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THEODECTES (c. 380–340 B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 763 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEODECTES (c. 380–340 B.C.) , See also:Greek rhetorician and tragic poet, of Phaselis in See also:Lycia, See also:pupil of Isocrates and See also:Plato, and an intimate friend of See also:Aristotle. He at first wrote speeches for the See also:law courts, but subsequently composed tragedies with success. He spent most of his See also:life at See also:Athens, and was buried on the sacred road to See also:Eleusis. The inhabitants of Phaselis honoured him with a statue, which was decorated with garlands by See also:Alexander the See also:Great on his way to the See also:East. In the contests arranged by See also:Artemisia, See also:queen of See also:Caria, at the funeral of See also:Mausolus, Theodectes gained the See also:prize with his tragedy Mausolus (extant in the 2nd See also:century A.D.), but was defeated by See also:Theopompus in See also:oratory. According to the inscription on his See also:tomb, he was 4 I. 30, Odle, a2sX4'&v TE/4evoS, O $aeiXsbs xpWTOS. 5 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, iv. p. 139. 5 C. Wessely in Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift (1906), p.

831. 7 OEa,p is TIt I17ro,.,pheEL OEOKptrav, Etym. on i. 39: OEws b 'P_prEµL- Swpou, ib. on iv. 5. Cf. See also:

Ahrens, ii. p. See also:xxvii. eight times victorious in thirteen dramatic contests. Of his tragedies (fifty in number) thirteen titles and some fragments remain (A. See also:Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, 1887). His See also:treatise on the See also:art of See also:rhetoric (according to Suidas written in See also:verse) and his speeches are lost. The names of two of the latter—See also:Socrates and Nomos (referring to a law proposed by Theodectes for the reform of the See also:mercenary service)—are pre-served by Aristotle (Rhetoric, ii. 23, 13, 17).

The Theodectea (Aristotle, Rhet. iii. 9, 9) was probably not by Theodectes, but an earlier See also:

work of Aristotle, which was superseded by the extant Rhetorica. See monograph by C. F. Marcker (See also:Breslau, 1835). There is a lengthy See also:article on Theodectes in See also:Smith's See also:Dictionary of Greek and See also:Roman See also:Biography, in which the connexion of the tragedy with the Artemisian contest is disputed.

End of Article: THEODECTES (c. 380–340 B.C.)

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