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Theon, whom Lamprias asks to identify a quotation (923 F) and whom he later teases for admiring Aristarchus to the neglect of Crates (938 D), is recognized as the literary authority in the group (cf. 931 E, 940 A). He is probably to be identified with Θέων ὁ γραμμοτικός, who was a guest at Sulla’s dinner along with Lucius (Quaest. Conviv 728 F) and who also dined with Plutarch at the house of Mestrius Florus (Quaest. Conviv 626 E).This Theon, whose home was Egypt (cf. 939 C - D), is certainly not the same as Θέων ὁ ἑταῖρος ( Quaest. Conviv 620 A, E, 386 D), who is probably the Theon of Pythiae Oraculis, Non Posse Suaviter Vivi, and Quaest. Conviv 667 A and 726 A ff. In the Facie his chief contribution is a speech (937 D 938 C) which he makes after the main part of the dialogue has been concluded and which Lamprias praises as a kind of relaxation after the seriousness of the scientific discussion.
intro
The last of the persons present is Menelaus the mathematician. Lucius addresses him directly once (930 A), but Menelaus makes no reply and neither speaks nor is spoken to elsewhere in the dialogue as we have it,Unless the plural ὑμῖν used twice by Lamprias at 939 C - D is meant to include Menelaus as well as Theon; cf. note a on p. 170 s.v.. He is not mentioned anywhere else by Plutarch either; but he is probably meant to be the Menelaus of Alexandria whom Ptolemy once calls ὁ γεωμέτρης and twice cites for astronomical observations which he made at Rome in the first year of Trajan (A.D. 98). Ptolemy, Syntaxis, vii. 3 (ii, p. 30. 18 ff. and p. 33. 3 ff. ([Heiberg]); cf. Orinsky, s.n. Menelaos 16 in Pauly-Wissosa, R. E. xv. 1. 834 f.
