NOTE ON THE SOURCES
A.—PHILOSOPHERS
IT is not very often that Plato allows himself to dwell on the history of philosophy as it was before the
rise of ethical and epistemological inquiry; but when he does, he is always illuminating. His artistic gift
and his power of entering into the thoughts of other men enabled him to describe the views of early
philosophers in a sympathetic manner, and he never, except in a playful and ironical way, sought to read
unthought of meanings into the words of his predecessors. He has, in fact, a historical sense, which was
a rare thing in antiquity.
The passage of the Phaedo (96 a sqq.) where he describes the state of scientific opinion at Athens in
the middle of the fifth century is invaluable for our purposes.
As a rule, Aristotle's statements about early philosophers are far less historical than Plato's. He nearly
always discusses the facts from the point of view of his own system, and that system, resting as it does
on the deification of the apparent diurnal revolution of the heavens, made it very hard for him to
appreciate more scientific views. He is convinced that his own philosophy accomplishes what all
previous philosophers had aimed at, and their systems are therefore regarded as "lisping" attempts to
formulate it (Met. A, 10, 993 a 15. It is also to be noted that Aristotle regards some systems in a much
more sympathetic way than others. He is distinctly unfair to the Eleatics, for instance, and in general,
wherever mathematical considerations come into play, he is an untrustworthy guide.
It is often forgotten that Aristotle derived much of his information from Plato, and we must specially
observe that he more than once takes Plato's humorous remarks too literally.
The Stoics, and especially Chrysippos, paid great attention to early philosophy, but their way of
regarding it was simply an exaggeration of Aristotle's. They did. not content themselves with criticising
their predecessors from their own point of view; they seem really to have believed that the early poets
and thinkers taught doctrines hardly distinguishable from their own. The word συνοικειοῦν, which Cicero
renders by accommodare, was used by Philodemos to denote this method of interpretation, (1)
which has had serious results upon our tradition, especially in the case of Herakleitos.
The same remarks apply mutatis mutandis to the Skeptics. The interest of such a writer as Sextus
Empiricus in early philosophy is mainly to exhibit its contradictions. But what he tells us is often of value;
for he frequently quotes early views as to knowledge and sensation in support of his thesis.
Under this head we have chiefly to consider the commentators on Aristotle in so far as they are
independent of the Theophrastean tradition. Their chief characteristic is what Simplicius calls εὐγνωμοσύνη,
that is, a liberal spirit of interpretation, which makes all early philosophers agree with one another in
upholding the doctrine of a Sensible and an Intelligible World. It is, however, to Simplicius more than
any one else that we owe the preservation of the fragments. He had, of course, the library of the
Academy at his disposal, at any rate up to A.D. 529.
B.—DOXOGRAPHERS
The Doxographi Graeci of Professor Hermann Diels (1879) threw an entirely new light upon the
filiation of the later sources; and we can only estimate justly the value of statements derived from these if
we bear constantly in mind the results of his investigation. Here it will only be possible to give an outline
which may help the reader to find his way in the Doxogyaphi Graeci itself.
By the term doxographers we understand all those writers who relate the opinions of the Greek
philosophers, and who derive their material, directly or indirectly, from the great work of Theophrastos,
(Φυσικῶν δοξῶν ιή (Diog. v. 46). Of this work, one considerable chapter, that entitled Περὶ αἰσθήσεων, has been
preserved (Dox. pp. 499-527). And Usener, following Brandis, further showed that there were
important fragments of it contained in the commentary of Simplicius (sixth cent. A.D.) on the First Book
of Aristotle's Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις (Usener, Analecta Theophrastea, pp. 25 sqq.). These extracts Simplicius seems
to have borrowed in turn from Alexander of Aphrodisias (c. A.D. 200); cf. Dox. p. 112 sqq. We thus
possess a very considerable portion of the First Book, which dealt with the ἀρχαί, as well as
practically the whole of the last Book.
From these remains it clearly appears that the method of Theophrastos was to discuss in separate
books the leading topics which had engaged the attention of philosophers from Thales to Plato. The
chronological order was not observed; the philosophers were grouped according to the affinity of their
doctrine, the differences between those who appeared to agree most closely being carefully noted. The
First Book, however, was in some degree exceptional; for in it the order was that of the successive
schools, and short historical and chronological notices were inserted.
A work of this kind was, of course, a godsend to the epitomators and compilers of handbooks, who
flourished more and more as the Greek genius declined. These either followed Theophrastos in
arranging the subject-matter under heads, or else they broke up his work, and rearranged his
statements under the names of the various philosophers to whom they applied. This latter class form the
natural transition between the doxographers proper and the biographers, so I have ventured to
distinguish them by the name of biographical doxographers.
