Aetius (philosopher)

Aetius (; ) was a 1st- or 2nd-century AD doxographer and Eclectic philosopher.

Works

None of Aetius' works survives today, but he solves a mystery about two major compilations of philosophical quotes. There are two extant books named '' De Placita Philosophorum'' (Περὶ τῶν ἀρεσκόντων φιλοσόφοις φυσικῶν δογμάτων, "Opinions of the Philosophers") and '' Eclogae Physicae'' (Ἐκλογαὶ φυσικαὶ καὶ ἠθικαί, "Physical and Moral Extracts"). The first of these is by Pseudo-Plutarch and the second is by Stobaeus. They are clearly both abridgements of a larger work. Hermann Diels, in his great ''Doxographi Graeci'' (1879), discovered that the 5th-century CE theologian Theodoret had full versions of the quotes which were shortened in the abridgements. This means that Theodoret had managed to procure the original book which Pseudo-Plutarch and Stobaeus had shortened. He calls this book "''Aetiou tên peri areskontôn sunagôgên'' (Ἀετίου περὶ τῶν Ἀρεσκόντων Συναγωγήν)" John Burnet
''Early Greek Philosophy'': Section B: Note on the Sources
. and therefore we ascribe the original ''Placita'' to Aetius.

Diels claimed that Aetius himself was merely abridging a work which Diels (1879) called ''Oldest Tenets'' or, in Latin, ''Vetusta Placita''. Unlike Aetius, whose existence is attested by Theodoret, the ''Vetusta Placita'' is Diels' invention and is generally disregarded by modern classicists

Quotes which are ascribed to Aetius in scholarly essays were actually discovered in either the abridgements of Pseudo-Plutarch or Stobaeus, or Theodoret's full quotes in rare cases, or finally one of several ancient authors who provided corrections to misquotes in one of these works.

References

Sources

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Further reading

* Mansfeld, Jaap, & Runia, David T. ''Aëtiana: The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer, I: The Sources'' (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997) (''Philosophia Antiqua'', 73); Idem, ''Aëtiana: The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer, II/1-2; The compendium'' (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2009) (''Philosophia Antiqua'', 114); Idem, ''Aëtiana: The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer. Vol. 3, Studies in the Doxographical Traditions of Ancient Philosophy'' (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2009) (''Philosophia antiqua'', 118).
* Mansfield, Jaap; Runia, David T. (2023). ''Placita (Loeb Classical Library)''. Harvard University Press.
* Bottler, Heike: ''Pseudo-Plutarch und Stobaios: Eine synoptische Untersuchung (Hypomnemata 198)'', Göttingen 2014,

External links

John Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy: Section B: Note on the Sources
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* Complete text of the ''Placita''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aetius
2nd-century Greek philosophers
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
1st-century Greek philosophers