Archil. fr. 232 West (= 50 Tarditi = 133 Bergk = 230 LB) reads as follows:νόμος δὲ Κρητικὸς διδάσκεταιa Cretan law is taught (transl. Dilts)That the term νόμος should be interpreted here in a legal sense has never been contested, and justly so, since its attested meanings are ‘usage, custom, legal norm, statute, law’. However, from the fifth centuryb.c.e.on, νόμοι are also related to music, referring to ‘melodies’ in general or, as a more technical term, to established ‘musical patterns’. The (...) notion of distribution, of an order socially accepted as valid, seems to underlie the use of νόμος in both the legal and the musical fields. (shrink)

The Aristotelian Πολιτεῖαι collected information on the history and organization of reportedly 158 city-states. Of these only the Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία survives almost in its entirety on two papyri. All that remains of the other constitutions is the epitome by Heraclides Lembus and about 130 fragments. This article will look at the transmission of Heraclides’ epitome and explore the possibility of identifying further fragments of the original text.

An outline of the life of Heraclides and his fragmentary writings (on the theory of matter, astronomy, ethical and religious topics) is followed by an attempt to reconstruct his thought. He emerges as not so much a profound thinker as a many-sided writer of considerable literary gifts and occasional flashes of brilliance.

In Miletus, about 550 B.C., together with our world-picture cosmology was born. This book tells the story. In Part One the reader is introduced in the archaic world-picture of a flat earth with the cupola of the celestial vault onto which the celestial bodies are attached. One of the subjects treated in that context is the riddle of the tilted celestial axis. This part also contains an extensive chapter on archaic astronomical instruments. Part Two shows how Anaximander (610-547 B.C.) blew (...) up this archaic world-picture and replaced it by a new one that is essentially still ours. He taught that the celestial bodies orbit at different distances and that the earth floats unsupported in space. This makes him the founding father of cosmology. Part Three discusses topics that completed the new picture described by Anaximander. Special attention is paid to the confrontation between Anaxagoras and Aristotle on the question whether the earth is flat or spherical, and on the battle between Aristotle and Heraclides Ponticus on the question whether the universe is finite or infinite. (shrink)

Dans le récit d’Héraclide connu sous le nom de « Parabole de la Panégyrie », Pythagore répond ironiquement au tyran Léon qu’il n’a aucun savoir-faire (sophia) et qu’il se contente d’aimer ( philein) le savoir ( sophia), définissant ainsi la philo-sophia comme aspiration à la sophia entendue comme savoir supérieur et désintéressé. L’hypothèse d’une création de la Parabole à partir des oeuvres de la maturité de Platon est peu probante, car la thématique sophia/philo-sophia apparaît chez ce dernier dès les premiers (...) dialogues et la comparaison développée par Pythagore pour définir la philosophia se réfère au thème des « trois vies » qui est bien antérieur à Platon. Enfin l’importance de la philia et de la sophia chez les premiers pythagoriciens est une raison supplémentaire d’attribuer l’origine de la Parabole au pythagorisme ancien. (shrink)

I contend that “philosophos” is meant to carry the connotation of a Pythagorean: Euenus is a native from Paros which had a strong Pythagorean community down to the end of the fifth century. Moreover, “philosophos” was used to refer to the Pythagoreans, as can be seen from the story related by Cicero from Heraclides Ponticus (Tusc. Disp. V, iii, 7-8; cp. DL, 1.12; 8.8). I argue (against Burkert) that even if this story is part of the lore surrounding Pythagoras (...) and, hence, without historical value as for Pythagoras, it may still be used as evidence for the use of “philosophos” among latter-day Pythagoreans. (shrink)

Article Patristique -- Patristique latine -- Article Littérature latine chrétienne -- De lectis non lecta componere (Marius Victorinus, Adversus Arium II 7) : raisonnement théologique et raisonnement juridique -- Comptes rendus des conférences données à l'École Pratique des Hautes Études de 1964 à 1980 -- L'entretien d'Origène avec Héraclide et le commentaire de Saint Ambroise sur l'Évangile de Saint Luc -- Une source de l'Apologia David d'Ambroise : les commentaires de Didyme et d'Origène sur le psaume 50 -- Citations de (...) Porphyre chez Augustin : a propos d'un ouvrage récent -- La présentation du Platonisme par Augustin -- L'image de la Trinité dans l'âme chez Victorinus et chez saint Augustin -- Quelques thèmes fondamentaux des Confessions de saint Augustin -- Un fragment du commentaire perdu de Boèce sur les Catégories d'Aristote dans le Codex bernensis 363 -- Typus, stoïcisme et monarchianisme au IVe siècle d'après Candide l'Arien et Marius Victorinus -- Cancellatus respectus : l'usage du chiasme en logique -- La notion d'infini chez saint Augustin -- De Tertullien à Boèce : développement de la notion de personne dans les controverses théologiques. (shrink)

