Simplicius : on Aristotle on the heavens 1.2-3

209 Pages·2011·1.18 MB·English

by  Simplicius & Ian Mueller

SIMPLICIUS
On Aristotle
On the Heavens 1.2-3
IAN MUELLER
Ian Mueller’s unexpected death in August 2010 is a great loss to the
profession as well as to his family, friends and students. He contributed
no fewer than eleven volumes of translation (two of them part-volumes) to
the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle translation series; three will be
published after his death. His complete mastery of the philosophy of the
exact sciences in antiquity was established by his 1981 book on Euclid, and
by some fifty articles in the subject. He wrote at a very steady pace and
with exemplary clarity, and was always patient and kind in explaining to
those who were slower to follow.
Ian would typically visit the office of the Ancient Commentators project
at King’s College, London, to finalise his volumes with the research
associates, and he always dealt with complications in a calm and helpful
manner. His colleagues were looking forward to welcoming him as a
visiting research fellow in King’s, as he had planned to spend more time
in London. He had made other contributions to the Ancient Commentators
project, including a seminal article, ‘Aristotle’s doctrine of abstraction in
the commentators’, in the project’s collected volume, Aristotle Trans-
formed, and a number of translations in its three-volume Sourcebook on
the commentators. He gave generous advice over the years to the editor
and to a large number of translators to whom he sent comments on
request. His contribution will be sadly missed.
The Editor
SIMPLICIUS
On Aristotle
On the Heavens 1.2-3
Translated by
Ian Mueller
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
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First published in 2011
Paperback edition fi rst published 2014
© 2011 by Ian Mueller
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to be identifi ed as Author of this work.
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in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
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Academic or the author.
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ISBN HB: 978-0-7156-3920-7
PB: 978-1-4725-5791-9
ePDF: 978-1-4725-0166-0
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Acknowledgements
The present translations have been made possible by generous and imaginative
funding from the following sources: the National Endowment for the
Humanities, Division of Research Programs, an independent federal agency
of the USA; the Leverhulme Trust; the British Academy; the Jowett Copyright
Trustees; the Royal Society (UK); Centro Internazionale A. Beltrame
di Storia dello Spazio e del Tempo (Padua); Mario Mignucci; Liverpool
University; the Leventis Foundation; the Arts and Humanities Research
Council; Gresham College; the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust; the Henry
Brown Trust; Mr and Mrs N. Egon; the Netherlands Organisation for Scientifi c
Research (NWO/GW); The Ashdown Trust; Dr Victoria Solomonides, the
Cultural Attaché of the Greek Embassy in London. The editor wishes to
thank Andrea Falcon, James Wilberding, Peter Lautner, and Donald Russell
for their comments, Michael Griffi n for preparing the volume for press, and
Deborah Blake at Duckworth, who has been the publisher responsible for
every volume since the fi rst.
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
Abbreviations vi
Introduction 1
Translation of the text commented on (On the Heavens
1.2-3.270a12) 37
Translation of the commentary 41
Notes 127
Appendix 1. The ‘fragments’ of Philoponus, Against Aristotle 143
Appendix 2. The ‘fragments’ of Alexander’s commentary on
De Caelo 145
Bibliography 149
Textual Questions 153
English-Greek Glossary 155
Greek-English Index 172
Index of Passages 195
(a) Passages quoted by Simplicius 195
(b) Early texts cited in the notes 195
Index of Names 197
(a) Names mentioned by Simplicius 197
(b) Scholars cited in the Introduction and Notes to the Translation 199
Subject Index 201
Abbreviations
In most cases works are referred to by author’s or editor’s name and date
of publication, full information being provided in the Bibliography. How-
ever, the following abbreviations are used:
CAG = Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, 23 vols, Berlin: G. Reimer,
1882-1909.
DPA = Richard Goulet (ed.) (1989-), Dictionnaire des Philosophes An-
tiques, Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
DSB = Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.) (1970-80), Dictionary of Scientific
Biography, 16 vols, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
LSJ = Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott (comps), Henry Stuart Jones
(rev.), A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press and New
York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Photius = René Henri (ed. and trans.) (1959-91), Photius, Bibliotheca, 9
vols, Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
RE = Paulys Realencyclopaedie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 51
vols, Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 1893-1997.
Suda = Ada Adler (ed.) (1928-38), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Lepizig: Teubner.
In addition the following names are used without dates:
Bessarion for corrections by the Renaissance humanist recorded in
Heiberg’s apparatus.
Hankinson for Hankinson (2002).
Heiberg for the editor of the text translated here, Heiberg (1894).
Karsten for readings found in Karsten (1865).
Moerbeke for Latin readings found in Bossier (2004).
Moraux for the text of De Caelo found in Moraux (1965).
Rescigno for Rescigno (2004).
vi
Introduction
This volume translates the first half of Simplicius of Cilicia’s commen-
tary on Aristotle’s De Caelo 1.2-4, in which Aristotle argues that the
world is everlasting.1 The second half of this material will be translated
in a second volume.2 Approximately 29% of this material is commentary
in the ordinary sense, that is passage-by-passage explication of what
Aristotle is saying. Another 11% (20,1-25,22 and 92,22-109,15) is more
general philosophical discussion and treatment of some alternative
views. The explications and general discussions, roughly 40% of 1.2-4,
have already been translated into English in Hankinson (2002), a work
to which I am much indebted. The other 60% is Simplicius’ discussion
