Timomachus of Byzantium (or Timomachos, Ancient Greek: Τιμόμαχος) was an influential painter of the first century BCE.

Fresco from the Casa dei Dioscuri, believed to exhibit Timomachus' influence

Works

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Pliny the Elder, in his Naturalis Historia (35.136), records that Julius Caesar had acquired two paintings by Timomachus, one of Ajax during his madness, and a Medea meditating the slaying of her children,[1] which cost him the considerable sum of 80 talents.[2]: 178  Scholars have connected these works with the carrying away of a Medea and Ajax from Cyzicus, an ancient port of Anatolia, mentioned in Cicero's In Verrem (2.4.135), and propose that Caesar acquired them there, shortly after his victory at Pharsalus.[3]: 308  The paintings, "a pair linked to each other by their rage",[4]: 210  were installed in front of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, and remained there until their destruction by fire in 80 CE.

The Anthology of Planudes preserves a number of epigrams on the Medea, which note its incomplete state, and praise its emotional intensity and verisimilitude. Scholars believe that two well-known depictions of Medea preserved at Pompeii were composed under the influence of Timomachus' work.[3]: 309–310 

References

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  1. ^   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Timomachus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 989.
  2. ^ Pollitt, J. J. (26 October 1990). The Art of Ancient Greece: Sources and Documents. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27366-4. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  3. ^ a b Gurd, Sean Alexander (2007). "Meaning and Material Presence: Four Epigrams on Timomachus's Unfinished Medea". Transactions of the American Philological Association. 137 (2): 305–331. doi:10.1353/apa.2008.0003. ISSN 1533-0699. S2CID 170134971.
  4. ^ Harris, William Vernon (2001). Restraining Rage: The Ideology of Anger Control in Classical Antiquity. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00618-8. Retrieved 12 January 2013.