Theopompus

Theopompus
of Chios, important Greek historian of the 4th cent. bc, the main exponent of rhetorical historiography alongside Ephorus (see historiography, Greek). According to a short vita (life) by Photius (Bibl 176 = T 2) he was born in 378/7, and was still young when he and his father Damasistratus were exiled from Chios for lakōnismos (sympathizing with Sparta). At the instigation of Alexander the Great he was allowed to return in 333/2 when he was 45 years old. After Alexander's death he was exiled a second time; ‘driven out from everywhere’ he eventually reached the court of Ptolemy I, who wished to have the ‘trouble-maker’ done away with. Theopompus was saved by the intervention of some friends and died probably shortly after 320. According to ancient tradition (cf. T 1, 5 a) he was a pupil of [The entire page is 790 words long]

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