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Crantor
Crantor of Soli (, ''gen''.: Κράντορος; died 276/5 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and member of the Old Academy who was the first philosopher to write commentaries on the works of Plato. Life Crantor was probably born around the middle of the 4th century BC, at Soli in Cilicia (modern-day Turkey). He moved from Cilicia to Athens in order to study philosophy, where he became a pupil of Xenocrates and a friend of Polemon, and one of the most distinguished supporters of the philosophy of the older Academy. As Xenocrates died 314/3 BC, Crantor must have come to Athens prior to that year, although the date of his birth is not known. He died before both Polemon and Crates, who succeeded Polemon as scholarch. Dropsy was the cause of his death. He left his fortune, which amounted to twelve talents, to Arcesilaus, who had been his pupil and who later succeeded Crates as scholarch of the Academy. Writings His works were very numerous; but of these, only fragments ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consolatio (Cicero)
''Consolatio'' (; ''Consolation'') is a Lost literary work, lost philosophical work written by Marcus Tullius Cicero in the year 45 BC. The work had been written to soothe his grief after the death of his daughter, Tullia (daughter of Cicero), Tullia, which had occurred in February of the same year. Not much is known about the work, although it seems to have been inspired by the Ancient Greece, Greek philosopher Crantor's ancient work ''De Luctu'' ("On Grief"), and its structure was probably similar to a series of letter correspondences between Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Cicero. Fragments of the work survive, having been quoted by Lactantius, and Jerome makes note of the work in a consolatory letter to Heliodorus of Altino. A popular piece of writing until its loss, the ''Consolatio'' is widely accepted as the distinct work that transmitted the earlier ''consolatio'' literary tradition to the Romans of the late Republic. In 1583, Italian scholar Carlo Sigonio claimed to have di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commentaries On Plato
Commentaries on Plato refers to the great mass of literature produced, especially in the ancient and medieval world, to explain and clarify the works of Plato. Many Platonist philosophers in the centuries following Plato sought to clarify and summarise his thoughts, but it was during the Roman era, that the Neoplatonists, in particular, wrote many commentaries on individual dialogues of Plato, many of which survive to the present day. Greek commentators Many of the scholars in the Platonic Academy sought to clarify and explain Plato's ideas. Already in the 3rd century BC, we hear of a commentary to Plato's '' Timaeus'' being written by Crantor of Soli; and in the 1st century AD a commentary on Plato's ''Republic'' was written by Onasander. The earliest surviving commentary is an anonymous work on the Theaetetus that was written between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD. By the 2nd century the Middle Platonists were producing paraphrases and summaries of Plato's thought. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polemon (scholarch)
Polemon (, ''gen''.: Πολέμωνος; d. 270/269 BC) of Athens was an eminent Greek Platonist philosopher and Plato's third successor as scholarch (i.e., head of the Academy) from 314/313 to 270/269 BC. A pupil of Xenocrates, he believed that philosophy should be practiced rather than just studied, and he placed the highest good in living according to nature. Life Polemon was the son of Philostratus, a man of wealth and political distinction. In his youth, he was relatively irresponsible, but one day, when he was about thirty, on his bursting into the school of Xenocrates, at the head of a band of revelers, his attention was drawn to the sayings of Xenocrates, who continued on calmly in spite of the interruption; it just so happened that Xenocrates was discussing temperance. Polemon immediately tore off his garland and remained an attentive listener, and from that day he adopted a modest and restrained course of life, and continued to frequent the school. On the death of X ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xenocrates
Xenocrates (; ; c. 396/5314/3 BC) of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader ( scholarch) of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements. He distinguished three forms of being: the sensible, the intelligible, and a third compounded of the two, to which correspond respectively, sense, intellect and opinion. He considered unity and duality to be gods which rule the universe, and the soul a self-moving number. God pervades all things, and there are daemonical powers, intermediate between the divine and the mortal, which consist in conditions of the soul. He held that mathematical objects and the Platonic Ideas are identical, unlike Plato who distinguished them. In ethics, he taught that virtue produces happiness, but external goods can minister to it and enable it to effect its purpose. Life Xenocrates was a native of Chalcedon. By the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soli, Cilicia
Soli (, ''Sóloi''), often rendered Soli/Pompeiopolis (), was an ancient city and port in Cilicia, 11 km west of Mersin in present-day Turkey. Geography Located in Southern Anatolia, on the edge of the timber-rich Taurus Mountains and fertile Cilician alluvial plain, Soli was constantly at or near regional boundaries; Kizzuwatna and Tarhuntassa, Tarḫuntašša during Luwians, Luwian/Hittites, Hittite occupation, and Cilicia Trachea and Cilicia Pedia during Graeco-Roman period. This, coupled with the city's good harbor and proximity to the Cilician Gates ensured that Soli was consistently of strategic importance throughout ancient history. History Neolithic Archaeological evidence indicates a human presence in the area as early as 7000 BCE at the Yumuktepe mound, 9 km to the northeast. Late Bronze Age The first known Luwians, Luwian settlements and fortifications at Soli proper date the 15th century BCE, and the city was an active port from that time onwards. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arcesilaus
