The Philosophy of Antiochus

390 Pages·2012·2.682 MB·English

by  David Sedley

THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANTIOCHUS
Antiochus of Ascalon was one of the seminal philosophers of the
firstcenturybce,aneraofradicalphilosophicalchange.Somecalled
him a virtual Stoic, but in reality his programme was an updated
revival of the philosophy of the ‘ancients’, meaning above all Plato
and Aristotle. His significance lies partly in his enormous influence
on Roman intellectuals of the age, including Cicero, Brutus and
Varro,partlyinhisroleastheharbingerofanewstyleofphilosophy,
whichthereafterremaineddominantfortheremainderofantiquity.
Yet much remains controversial about his ideas. This volume, the
first in English to be devoted entirely to Antiochus, brings together
a team of leading scholars to discuss every major aspect of his life,
workandsignificance.Inaddition,itcontainsthefirstfullguideto
histestimoniainanymodernlanguage.
david sedley isLaurenceProfessorofAncientPhilosophyatthe
UniversityofCambridge,andaFellowofChrist’sCollege.Hisbooks
include Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom (1998),
Plato’s Cratylus (2003) and Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity
(2007).HeisalsoeditorofTheCambridgeCompaniontoGreekand
RomanPhilosophy(2003).

THE PHILOSOPHY OF
ANTIOCHUS
edited by
DAVID SEDLEY
cambridge university press
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Firstpublished2012
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p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-0-521-19854-7(hardback)
1.Antiochus,ofAscalon,d.68b.c. I.Sedley,D.N.
b535.a774p45 2012
186(cid:3).2–dc23 2011043836
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Contents
Listofcontributors pagevii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
DavidSedley
1 Antiochus’biography 9
MyrtoHatzimichali
2 AntiochusandtheAcademy 31
RobertoPolito
3 AntiochusandAsclepiades:medicalandphilosophical
sectarianismattheendoftheHellenisticera 55
RebeccaFlemming
4 Antiochusashistorianofphilosophy 80
DavidSedley
5 Antiochus’epistemology 104
CharlesBrittain
6 Antiochusoncontemplationandthehappylife 131
GeorgiaTsouni
7 Antiochus,AristotleandtheStoicsondegrees
ofhappiness 151
T.H.Irwin
8 Antiochusonsocialvirtue 173
MalcolmSchofield
9 Antiochusonphysics 188
BradInwood
v
vi Contents
10 Antiochus’metaphysics 220
G.R.Boys-Stones
11 Theneutralizingargument:Carneades,Antiochus,Cicero 237
MalcolmSchofield
12 VarroandAntiochus 250
DavidBlank
13 OtherfollowersofAntiochus 290
CarlosL´evy
14 AntiochusandPlatonism 307
MauroBonazzi
Appendix:AguidetothetestimoniesforAntiochus 334
References 347
Indexlocorum 359
Generalindex 374
Contributors
david blank:ProfessorofClassics,UniversityofCalifornia,LosAngeles
mauro bonazzi: LecturerinAncientPhilosophy,UniversityofMilan
g. r. boys-stones:ProfessorofAncientPhilosophy,DurhamUniversity
charles brittain: Professor of Classics and Philosophy, Cornell Uni-
versity
rebecca flemming: Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Cam-
bridge
myrtohatzimichali:LeventisLecturerintheImpactofGreekCulture,
UniversityofExeter
bradinwood:UniversityProfessor(ClassicsandPhilosophy),University
ofToronto
t. h. irwin: ProfessorofAncientPhilosophy,UniversityofOxford
carlos le´vy: ProfessorofLatin,Universite´deParis-Sorbonne(ParisIV)
roberto polito: ResearchAssociate,HumboldtUniversity,Berlin
malcolm schofield: Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy, Uni-
versityofCambridge
david sedley: Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy, University of
Cambridge
georgia tsouni: Professor,CollegeYearinAthens
vii
Acknowledgements
In the four years October 2005–September 2009, the Faculty of Classics
at Cambridge hosted a project entitled ‘Greco-Roman Philosophy in the
FirstCenturybc’,generouslyfundedbytheArtsandHumanitiesResearch
Council (AHRC). It was directed by David Sedley (principal investiga-
tor)andMalcolmSchofield,andemployedtwopost-doctoralresearchers,
Roberto Polito and Myrto Hatzimichali. In addition, funding was pro-
vided by the AHRC for one Ph.D. studentship, which was taken up by
GeorgiaTsouni.Finally,duringthesummerof2009theprojectteamwas
fortunateenoughtobestrengthenedbythevoluntaryresearchassistanceof
SamanthaHorn.Thesejointlyconstitutedtheprojectteamwhichplanned
thepresentvolume.
The warmest thanks are due above all to the AHRC itself, but also
to all those who contributed to the success of the project. By the latter
I mean not just the official project team, but the many members of,
and visitors to, the Cambridge academic community who during those
four years participated in the project’s weekly seminar, attended the two
internationalworkshopswhichitorganized,orfocusedtheirownresearch
on topics falling within its scope. There can be no doubt that in the
scholarly community consciousness of its issues both was and remains
raised.
The present volume is one of four volumes to come directly out of
the project. It is built around papers given to the project’s July 2007
internationalworkshoponAntiochusofAscalon.Inadditiontotheauthors
of the individual chapters, those who contributed to the success of the
workshopincludeJonathanBarnes,ThomasBe´natou¨ıl,GailFine,Michael
Frede, Katerina Ierodiakonou, George Karamanolis, Inna Kupreeva, Bob
Sharples and Stephen White, as well as many Cambridge participants. A
further example of that collaboration is that, following the workshop’s
discussion of Philodemus’ biographical testimony for Antiochus, David
Blank undertook a new autopsy of the papyrus, and was able to send
viii