Search

[German version] (Θεμίστα; Themísta). One of the women philosophers of the Epicurean School; at the beginning of the 4th cent. BC the wife of Leonteus [2] (Diog. Laert. 10,5,25); they had a son called Epicurus (Diog. Laert. 10,26). Cicero praises T.'s 'wisdom' ( sapientia) and names her as the author of numerous writings ( tanta volumina, Cic. Pis. 63). Epicurus addressed a number of letters (Excerpt: Diog. Laert. 10,5 = fr. 125 Usener) and a work Neocles to T. (Νεοκλῆς πρὸς Θεμίστα; Diog. Laert. 10,28) to her. Nothing of her work survives. Dorandi, Tiziano (Paris) Bibliography M. Erler, i…

(Πολύαινος/ Polýainos). [German version] [1] Epicurean, c. 300 BC One of the four 'masters' (καθηγεμόνες; kathēgemónes) of the Epicurean School (with Epicurus, Metrodorus and Hermarchus). B. at Lampsacus (year unknown), d. at Athens in 278/7 BC. Epicurus inaugurated an annual festival in his honour in the month of Metageitnion. P. came into contact with Epicurus during the latter's sojourn at Lampsacus (311/10-307/6 BC), and thereafter devoted himself to philosophy. At first, he excelled as a mathematician; re…

[German version] (᾿Ανάξαρχος, Anáxarchos) of Abdera. Democritean philosopher ( Democriteans, c. 380-320 BC). He accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaign to the East. After Alexander's death, A. was taken prisoner and then pounded to death in a mortar by Nicocreon, the tyrant of Salamis on Cyprus, with whom he had quarrelled. In the ancient records, A.'s attitude towards Alexander the Great wavers between adoration and irony. A. was the author of a treatise Περὶ βασιλείας ( Perì basileías), of which only two fragments are preserved (fr. 65-66). The assessments of h…

(Λεοντεύς; Leonteús, ‘lion’). [German version] [1] Leader of the Lapiths' contingent at Troy Son of Coronus. With Polypoetes he leads the contingent of the Lapithae at Troy. Together, they also defend the Greek camp and participate in the funerary games for Patroclus (Hom. Il. 2,745ff.; 12,128ff.; 23,837ff.). Michel, Raphael (Basle) Bibliography H. W. Stoll, s.v. L., Roscher 2, 1944-1945. [German version] [2] Of Lampsacus, student of Epicurus L. of Lampsacus, one of the most important students of Epicurus. L. and his wife Themista got to know Epicurus during …

[German version] (ὀπισθογράφος, -ον/ opisthográphos, -on; Latin opisthographus, -a, -um), lit. 'written on the reverse', adj., sometimes also used as a noun; a technical term rarely attested in antiquity. Ancient authors paraphrased or used synonyms instead (ὄπισθεν/ ópisthen or κατόπισθεν/ katópisthen, ὀπίσω/ opísō, κατόπιν/ katópin). In antiquity, opisthographos denoted either a roll with a text which continued from the recto to the verso (Plin. Ep. 3,5,17; opisthographum Ulp. Dig. 37,11,4) or a roll with a text on the back of the papyrus (Lucian. Vitarum au…

[German version] (Σίρων; Sírōn). Epicurean philosopher, 1st cent. BC, who lived and worked in Neapolis. Known only from sparse testimonies [1]. It is uncertain whether he wrote at all. S. was an acquaintance of Philodemus (fr. 1) and a friend of Cicero (fr. 2-5). His most famous student was doubtlessly the Roman poet Vergilius who in his youth had studied Epicurean philosophy with him and remained close to him throughout his life (fr. 6-13). Dorandi, Tiziano (Paris) Bibliography 1 M. Gigante, I frammenti di Sirone, in: Paideia 45, 1990, 175-198.