It can be argued that there was no intellectual figure at work in Rome in the period of the late Republic who had more originality and influence than the Bithynian doctor Asclepiades, who founded an important medical school and was still being attacked nearly three hundred years after his death by Galen, and two hundred years later still by Caelius Aurelianus. His claims to originality rested both on his theory of the causes of disease, and on his methods of treatment. (...) Turning away from the Empiricism recently fashionable, he argued that experience without λόγoς, theory or reason, was useless. His own theory was based on the scientific ideas of the late fourth-century philosopher Heraclides Ponticus, and seems to have postulated not τoμα, tiny indivisible particles, but γκoι, masses, which are continually in motion and splitting into innumerable fragments, θραύσματα, of different shapes and sizes, which re-form to create perceptible bodies. The particles were separated by invisible gaps, πόρoι or pores; friction between particles created the heat of the human body, but jamming of its pores was often the cause of pain and disease. This purely mechanistic doctrine was anathema to Galen because of its insufficient reverence for the doctrines of Hippocrates, and above all for the belief in the sympathy of the various parts of the body, the purposive character of Nature's creation, and her own healing effort; and also for the doctrine of the four, or more, humours. (shrink)

Cypriot hagiography attests the presence of women deacons during the 5th and 7th centuries. This paper presents the ordination of these women, and tries to clarify the role of ministry played out in different places on the island, according to three hagiographic testimonies: Acts of Heraclides, Vita Epiphanii, Vita Auxibii.

Pindar's Dithyramb 2opens with a reference to the historical development of the genre it exemplifies, the celebrated circular chorus of classical Greece. The first two lines were long known from various citations, notably in Athenaeus, whose sources included the fourth-century authors Heraclides of Pontus and Aristotle's pupil Clearchus of Soli. The third line appears, only partly legible, on a papyrus fragment published in 1919, which preserves some thirty lines of the dithyramb including most of the first antistrophe.

1. Introduction. Sources of difficulty in the investigation.–II. Dr. Monro′s pitch theory. The passage in Heraclides. Supplementary evidence from the Problems.–III. Prof. Macran′s theory. Evidence against this theory. Prof. Macran′s answer to this evidence. Further objections. Criticism of the evidence in favour of Prof. Macran′s theory.–IV. Prof. Cook-Wilson′s theory. Platonic and Aristotelian evidence against Dr. Monro. Objections to this theory.–V. Recapitulation. Statement of the antinomies in the evidence.–VI. Conclusion. The nucleus of certainty. The Greek, as contrasted with the modern, (...) musical sense. (shrink)

Qu’il soit placé à l’origine des revendications desHéraclides ou instrumentalisé dans le cadre de l’opposition séculaire entre Messéniens et Spartiates, l’épisode du combat d’Héraclès contre Hippocoon et ses fils occupe une place de choix dans le passé de Sparte tel que le transmet Pausanias. Aussi vénérables qu’ils paraissent, les éléments de cette tradition et les monuments spartiates qui lui sont liés s’intègrent néanmoins très concrètement dans l’horizon politique et religieux du iie siècle ap. J.-C. Le discours développé dans la Périégèse (...) semble d’ailleurs bien répondre à des préoccupations similaires à celles qui animent les grandes familles spartiates de cette époque.Heracles, Tyndareus, and Hippocoon in Pausanias’ Description of Sparta: mapping out a mythical tradition. Placed at the origin of the claims of the Heraclids or instrumented within the framework of the secular conflict between Messenians and Spartans, the episode of the fight of Heracles against Hippocoon and its sons occupies an important place in the Spartan past, just as Pausanias states. As ancient as they appear, the elements of this tradition and the Spartan monuments related to it integrate nevertheless very concretely into the political and religious context of the IInd c. AD. The purpose of the Periegesis seems moreover to meet needs quite similar to those preoccupying the great Spartan families at this time. (shrink)

In this thesis the different notions of Hades that appear in the heterogeneous works of gre co-roman literature are in quired and interpreted with enormous scrutiny. The philosophical texts are written mostly by Plato and the Platonists (in particular Heraclides Ponticus, Plutarchus, and Proclus). They have to be compared with Christian ideas of purgatory originating in the early Middle Ages. Eschatology must be explained not only with regard to the cosmologies, that change during the centuries, but also on a (...) solid base of astronomical and astrological knowledge. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to trace the theme of mind-broadening travel in the ancient world, as practised by a series of philosophers, starting with Pythagoras, and including Plato, and then a series of Plato’s disciples, including Xenocrates of Chalcedon, Heraclides of Pontus, and not least Aristotle of Stagira, who were attracted to Athens by reports of the interesting new philosophical school that had been set up there. The theme is continued into later times, with the interesting figure (...) of Antiochus of Ascalon, in the first century BC, and then Plotinus, coming from Egypt to Rome, in the third century AD. I raise the question, without resolving it, of what constitutes philosophical tourism, as opposed to more permanent modes of study, but seek to highlight what seems to me an ongoing feature of philosophical study throughout antiquity and beyond. (shrink)

