10–34), supposes that
nutrients are distributed throughout the body starting from the head. When pathways are
obstructed, the digestive residues that have risen to the head remain blocked and are trans-
formed into an acid and saline liquid, which travels to other parts of the body. Outcomes
vary according to situations. When, for example, liquid concentrates in the larynx, sudden
death follows. The head may fall prey to diseases, because of excessive heat or cold, or
blows to the head. See E   K, A, and A.


Gourevitch (1989) 238–241; NP 12/1.596, V. Nutton.
Daniela Manetti


Tle ̄polemos (of De ̄los?) (300 – 30 BCE)


P 20.194 records his remedy for quartan fevers: anise-seed and fennel in honey-
vinegar. The name is especially De ̄lian, and scarce or unattested after ca 50 BCE (LGPN).


Fabricius (1726) 435 (s.v. Theopolemos).
PTK


Trebius Niger (150 – 130 BCE)


A companion of L. Lucullus (proconsul of Hispania Baetica in 150 BCE) who wrote a work on
natural history in Latin which included observations made by the author and his general in
Spain. One fragment from P (9.89–93) describes at considerable length a giant octopus
which harassed the garum-works near the Straits of Gibraltar; others discuss the remora
(9.80), the swordfish and the cuttlefish (32.15) and the woodpecker (10.40). Scholarly
attempts to date him to a later period founder on the clear evidence of Pliny’s text: Trebius
is one of the earliest Roman scientific writers.


GRL §495.5; RE 6A.2 (1937) 2272 (#5), Fr. Münzer.
Philip Thibodeau


Cn. Tremellius Scrofa (fl. 59 BCE)


Roman senator of praetorian rank, one of the 20 land-commissioners mandated by C’
agrarian legislation (59 BCE). Regarded as the foremost authority on agriculture in his day,
he offered personal instruction (V, RR 2.1.2) and composed an agricultural treatise,
noted for its stylistic polish (C 1.1.12). This contained advice on the tending
of grape-vines (3.11.8, 3.12.5, P 17.199) and trees (Columella 5.6.2), gave times and


CN. TREMELLIUS SCROFA
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