I. DOXOGRAPHERS PROPER
These are now mainly represented by two works, viz. the Placita Philosophorum, included among
the writings ascribed to Plutarch, and the Eclogae Physicae of John Stobaios (c. A.D. 470). The latter
originally formed one work with the Florilegium of the same author, and includes a transcript of some
epitome substantially identical with the pseudo-Plutarchean Placita. It is, however, demonstrable that
neither the Placita nor the doxography of the Eclogae is the original of the other. The latter is usually
the fuller of the two, and yet the former must be earlier; for it was used by Athenagoras for his defence
of the Christians in A.D. 177 (Dox. p. 4). It was also the source of the notices in Eusebios and Cyril,
and of the History of Philosophy ascribed to Galen. From these writers many important corrections of
the text have been derived (Dox. pp. 5 sqq.).
Another writer who made use of the Placita is Achilles (not Achilles Tatius). For his Εἰσαγωγή to the
Phaenomena of Aratos see Maass, Commentariorum in Aratum reliquiae, pp. 25-75. His date is
uncertain, but probably he belongs to the third century A.D. (Dox. p. 18).
What, then, was the common source of the Placita and the Eclogae? Diels has shown that
Theodoret (c. A.D.445) had access to it; for in some cases he gives a fuller form of statements made in
these two works. Not only so, but he also names that source; for he refers us (Gr. aff. cur. iv. 31)
Ἀετίου τὴν περὶ ἀρεσκόντων συναγωγήν. Diels has accordingly printed the Placita in parallel columns with the relevant parts of the
Eclogae, under the title of Aetii Placita. The quotations from "Plutarch" by later writers, and the
extracts of Theodoret from Aetios, are also given at the foot of each page.
Diels has shown further, however, that Aetios did not draw directly from Theophrastos, but from an
intermediate epitome which he calls the Vetusta Placita, traces of which may be found in Cicero
(infra, § 12), and in Censorinus (De die natali), who follows Varro. The Vetusta Placita were
composed in the school of Poseidonios, and Diels now calls them the Poseidonian Ἀρέσκοντα (Über das
Phys. System des Straton, p. 2). There are also traces of them in the "Homeric Allegorists."
It is quite possible, by discounting the somewhat unintelligent additions which Aetios made from
Epicurean and other sources, to form a pretty accurate table of the contents of the Vetusta Placita
(Dox. pp. 181 sqq.), and this gives us a fair idea of the arrangement of the original work by
Theophrastos.
So far as what he tells us of the earliest Greek philosophy goes, Cicero must be classed with the
doxographers, and not with the philosophers; for he gives us nothing but extracts at second or third
hand from the work of Theophrastos. Two passages in his writings fall to be considered under this
head, namely, "Lucullus" (Acad. ii.), 118, and De natura deorum, i. 25-41.
(a) Doxography of the "Lucullus."—This contains a meagre and inaccurately rendered summary of the
various opinions held by philosophers with regard to the ἀρχή (Dox. pp. 119 sqq.), and would be
quite useless if it did not in one case enable us to verify the exact words of Theophrastos (Chap. I. p.
50, n. 4). The doxography has come through the hands of Kleitomachos, who succeeded Karneades in
the headship of the Academy (129 B.C.).
(b) Doxography of the "De natura deorum."—A fresh light was thrown upon this important passage
by the discovery at Herculaneum of a roll containing fragments of an Epicurean treatise, so like it as to
be at once regarded as its original. This treatise was at first ascribed to Phaidros, on the ground of the
reference in Epp. ad Att. xiii. 39. 2; but the real title, Φιλοδήμου περὶ εὐσεβείας, was afterwards restored (Dox. p. 530).
Diels, however, has shown (Dox. pp. 122 sqq.) that there is much to be said for the view that Cicero
did not copy Philodemos, but that both drew from a common source (no doubt Phaidros, Περὶ θεῶν)
which itself went back to a Stoic epitome of Theophrastos. The passage of Cicero and the relevant
fragments of Philodemos are edited in parallel columns by Diels (Dox. pp. 531 sqq.).
II. BIOGRAPHICAL DOXOGRAPHERS
Of the "biographical doxographies," the most: important is Book I. of the Refutation of all
Heresies by Hippolytos. This had long been known as the Philosophoumena of Origen; but the
discovery of the remaining books, which were first published at Oxford in 1854, showed finally that it
could not belong to him. It is drawn mainly from some good epitome of Theophrastos, in which the
matter was already rearranged under the names of the various philosophers. We must note, however,
that the sections dealing with Thales, Pythagoras, Herakleitos, and Empedokles come from an inferior
source, some merely biographical compendium full of apocryphal anecdotes and doubtful statements.
The fragments of the pseudo-Plutarchean Stromateis, quoted by Eusebios in his Praeparatio
Evangelica, come from a source similar to that of the best portions of the Philosophoumena. So far
as we can judge, they differ chiefly in two points. In the first place, they are mostly taken from the
earliest sections of the work, and therefore most of them deal with the primary substance, the heavenly
bodies and the earth. In the second place, the language is a much less faithful transcript of the original.
