Timotheus was likely linked to the
rhetorical school of Gaza, an academy that combined classical Hellenistic tradition with Christian thought. His teacher was
Horapollo the grammarian from the village Phenebythis. He was the author of a book on animals which may have been one of the sources of the Arabic ''Nu'ut al-Hayawan
. He also wrote a work in four volumes titled Indian Animals or Quadrupeds and Their Innately Wonderful Qualities or Stories about Animals'' that survives only in an 11th-century prose summary. This prose summary was a very popular school text, and includes accounts of the giraffe, tiger, and other animals. Timotheus might have also composed a tragedy lampooning the
chrysargyron tax. ==References==