Timotheus of Gaza

Timotheus of Gaza (Greek: Τιμόθεος ὁ Γαζαῖος), sometimes referred to as Timothy of Gaza, was a Greek Christian grammarian active during the reign of Anastasius, i.e. 491–518. His works became very popular within the Byzantine and Arabic scientific literature.^[1]

Life and work

Timotheus was likely linked to the rhetorical school of Gaza, an academy that combined classical Hellenistic tradition with Christian thought.^[2] His teacher was Horapollo the grammarian from the village Phenebythis.^[3] He was the author of a book on animals^[4] which may have been one of the sources of the Arabic Nu'ut al-Hayawan.^[5] He also wrote a work in four volumes titled Indian Animals or Quadrupeds and Their Innately Wonderful Qualities or Stories about Animals that survives only in an 11th-century prose summary. This prose summary was a very popular school text, and includes accounts of the giraffe, tiger, and other animals.^[6]

Timotheus might have also composed a tragedy lampooning the chrysargyron tax.^[7]

References

1. Masalha, Nur (2022). Palestine across millennia: a history of literacy, learning and educational revolutions. London: I. B. Tauris. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9780755642977. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
2. Penella, Robert J. (September 2009). Rhetorical Exercises from Late Antiquity A Translation of Choricius of Gaza's Preliminary Talks and Declamations. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139480581. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
3. Stephanos Matthaios, “Greek Scholarship in the Imperial Era and Late Antiquity,” in History of Ancient Greek Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Byzantine Age, ed. Franco Montanari (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 287.
4. Gaza, Timothy of (1949). F.S. Bodenheimer, A. Rabinowitz (ed.). On Animals... Paris/Leiden.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. Kopf, L. (1956). "The Zoological Chapter of the Kitab al-Imta' wal-Mu'anasa of Abu Hayyan al-Tauhidi (10th Century)". Osiris. 12: 390–466. doi:10.1086/368605. S2CID 147651396.
6. Scarborough, John (2005). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. ISBN 9780195187922.
7. Cameron, Averil (1985). Procopius and the sixth century. Berkeley u.a: Univ. of California Press. p. 60. ISBN 9780520055179. Retrieved 7 January 2024.