[German version] (Ἕρμαρχος; Hérmarchos). Born in Mytilene on Lesbos, a contemporary of  Epicurus. In his youth he was trained in rhetoric and encountered Epicurus in Mytilene in about 310 BC. H. did not immediately turn to philosophy, but only followed his teacher Epicurus to Athens after he had founded a school (306 BC). From 290 to 270 BC he went to Lampsacus to visit the Epicurean school there. Before his death in 270 BC, Epicurus transferred the leadership of the Athenian school to H. despite h…

[German version] The philosopher Epicurus owned a house in the Attic deme of Melite (Diog. Laert. 10,17) and a garden (κῆπος; kêpos), the seat of his school (Cic. Fin. 5,1,3; Sen. Ep. 21,10; Plin. HN 19,50; Diog. Laert. 10,11). The localization of this garden is disputed. It was either outside the city between the Dipylon Gate and the Academy (Heliodorus, Aethiopica 1,16,5) [2], or in the city itself ( in ipsa urbe, Plin. HN 19,50), adjoining the house in the deme of Melite or very close by [1]. Epicurus; Epicurean School Dorandi, Tiziano (Paris) Bibliography 1 E. Wycherley, The Garden of E…

(Δημήτριος; Dēmḗtrios). Well-known personalities: the Macedonian King D. [2] Poliorketes; the politician and writer D. [4] of Phalerum; the Jewish-Hellenistic chronographer D. [29]. I. Politically active personalities [German version] [1] Officer under Alexander the Great Officer under Alexander [4], fought at Gaugamela as commander of a troop ( ile) of  Hetairoi and in India he commanded a hipparchy. Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA) Bibliography Berve 2, no. 256. [German version] [2] D. Poliorketes Son of  Antigonus [1], born 337/6 BC (Diod. Sic. 19,96,1). In 320 he m…

[German version] A. Definition Papyri with Latin and Greek texts found during the Bourbon excavations in the middle of the 18th cent. in a villa near  Herculaneum (with site map). These were part of the library of the poet and philosopher  Philodemus of Gadara, who had gone from Athens to Italia during the period 80-70 BC and maintained a friendly relationship there with L.  Calpurnius [I 19] Piso Caesoninus, the owner of the villa in Herculaneum. In this luxurious villa, Philodemus collected an ext…

(Φιλίσκος; Philískos). [German version] [1] Poet of Middle Comedy Poet of Middle Comedy, to whom the Suda attributes 7 play titles: Ἄδωνις (Á dōnis), Διὸς γοναί ( Diòs gonaí/ 'The Birth of Zeus'; Adespoton 1062 K.-A. is sometimes assigned to this play [4]), Θεμιστοκλῆς ( Themistoklês/ ' Themistocles'; title probably incorrectly included in the list [3. n. 37]), Ὄλυμπος ( Ólympos; ' Olympus'), Πανὸς γοναί ( Panòs gonaí; 'The Birth of Pan'), Ἑρμοῦ καὶ Ἀφροδίτης γοναί ( Hermoû kaì Aphrodítēs gonaí/ ' The Births of Hermes and Aphrodite'; possibly two plays [3. n. 24]), Ἀρτέμιδος καὶ Ἀ…

[German version] ( schida, scida) has various meanings in Latin authors: (1) a sheet or piece of papyrus or parchment (Pugillares) for notes or short messages (Cic. Att. 1,20,7; Quint. Inst. 1,8,19; Mart. 4,89,4; CGL IV 422,52; V 243,10 and 482,57;  cf. [1. 4920]). (2) In Late Antiquity s./ schedula is the term for a 'rough draft' of a literary work; cf. Isid. Etym. 6,14,8 “scheda est quod adhuc emendatur, et necdum in libris redactum est” ("scheda describes a text which still has to be corrected and is not yet finished"; the interpretation i…

(Ἡρόδοτος; Heródotos). [German version] [1] The historian Herodotus, approx. 485-424 BC The historian Herodotus. Meister, Klaus (Berlin) [German version] A. Life Sources on the life of H., the ‘father of history’ (Cic. Leg. 1,1,5), c. 485-424 BC (fundamental for all of the following: [1]) are, apart from the information he provided himself in particular, the Suda s.v. H. or s.v. Panyassis. H. came from Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) in the south-west of Asia Minor. The names of his father, Lyxes, and his uncle, Panyassis, a famou…