The scrap-book which goes by the name of Diogenes Laertios, or Laertios Diogenes (cf.Usener,
Epicurea, pp. 1 sqq.), contains large fragments of two distinct doxographies. One is of the merely
biographical, anecdotic, and apophthegmatic kind used by Hippolytos in his first four chapters; the
other is of a better class, more like the source of Hippolytos' remaining chapters. An attempt is made to
disguise this "contamination" by referring to the first doxography as a "summary" (κεφαλαιώδης) account,
while the second is called "particular" (ἐπὶ μέρους).
Short doxographical summaries are to be found in Eusebios (P. E. x., xiv., xv.), Theodoret (Gr.
aff. cur. ii. 9-11), Irenaeus (C. haer. ii. 24), Arnobius (Adv. nat. ii. 9), Augustine (Civ. Dei, viii. 2).
These depend mainly upon the writers of "Successions," whom we shall have to consider in the next
section.
C.—BIOGRAPHERS
The first to write a work entitled Successions of the Philosophers was Sotion (Diog. ii. 12; R. P. 4
a), about 200 B.C. The arrangement of his work is explained in Dox. p. 147. It was epitomised by
Herakleides Lembos. Other writers of Διαδοχαί were Antisthenes, Sosikrates, and Alexander. All these
compositions were accompanied by a very meagre doxography, and made interesting by the addition of
unauthentic apophthegms and apocryphal anecdotes.
The peripatetic Hermippos of Smyrna, known as Καλλιμάχειος (c. 200 B.C.), wrote several biographical
works which are frequently quoted. The biographical details are very untrustworthy; but sometimes
bibliographical information is added, which doubtless rests upon the Πίνακες of Kallimachos.
Another peripatetic, Satyros, the pupil of Aristarchos, wrote (c. 160 B.C.) Lives of Famous Men.
The same remarks apply to him as to Hermippos. His work was epitomised by Herakleides Lembos.
The work which goes by the name of Laertios Diogenes is, in its biographical parts, a mere
patchwork of all earlier learning. It has not been digested or composed by any single mind at all, but is
little more than a collection of extracts made at haphazard. But, of course, it contains much that is of the
greatest value.
D.—CHRONOLOGISTS
The founder of ancient chronology was Eratosthenes of Kyrene (275-194 B.C.) ; but his work was
soon supplanted by the metrical version of Apollodoros (c. 140 B.C.), from which most of our
information as to the dates of early philosophers is derived. See Diels' paper on the Χρονικά of
Apollodoros in Rhein. Mus. xxxi.; and Jacoby, Apollodors Chronik (1902).
The method adopted is as follows:—If the date of some striking event in a philosopher's life is known,
that is taken as his floruit (ἀκμή), and he is assumed to have been forty years old at that date. In
default of this, some historical era is taken as the floruit. Of these the chief are the eclipse of Thales
586/5 B.C., the taking of Sardeis in 546/5 B.C., the accession of Polykrates in 532/1 B.C., and the
foundation of Thourioi in 444/3 B.C. It is usual to attach far too much weight to these combinations,
and we can often show that Apollodoros is wrong from our other evidence. His dates can only be
accepted as a makeshift, when nothing better is available.
1. Cf. Cic. De nat. d. i. 15, 41: "Et haec quidem (Chrysippus) in primo libro de natura deorum, in
secundo autem vult Orphei, Musaei, Hesiodi Homerique fabellas accommodare ad ea quae ipse primo
libro de deis immortalibus dixerat, ut etiam veterrimi poetae, qui haec ne suspicati quidem sunt, Stoici
fuisse videantur." Cf. Philod. De piet. fr. c. 13, ἐν δὲ τῷ δευτέρῳ τά τε εἰς Ὀρφέα καὶ Μουσαῖον ἀναφερόμενα καὶ τὰ παρ' Ὁμήρῳ καὶ Ἡσιόδῳ καὶ Εὐριπίδῃ καὶ ποιηταῖς ἄλλοις, ὡς καὶ Κλεάνθης, πειρᾶται συνοικειοῦν ταῖς δόξαις αὐτῶν..
2. See Introd. § II. Ephoros said that Old Miletos was colonised from Milatos in Crete at an earlier
date than the fortification of the new city by Neleus (Strabo, xiv. p. 634), and recent excavation has
shown that the Aegean civilisation passed here by gradual transition into the early Ionic. The dwellings
of the old Ionians stand on and among the debris of the "Mycenean" period. There is no "geometrical"
interlude.
3. Herod. i. 29. See Radet, La Lydie et le monde grec au temps des Mermnades (Paris, 1893).
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