of the objections raised by his Christian contemporary John Philo-
ponus3 (in a lost work which I shall call Against Aristotle) to Aristotle’s
attempt to prove the everlastingness of the world. About 40% of that
material containing Philoponus’ objections (roughly a fourth of 1.2-4) is
translated in Wildberg (1987),4 another work to which I am much
indebted. So what is new in this translation, somewhat more than one
third of the whole, could be characterised as Simplicius’ responses to
Philoponus. Since the debate between Simplicius and Philoponus is an
extremely important item in the late stages of the transition from
paganism to Christianity in the Byzantine Empire, it seemed desirable
to include Simplicius’ responses in the Ancient Commentators on Aris-
totle series. But to print them in isolation did not seem reasonable since
they obviously have to be read in connection with what they are re-
sponses to. Moreover, it is clear that a considerable portion of the
material translated by Hankinson, e.g. the long excursus on coming to
be at 92,22-109,15, is introduced by Simplicius in anticipation of his
attack on Philoponus. The possibility of incorporating the two earlier
translations into this one was considered, but it was decided that this
was not feasible because of (hardly unexpected or surprising) differ-
ences in predilections between the two previous translators and be-
tween them and myself. Hence the decision to make a new translation
which could rely on its predecessors for discussions of many issues5 and
give readers direct access to a historically and philosophically impor-
tant document in its entirety.
2 Introduction
1. The intellectual background of Simplicius
and John Philoponus
1a. Philosophy in Athens
It is convenient to begin with the succession of leaders of the Neoplatonic
School in Athens (apparently an endowed institution) starting with:
Plutarch of Athens (d. c. 432).6
Plutarch was succeeded for a brief period by:
Syrianus of Alexandria (d. c. 437),7
who probably studied with Plutarch in Athens for some thirty years after
preliminary schooling in Alexandria. A relative of Syrianus, Aedesia,
married his pupil Hermeias of Alexandria, and they became the parents of
two sons, Ammonius and Heliodorus, both probably born in Alexandria. I will
discuss these three men in the next section. Syrianus was succeeded by:
Proclus of Lycia (c. 411-485),
about whom we are better informed because of the biography of him
written by his pupil and probable successor:
Marinus of Neapolis (modern Nablus, Palestine).8
Marinus’ date of death is unknown, and the succession after him is
unclear. Among people who have been mentioned as possible heads of the
Athenian school after Marinus are Isidore of Alexandria,9 a student of Proclus
and Marinus who mainly taught in Alexandria; Zenodotus;10 and Hegias of
Athens,11 a student of Proclus mentioned by Marinus in his life of Proclus. It
is generally believed that the last head of the Athenian school was:
Damascius of Syria,12
about whom Photius reports the following in his shorter summary of
Damascius’ Life of Isidore:
Damascius was given a thorough training in the art of rhetoric by
Theon13 for three whole years and directed rhetorical studies for a
further nine years. In Athens he had Marinus, the successor of
Proclus, as his teacher of geometry, arithmetic, and the other
branches of mathematics.14 The people who taught him in the study
of philosophy were, in Athens, Zenodotus (also a successor of Proclus,
the second after Marinus) and, in Alexandria, Ammonius Her-
Introduction 3
meiou.15 Damascius says that Ammonius was superior in no small
measure to those of his time and especially in mathematics,16 and he
records that Ammonius was the person who explained to him the
works of Plato and the sequence of Ptolemy’s books on astronomy.
However, he insists that what gave him his ability in the practice of
dialectic were his associations with Isidore, who, he says, cast into
shadow all people produced by time in that period in terms of his
capacity in that sort of argumentation.17
In his commentaries on Aristotle Simplicius names two people as his
teachers: Damascius and Ammonius. And at 462,20-3 of his commentary
on De Caelo he refers to witnessing Ammonius make an astronomical
observation in Alexandria. But he never mentions Athens. Perhaps the
strongest evidence we have that Damascius taught Simplicius in Athens
is Agathias’ report (Keydell (1967), 2.30.3) that (at a date not indicated)
Damascius, Simplicius and five other ‘philosophers’ moved themselves to
the court of Chosroes I (Persian emperor from 531 AD) in Ctesiphon, a
departure standardly associated with the emperor Justinian’s decree of
529 prohibiting the teaching of philosophy and astronomy in Athens
(Thurn (2000), 18.47), although Agathias mentions as motivation only the
philosophers’ rejection of Christianity and their belief that they would be
moving to an ideal society governed by a philosopher-king. In Agathias’
representation they found a corrupt society and a king who was no
philosopher. Unable to bear the situation, they returned home as quickly
as possible. Their return was made comfortable for them by the inclusion
in the ‘Eternal Peace’ signed by Justinian and Chosroes in 532 of a clause
stating that the men ‘should return to their own haunts (êthê) and live the
rest of their lives eph’ heautois18 without fear’ without being compelled to
change their beliefs. We know nothing about Damascius’ subsequent
activity, but an inscription with the date 538 preserved in Homs, Syria
(Jalabert and Mouterde (1959), 2336) is virtually identical with an epi-
gram in the Greek Anthology which is ascribed to Damascius the Philoso-
pher. Because of it scholars generally assume that Damascius was still
alive in 538.
1b. Philosophy in Alexandria
The preceding discussion shows the close links between the study of
philosophy in Athens and in Alexandria in the fifth and earlier sixth
century, beginning at least with Syrianus, so that what we have said
makes exposition of developments at Alexandria somewhat easier. One of
the pupils of Plutarch of Athens, and so an approximate contemporary of
Syrianus, was Hierocles,19 a strong proponent of the view that there were
no essential disagreements between Plato and Aristotle. Hierocles taught
philosophy in Alexandria where he lectured on Plato’s Gorgias. He spent
some time in Constantinople but he ran into trouble with the (Christian)