Part 430 (1/2)
THEMISTOCLES, celebrated Athenian general and statesman; rose to political power on the ostracism of Aristides, his rival; persuaded the citizens to form a fleet to secure the command of the sea against Persian invasion; commanded at Salamis, and routed the fleet of Xerxes, and afterwards accomplished the fortification of the city in spite of the opposition of Sparta, but falling in popular favour was ostracised, and took refuge at the court of Artaxerxes of Persia, where he died in high favour with the king (520-453 B.C.).
THEOBALD, LEWIS, Shakespearian critic, born at Sittingbourne, Kent; bred to the law by his father, an attorney, but took to literature; wrote a tragedy; contributed to _Mist's Journal_, and in 1716 began his tri-weekly paper, the _Censor_; roused Pope's ire by his celebrated pamphlet, ”Shakespeare Restored,” an exposure of errors in Pope's edition, and although ruthlessly impaled in his ”Dunciad,” of which he was the original hero, made good his claim to genuine Shakespearian scholars.h.i.+p by his edition, in 1733, of the dramatist's works, an edition which completely superseded Pope's (1688-1744).
THEOCRACY, government of a State professedly in the name and under the direction as well as the sanction of Heaven.
THEOCRATES, great pastoral poet of Greece, born at Syracuse; was the creator of bucolic poetry; wrote ”Idyls,” as they were called, descriptive of the common life of the common people of Sicily, in a thoroughly objective, though a truly poetical, spirit, in a style which never fails to charm, being as fresh as ever; wrote also on epic subjects (300-220 B.C.).
THEODICY, name given to an attempt to vindicate the order of the universe in consistency with the presence of evil, and specially to that of Leibnitz, in which he demonstrates that this is the best of all possible worlds.
THEODORA, the famous consort of the ROMAN EMPEROR JUSTINIAN I. (q. v.), who, captivated by her extraordinary charms of wit and person, raised her from a life of shame to share his throne (527), a high office she did not discredit; scandal, busy enough with her early years, has no word to say against her subsequent career as empress; the poor and unfortunate of her own s.e.x were her special care; remained to the last the faithful helpmate of her husband (508-548).
THEODORE, ”King of Corsica,” otherwise Baron Theodore de Neuhoff, born in Metz; a soldier of fortune under the French, Swedish, and Spanish flags successively, whose t.i.tle to fame is his expedition to Corsica, aided by the Turks and the Bey of Tunis, in 1736, to aid the islanders to throw off the Genoese yoke; was crowned King Theodore I., but in a few months was driven out, and after unsuccessful efforts to regain his position came as an impoverished adventurer to London, where creditors imprisoned him, and where sympathisers, including Walpole, subscribed for his release (1686-1756).
THEODORE, bishop of Mopsuestra, in Cilicia, born at Antioch; was a biblical exegete, having written commentaries on most of the books of the Bible, eschewing the allegorical method of interpretation, and accepting the literal sense; he held Nestorian views, and his writings were anathematised; he was a friend of St. Chrysostom; _b_. 429.
THEODORET, Church historian, born at Antioch; as bishop of the Syrian city, Cyrus, gave himself to the conversion of the Marcionites; a leader of the Antioch school of theology, he took an active part in the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies, and was deposed by the so-called robber-council of Ephesus, but was reinstated by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 (about 390-457).
THEODORIC, surnamed the Great, founder of the monarchy of the Ostro- or East Goths, son of Theodemir, the Ostrogothic king of Pannonia; was for ten years during his youth a hostage at the Byzantine Court at Constantinople; succeeded his father in 475, and immediately began to push the fortunes of the Ostrogoths; various territories fell into his hands, and alarm arose at the Imperial Court; in 493 advanced upon Italy, overthrew Odoacer, and after his murder became sole ruler; was now the most powerful of the Gothic kings, with an empire embracing Italy, Sicily, and Dalmatia, besides German possessions; as a ruler proved himself as wise as he was strong; became in after years one of the great heroes of German legend, and figures in the ”Nibelungenlied” (455-526).
THEODOSIUS I., THE GREAT, Roman emperor; was the son of Theodosius the Elder, a noted general, whose campaigns in Britain and elsewhere he partic.i.p.ated in; marked out for distinction by his military prowess he, in 379, was invited by the Emperor Gratian to become emperor in the East, that he might stem the advancing Goths; in this Theodosius was successful; the Goths were defeated, conciliated, had territory conceded to them, and became in large numbers Roman citizens; rebellions in the Western Empire and usurpations of the throne compelled Theodosius to active interference, which led to his becoming sole head of the empire (394), after successfully combating the revolutionaries, Franks and others; was a zealous Churchman, and stern suppressor of the ”Arian Heresy”; the close of his reign marks the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire, for his death opened the floodgates of barbarian invasion, and from this date begins the formation of the new kingdoms of Europe (346-395).
THEOGNIS, an elegiac poet of Megara; flourished in the second half of the 6th century B.C.; lost his possessions during a revolution at Megara, in which the democrats overpowered the aristocrats, to which party he belonged; compelled to live in exile, he found solace in the writing of poetry full of a practical and prudential wisdom, bitterly biased against democracy, and tinged with pessimism.
THEOLOGY, the science which treats of G.o.d, particularly as He manifests Himself in His relation to man in nature, reason, or revelation.
THEOPHRASTUS, a peripatetic philosopher, born in Lesbos; pupil, heir, and successor of Aristotle, and the great interpreter and expounder of his philosophy; was widely famous in his day; his writings were numerous, but only a few are extant, on plants, stars, and fire; _d_. 286 B.C.
THEOSOPHY (lit. divine wisdom), a mystic philosophy of very difficult definition which hails from the East, and was introduced among us by Madame Blavatsky, a Russian lady, who was initiated into its mysteries in Thibet by a fraternity there who professed to be the sole custodiers of its secrets as the spiritual successors of those to whom it was at first revealed. The radical idea of the system appears to be reincarnation, and the return of the spirit to itself by a succession of incarnations, each one of which raises it to a higher level until, by seven stages it would seem, the process is complete, matter has become spirit, and spirit matter, G.o.d has become man, and man G.o.d, agreeably somewhat to the doctrine of Amiel, that ”the complete spiritualisation of the animal element in us is the task of our race,” though with them it seems rather to mean its extinction. The adherents of this system, with their head-quarters at Madras, are numerous and wide-scattered, and form an organisation of 300 branches, having three definite aims: (1) To establish a brotherhood over the world irrespective of race, creed, caste, or s.e.x; (2) to encourage the study of comparative philosophy, religion, and science; and (3) to investigate the occult secrets of nature and the latent possibilities of man. The princ.i.p.al books in exposition of it are, ”The Secret Doctrine,” ”Isis Unveiled,” ”The Key to Theosophy,” by Mme. Blavatsky; ”Esoteric Buddhism,” ”The Occult World,”
&c., by Sinnett; ”The Ancient Wisdom,” ”The Birth and Evolution of the Soul,” &c., by Annie Besant.
THERAPEUTae, a Jewish ascetic sect in Egypt, who lived a life of celibacy and meditation in separate hermitages, and a.s.sembled for wors.h.i.+p on Sabbath.
THERMO-DYNAMICS, name given to the modern science of the relation between heat and work, which has established two fundamental principles, that when heat is employed to do work, the work done is the exact equivalent of the heat expended, and when the work is employed to produce heat, the heat produced is exactly equivalent to the work done.
THERMOPYLae (i. e. ”the hot gates”), a famous pa.s.s in N. Greece, the only traversable one leading southward into Thessaly, lies 25 m. N.