In De Anima I 4, Aristotle describes the intellect (nous) as a sort of substance, separate and incorruptible. Myles Burnyeat and Lloyd Gerson take this as proof that, for Aristotle, the intellect is a separate eternal entity, not a power belonging to individual humans. Against this reading, I show that this passage does not express Aristotle’s own views, but dialectically examines a reputable position (endoxon) about the intellect that seems to show that it can be subject to change. The passage’s (...) argument for the indestructibility of intellect via an analogy to perception does not fit with Aristotle’s own views. Aristotle thinks that perception operates via bodily organs, but denies this of understanding. He also requires separability from the body for indestructibility, something this analogy rules out. However, Aristotle’s Platonist interlocutors may well endorse such an argument. My dialectical interpretation best resolves the interpretative difficulties and explains its place in the larger context, Aristotle’s discussion of Platonist views on the soul. Aristotle presents a challenge to his insistence that the soul is subject to change, dialectically resolves that challenge, and then ends by reserving the right to give a different account of the intellect. (shrink)

THERE WAS A TIME, EONS AGO, when philosophy as the love of wisdom could lay claim to all knowledge. Aristotle’s corpus of writings covered all the main areas of inquiry then known, including an original organon on syllogistic logic and scientific method. But this hegemony over knowledge was soon challenged by separatist disciplines forming their own research strategies. As early as the third century B.C.E., following the deaths of Alexander and Aristotle, the ruling Ptolemies created in Alexandria two centers of (...) scientific research, the Library and the Museum, rivaling the Academy and Lyceum of Athens. In those state-supported institutions specialized research by grammarians, mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, biologists, and physiologists replaced the more speculative syntheses of knowledge of the previous Hellenic period. The resident scholars and those affiliated by correspondence or as legatees were the originators of axiomatic geometry and what we now refer to as protoscience: for example, Euclid, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Apollonius, Heraclides, Hipparchus, and Aristarchus. Each of the major founders of modern classical science acknowledged their indebtedness to these extraordinary ancient Greeks who initiated the scientific exploration of the universe. (shrink)

THERE WAS A TIME, EONS AGO, when philosophy as the love of wisdom could lay claim to all knowledge. Aristotle’s corpus of writings covered all the main areas of inquiry then known, including an original organon on syllogistic logic and scientific method. But this hegemony over knowledge was soon challenged by separatist disciplines forming their own research strategies. As early as the third century B.C.E., following the deaths of Alexander and Aristotle, the ruling Ptolemies created in Alexandria two centers of (...) scientific research, the Library and the Museum, rivaling the Academy and Lyceum of Athens. In those state-supported institutions specialized research by grammarians, mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, biologists, and physiologists replaced the more speculative syntheses of knowledge of the previous Hellenic period. The resident scholars and those affiliated by correspondence or as legatees were the originators of axiomatic geometry and what we now refer to as protoscience: for example, Euclid, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Apollonius, Heraclides, Hipparchus, and Aristarchus. Each of the major founders of modern classical science acknowledged their indebtedness to these extraordinary ancient Greeks who initiated the scientific exploration of the universe. (shrink)

The medical and philosophical system of Asclepiades of Bithynia ( fl. later second century BC) has been the subject of considerable controversy. His physical theory of anarmoi onkoi in particular has seen intense debate, and although many of its broader features appear to be fairly well established, many of its most fundamental details remain obscure. Perhaps somewhat paradoxically, some of the most important work carried out on Asclepiades has been explicitly focused instead on Heraclides of Pontus, the reconstruction of (...) whose physical theory has often proceeded on the assumption that this was largely replicated by Asclepiades some two centuries later. (shrink)

The article includes a short biography of Hermann of Dalmatia and gives an account of his translations and philosophical and scientific work. In order to have a better understanding of Hermann’s philosophy, a reminder of Greek and Arabic philosophy of nature, on which he relies in his interpretation of the world picture, needs to be presented. Cosmological models by Plato, Aristotle, Eudoxus, Heraclides of Pont, Apollonius of Perga, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, and the Arab scientist Abu Ma’shar, are presented. The main (...) focus of interest is on Hermann’s translations. The immense importance of his translations from Greek and Arabic into Latin is due to the fact that some of the seminal Greek and Arabic works became known in Western Europe in the middle of the twelfth century. Hermann is also important as the author of the original work De essentiis, which presented a blend of Platonian and Aristotelian as well as Western European and Arab traditions. (shrink)

The article includes a short biography of Hermann of Dalmatia and gives an account of his translations and philosophical and scientific work. In order to have a better understanding of Hermann’s philosophy, a reminder of Greek and Arabic philosophy of nature, on which he relies in his interpretation of the world picture, needs to be presented. Cosmological models by Plato, Aristotle, Eudoxus, Heraclides of Pont, Apollonius of Perga, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, and the Arab scientist Abu Ma’shar, are presented. The main (...) focus of interest is on Hermann’s translations. The immense importance of his translations from Greek and Arabic into Latin is due to the fact that some of the seminal Greek and Arabic works became known in Western Europe in the middle of the twelfth century. Hermann is also important as the author of the original work De essentiis, which presented a blend of Platonian and Aristotelian as well as Western European and Arab traditions. (shrink)