the most famous of all the pastoral poets, was the son of Praxagoras and Philline. He was a native of Syracuse, and flourished about 272 years before the Christian era. The younger Hiero, king of Syracuse, is celebrated in his verses; but he appears to have found a more liberal patron in Ptolemy Philadelphus, who attracted him to the Egyptian court, and of whom he speaks in terms of high commendation. Of his personal history, we possess no further memorials on which we can place much reliance. The pastorals of Theocritus, which have furnished models to all succeeding poets, are remarkable for their simplicity, very frequently elegant, but sometimes approaching to rudeness. They are written in the Doric dialect, which is peculiarly adapted for such compositions. Thirty idyls bear his name, but it has been doubted whether they were all produced by the same poet. To him are likewise ascribed twenty-two epigrams; and the authorship of one or two fantastic productions he disputes with Simmias.

The first edition of Theocritus, containing only eighteen idyls, issued from Milan, along with the "Opera et Dies" of Hesiod. It is a folio volume, without date, but is supposed to have been printed in 1493. The edition of Aldus appeared in 1495, that of Junta in 1515; and the earliest edition accompanied with the scholia, at Rome in 1516. The best of the old editions is that of Daniel Heinsius, Ex-bibliopoli Commeliniano, 1604, 4to. Beside the notes of the editor, it includes those of Joseph Scaliger and Isaac Casaubon. Among the more remarkable editions, we must not overlook that of Reiske, Lipsia, 1765-6, 2 tom. 4to. He was speedily followed by a more elegant, though not a more learned editor, Thomas Warton, Oxon. 1770, 2 tom. 4to. The preface is elegantly written, and the annotations display a more than ordinary degree of refined taste, but this splendid edition is not without its defects. One of these is the inconvenient arrangement of the Greek scholia, nor is the rejection of the accents to be commended. A valuable edition of Theocritus, including likewise Bion and Moschus, was published by Valckenaer, Lugd. Bat. 1779, 8vo. The editions of Harles, Jacobs, Dahl, Schäfer, Heindorf, and Wüstenmann, have each their share of merit. The poems of Theocritus are inserted in the first volume of Brunck's "Analecta veterum Poetarum Graecorum," and in the second volume of Gaisford's "Poetae Minores Graeci," Oxon. 1816-20, 4 tom. 8vo. The scholia are to be found in the fourth volume. Of the idyls of this poet, English translations were published by Thomas Creech in 1681, by Francis Fawkes in 1767, by Richard Polwhele in 1786, and by M. J. Chapman in 1836. Polwhele has likewise translated the epigrams of Theocritus.