Theodo'rus
17. Of BYZANTIUM (1), a rhetorician or pleader of Byzantium.
He is mentioned, but somewhat contemptuously by Plato (
Phaedr. vol. iii. p. 266, ed. Steph. vol. i. pt. i. p. 81, ed. Bekker, p. 811, ed. Baiter, 4to. Züric. 1839) as " the most excellent tricker-out of a speech,"
τόν γε βέλτιστον λογοδαίδαλον.
He appears to have written a treatise on rhetoric, as Plato, in the passage just cited, refers to the minute subdivisions of an oration mentioned by Theodore (comp. Rufinus,
De Compositione et Metris Oratorum). Cicero (
Cic. Brut. 100.12) describes him as excelling rather in the theory than the practice of his art, " in arte subtilior, in orationibus autem jejunior."
He was apparently contemporary with Plato. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (
De Antiq. Oratorib.; de Isaeo, 100.19) speaks of him as antiquated, careless and superficial.
He is cursorily noticed by Quintilian (
Institut. Orat. 3.1) and Diogenes Laertius (2.104). Suidas (
s. v.) says lie wrote
Κατὰ Ἀνδοκίδου,
Contra Andocidem, Κατὰ Θρασυβούλου,
Contra Thrasybulum, and some other pieces, which are all now lost. (Diogenes Laertius says (
l.c.) there was another sophist Theodore, but does not mention whether he was a Byzantine or not. Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 139, vol. x. p. 382.)
