Editing Theopompus (section)

==Biography==

=== Early life and education ===
Theopompus was born on the [[Aegean Islands|Aegean island]] of [[Chios]] in 378 or 377 BCE.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Theopompus - Livius |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/person/theopompus/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=www.livius.org}}</ref> In his early youth, he seems to have spent some time at [[Athens]], with his father Damasistratus, who had been exiled for his [[Laconia|Laconian]] sympathies. In Athens, he became a pupil of [[Isocrates]], and rapidly made progress in rhetoric;<ref name=":0" /> we are told that Isocrates used to say that [[Ephorus]] required the spur but Theopompus the bit.<ref>Walker 1911, p. 787.</ref><ref>Cicero. Brutus, 204.</ref>

At first he appears to have composed [[epideictic]] speeches, in which he attained to such proficiency that in 352–351 BC he gained the prize of oratory given by [[Artemisia II of Caria]] in honour of her husband, although Isocrates was himself among the competitors. It is said to have been the advice of his teacher that finally determined his career as an historian&mdash;a career for which he was peculiarly qualified owing to his abundant patrimony and his wide knowledge of men and places. Through the influence of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander III]], he was permitted to return to Chios around 333 BC, and figured for some time as one of the leaders of the aristocratic party in his native town. After Alexander's death, he was again expelled, and took refuge with [[Ptolemy I of Egypt|Ptolemy]] in [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], where he appears to have met with a somewhat cold reception. The exact date of his death isn't know, but scholars have placed it around 320 BC.<ref name=":0" />