Arcesilaus (; ; 316/5–241/0 BC) was a Greece, Greek Hellenistic philosophy, Hellenistic philosopher. He was the founder of Academic Skepticism and what is variously called the Second or Middle or New Academy – the phase of the Platonic Academy in which it embraced philosophical skepticism. Arcesilaus succeeded Crates of Athens as the sixth scholarch of the academy around 264 BC. He did not preserve his thoughts in writing, so his opinions can only be gleaned second-hand from what is preserved by later writers. In Athens Arcesilaus interacted with the Pyrrhonism, Pyrrhonist philosopher, Timon of Phlius, whose philosophy appears to have influenced Arcesilaus to become the first Academic to adopt a position of philosophical skepticism, that is, he doubted the ability of the senses to discover truth about the world, although he may have continued to believe in the existence of truth itself. This brought in the Academic skepticism, skeptical phase of the academy. His chief oppone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek philosophy. His reputation is controversial among scholars because he often repeats information from his sources without critically evaluating it. In many cases, he focuses on insignificant details of his subjects' lives while ignoring important details of their philosophical teachings and he sometimes fails to distinguish between earlier and later teachings of specific philosophical schools. However, unlike many other ancient secondary sources, Diogenes Laërtius tends to report philosophical teachings without trying to reinterpret or expand on them, and so his accounts are often closer to the primary sources. Due to the loss of so many of the primary sources on which Diogenes relied, his work has become the foremost surviving source on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platonic Academy
The Academy (), variously known as Plato's Academy, or the Platonic Academy, was founded in Classical Athens, Athens by Plato ''wikt:circa, circa'' 387 BC. The academy is regarded as the first institution of higher education in the west, where subjects as diverse as biology, geography, astronomy, mathematics, history, and many more were taught and investigated. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a Academic skepticism, skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. A neo-Platonic academy was later established in Athens that sought to continue the tradition of Plato's Academy. This academy was shut down by Justinian I, Justinian in 529 AD, when some of the scholars fled to Harran, where the study of classical texts continued. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Academy
The Academy (), variously known as Plato's Academy, or the Platonic Academy, was founded in Athens by Plato '' circa'' 387 BC. The academy is regarded as the first institution of higher education in the west, where subjects as diverse as biology, geography, astronomy, mathematics, history, and many more were taught and investigated. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. A neo-Platonic academy was later established in Athens that sought to continue the tradition of Plato's Academy. This academy was shut down by Justinian in 529 AD, when some of the scholars fled to Harran, where the study of classical texts continued. In 1462 Cosimo de' Medici established the Platonic Academy of Florence, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tusculan Disputations
The ''Tusculanae Disputationes'' (also ''Tusculanae Quaestiones''; English: ''Tusculan Disputations'') is a series of five books written by Cicero, around 45 BC, attempting to popularise Greek philosophy in ancient Rome, including Stoicism. It is so called as it was reportedly written at his villa in Tusculum. His daughter had recently died and in mourning Cicero devoted himself to philosophical studies. The ''Tusculan Disputations'' consist of five books, each on a particular theme: On the contempt of death; On pain; On grief; On emotional disturbances; and whether Virtue alone is sufficient for a happy life. Context In the year 45 BC, when Cicero was around 61 years old, his daughter, Tullia, died following childbirth. Her loss afflicted Cicero to such a degree that he abandoned all public business and left the city retiring to Asterra, which was a country house that he had near Antium. There he devoted himself to philosophical studies, writing several works, including '' De fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panaetius
Panaetius (; ; – ) of Rhodes was an ancient Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater of Tarsus in Athens, before moving to Rome where he did much to introduce Stoic doctrines to the city, thanks to the patronage of Scipio Aemilianus. After the death of Scipio in 129 BC, he returned to the Stoic school in Athens, and was its last undisputed scholarch. With Panaetius, Stoicism became much more eclectic. His most famous work was his ''On Duties'', the principal source used by Cicero in his own work of the same name. Life Panaetius, son of Nicagoras, was born around 185–180 BC, into an old and eminent Rhodian family. He is said to have been a pupil of the linguist Crates of Mallus, who taught in Pergamum, and moved to Athens where he attended the lectures of Critolaus and Carneades, but attached himself principally to the Stoic Diogenes of Babylon and his disciple Antipater of Tarsus. Although it is often thought that he was chosen by the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
