Introduction

11

Ikarioi Satyroi, in the context of a rhetorical attack against the “thief” Aristomedes.
It is not clear whether Philodemus and Didymus had read Timocles at first hand.
Concerning Athenaeus, it is also doubtful whether he himself had access to
the plays from which he excerpts fragments, or whether he used them at second
hand.11 Stobaeus (5th century AD) cites four fragments, but gives the title of the
play in only one case (the problematic title Synergika). On the other hand, in the
case of fr. 6 he cites only a short part of the text cited by Athenaeus. Given that
Stobaeus’ main criterion for citing passages is the moral overtones which they
convey, it is plausible that it was not necessary for him to know the whole play.12
The Byzantine lexicographers Hesychius (fr. 42) and Photius (fr. 40) most probably
draw their material from the previous lexicographic tradition.
Especially worth noting is the transmission of four fragments through sour-
ces which mainly contain “rhetorical” material, i. e. the Lexicon of Harpocration
(fr. 28), Didymus’ commentary on Demosthenes (frr. 14 and 19) and pseudo-
Plutarch’s treatise on Attic orators (fr. 41). Moreover, part of fr. 4 from Delos (w.
1-2) is transmitted by the Neoplatonic rhetorician Syrianus the “Sophist” (late
4th-early 5th century AD), in his commentary on Hermogenes’ rhetorical treatise
On Types of Style. All these seem compatible with the assumption, based on the
content of the overall preserved work, that Timocles tended to satirise the oratory
and politics of his time.13

4. Themes and Motifs
Timocles’ work is characterized by inventiveness, imagination and a variety of
themes which occur in both Old and New Comedy. The feature which renders
Timocles exceptional among the poets of Middle Comedy is his caustic political
satire, which calls to mind methods and techniques of Old Comedy.14 The main
targets of his satire are the anti-Macedonian orators Demosthenes and Hyperides,
and minor Athenian politicians; e. g. Telemachus the orator is always associated
with a pot and beans (frr. 7.4,18.6, 23.3-4); the obscure admonition πέμπειν σαρ-
γάνας seems to be a current cliche (cf. on frr. 16, 23).
One may suspect, with the appropriate reservation due to fragmentary evi-
dence, that Timocles showed a special interest in current politics, an interest
which may have been fomented by the increasing rivalry between Athenians and
Macedonians. It has also been suggested that this rekindling of comedians’ interest

11 For the relevant discussion cf. Nesselrath 1990, 65-79.
12 On the sources and the methodology of Stobaeus cf. Piccione 1994, 281-317.
13 Cf. below, “Themes and Motifs”; Apostolakis 2014, 103-24; Orth HGL II (2014) 1043.
14 Cf. Sommerstein 2016, 42: “it is ... obvious that Timocles ... had made a careful study
of the work of Aristophanes, whose spirit and methods he made a remarkable effort to
revive.”