[German version] I. Greek (Φαῖδρος; Phaîdros). [German version] [I 1] 5th cent. BC Son of Pythocles, from the Attic deme of Myrrhinus, born probably c. 450 BC. Accused of participation in the profanation of the Eleusinian Mysteria and the mutilatation of the herms, P. went into exile in 415 BC. His property was confiscated (And. 1,15; ML 79,112-115). By 404 BC at the latest, he had returned to Athens; he subsequently married a cousin (Lys. 19,15). Died before 393. Participant in the meeting in Plato's Protagoras (315c), interlocutor of Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus and first speaker in his Sy…

(Πολύστρατος/ Polýstratos). [German version] [1] Wealthy Athenian, councillor 411 BC Wealthy Athenian, frequent office-holder, member of the boulḗ in 411 BC. After the oligarchic coup, he took part in the selection of the 5,000 citizens to whom political rights would in future be restricted. He was wounded in the naval battles against the Spartans off Eretria. After the fall of the Four Hundred (Tetrakosioi), P. was fined heavily; he was prosecuted again c. 410/409 at age 70, probably for his political activities. Parts of his defence survive in the 20th speech of t…

(Διονύσιος; Dionýsios). Famous personalities: D. [1], the tyrant of Syracuse; the historian D. [18] of Halicarnassus. Dionysios (month),  Months, names of the. The chronicle of Ps.-D. by Tell Maḥre see D. [23]. I. Politically active personalities [German version] [1] D. I. Notorious tyrant in Syracuse c. 400 BC of Syracuse, son of Hermocritus, born in c. 430 BC, died in 367 BC. Founder of the ‘greatest and longest tyrannical rule in history’ (Diod. Sic. 13,96,4; appearance: Timaeus FGrH 566 F 29). Possessing a sophist education (Cic. Tusc. 5,63), D. had enormous ambitions a…

(Μητρόδωρος/ Metródōros). [German version] [1] M. of Chios Democritan philosopher, 5th/4th cent. BC Democritan philosopher ( Democritus [1]) of the 5th-4th cent. BC who recognised Fullness and Emptiness, Being and Non-Being as the first principles. This orthodoxy, however, does not go beyond the fundamental theoretical views of Atomism: M. is said to have had his own views in other matters (70 A 3 DK). M. propounds the uncreatedness of the universe (τὸ πᾶν) in the Eleatic manner ( Eleatic School) because a c…

[German version] The existence in antiquity of MSS of literary texts written ‘in the author's own handwriting’ is still a controversial subject in current times and is closely connected with the individual authors' ways of working ( Copy). The MSS under consideration are those which were claimed to be a copy in the author's own hand, as well as the evidence of indirect tradition which lead to the conclusion that a literary work was written in the author's own hand. The only texts which can be said with absolute certainty to have been written in the author's own hand are th…

[German version] An ancient text could be corrected in at least two ways: a) a διορθωτής ( diorthōtḗs), a professional c orrector, collated the copy with the original. This intervention was sometimes indicated by the monogram δι = δι(ώρθωται), ‘corrected’ [1. 15. n. 85,13] ( Publication). b) A reader (not necessarily a professional corrector, but often a lay man) collated the copy with another sample. Two or more correctors could work on the same copy [3]. A wrong correction was indicated as ἀποδιόρθωμα ( apodiórthōma) (PSI 12, 1287,11-14). The intervention of an ancient correcto…

(Χαρμίδης; Charmídēs). [German version] [1] Son of Glaucon, 5th cent. BC Son of Glaucon, from an old Athenian noble family; brother of  Perictione the mother of Plato, and cousin of  Critias. C. was one of the committee of the ‘Ten’ appointed by the ‘Thirty’ and officiating in Piraeus during the despotic rule of the ‘Thirty’ ( Triakonta; 404-403 BC); its powers are not precisely known (Plat. Ep. 7,324c5. Aristot. Ath. Pol. 35,1). He was killed in 403 during the fighting that accompanied the fall of the ‘Th…