[1][2][3] In the words of scholar Lionel I. C. Pearson, Timaeus "maintained his position as the standard authority on the history of the Greek West for nearly five centuries.
"[4] Timaeus was born c. 356[3] or c. 350 BC[2][5] in Tauromenium (modern Taormina, in eastern Sicily), to a wealthy and influential Greek family.
His father, Andromachus, was a dynast who had refounded Tauromenium in 358 with former inhabitants of Naxos (destroyed by Dionysius I in 403), and ruled there with Timoleon's support.
[6] Some scholars have suggested that he left Sicily earlier,[7][3] although most researchers agree that he was forced out in the 310s, rather than leaving voluntarily as a young man.
[10] Timaeus can claim to be the first to recognize in his work the rising power of the Roman Republic,[11] although it is not clear whether he regarded Rome as a potential friend or foe, and how he understood its significance for the history of the Mediterranean world as a whole.
Champion, "Timaeus may well have been the first writer to see clearly the importance to the western Greeks of the victor of the great Sicilian War, whether it be Rome or Carthage, which he could not have divined.
The most serious charge against him was that he willfully distorted the truth when influenced by personal considerations: thus, he was less than fair to Dionysius I of Syracuse and Agathocles, while loud in praise of his favourite Timoleon.