Listed 8 sub titles with search on: Biographies for destination: "PITANI Ancient city TURKEY".
Megalophanes: Teacher of Philopoemen. Ecdelus: Disciple of Arcesilaus and teacher of Philopoemen.
Arcesilaus, (Arkesilaos). A philosopher, born at Pitane, in
Aeolis, the founder of what was termed the Middle Academy. The period of his birth
is usually given as B.C. 316. Arcesilaus at first applied himself to rhetoric,
but subsequently passed to the study of philosophy, in which he had for teachers,
first Theophrastus, then Crantor the Academician, and probably also Polemo. Besides
the instructors above named, Arcesilaus is also said to have diligently attended
the lectures of the Eretrian Menedamus, the Megarian Diodorus, and the sceptic
Pyrrho. His love for the quibbling of these individuals has been referred to as
the source of his scepticism and his skill in refuting philosophical principles.
At the same time it is on all hands admitted that of philosophers Plato was his
favourite. He seems to have been sincerely of opinion that his view of things
did not differ from the true spirit of the Platonic doctrine; nay, more, that
it was perfectly in agreement with those older philosophical teachings, from which,
according to the opinion of many, Plato had drawn his own doctrines--namely, those
of Socrates, Parmenides, and Heraclitus.
Upon the death of Crantor, the school in the Academy was transferred
by a certain Socratides to Arcesilaus, who here introduced the old Socratic method
of teaching in dialogues, although it was rather a corruption than an imitation
of the genuine Socratic mode. Arcesilaus does not appear to have committed his
opinions to writing; at least the ancients were not acquainted with any work which
could confidently be ascribed to him. Now, as his disciple Lacydes also abstained
from writing, the ancients themselves appear to have derived their knowledge of
his opinions only from the works of his opponents, of whom Chrysippus was the
most eminent. Such a course must naturally be both defective and uncertain, and
accordingly we have little that we can confidently advance with respect to his
doctrines. According to these statements the results of his opinions would be
a perfect scepticism, expressed in the formula that he knew nothing, not even
that which Socrates had ever maintained that he knew --namely, his own ignorance.
This expression of his opinion implicitly ascribes to Arcesilaus a full consciousness
that he differed in a most important point from the doctrine of Socrates and Plato.
But, as the ancients do not appear to have ascribed any such conviction to Arcesilaus,
it seems to be a more probable opinion which imputes to him a desire to restore
the genuine Platonic dogma, and to purify it from all those precise and positive
determinations which his successors had appended to it. Indeed, one statement
expressly declares that the subject of his lecture to his most accomplished scholars
was the doctrine of Plato (Cic. l. c.); and he would therefore appear to have
adopted this formula with a view to meet more easily the objections of the dogmatists.
Now if we thus attach Arcesilaus to Plato, we must suppose him to have been in
the same case with many others, and unable to discover in the writings of Plato
any fixed and determinate principles of science. The ambiguous manner in which
almost every view is therein advanced, and the results of one investigation admitted
only conditionally to other inquiries, may perhaps have led him to regard the
speculations of Plato in the light of mere shrewd and intelligent conjectures.
Accordingly, we are told that Arcesilaus denied the certainty not only of intellectual,
but also of sensuous knowledge.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
316 - 241
From Pitane came Arcesilaus, of the Academy, a fellow student with Zeno of Citium under Polemon.
Arcesilaus (Arkesilaos) or Arcesilas, the founder of the new Academy, flourished
towards the close of the third century before Christ. (Comp. Strab.i.p.15.) He
wasthe son of Seuthesor Scythes (Diog. Laert.. iv. 18), and born at Pitane in
Aeolis. His early education was entrusted to Autolycus, a mathematician, with
whom he migrated to Sardis. Afterwards, at the wish of his elder brother and guardian,
Moireas, he came to Athens to study rhetoric; but becoming the disciple first
of Theophrastus and afterwards of Crantor, he found his inclination led to philosophical
pursuits. Not content, however, with any single school, he left his early masters
and studied under sceptical and dialectic philosophers; and the line of Ariston
upon him, Prosthe Platon, opithen Purrhon, messos Diodoros, described the course
of his early education, as well as the discordant character of some of his later
views. He was not without reputation as a poet, and Diogenes Laertius (iv. 30)
has preserved two epigrams of his, one of which is addressed to Attalus, king
of Pergamus, and records his admiration of Homer and Pindar, of whose works he
was an enthusiastic reader. Several of his puns and witticisms have been preserved
in his life by the same writer, which give the idea of an accomplished man of
the world rather than a grave philosopher. Many traits of character are also recorded
of him, some of them of a pleasing nature. The greatness of his personal character
is shewn by the imitation of his peculiarities, into which his admirers are said
insensibly to have fallen. His oratory is described as of an attractive and persuasive
kind, the effect of it being enhanced by the frankness of his demeanour. Although
his means were not large, his resources being chiefly derived from king Eumenes,
many tales were told of his unassuming generosity. But it must be admitted, that
there was another side to the picture, and his enemies accused him of the grossest
profligacy -a charge which he only answered by citing the example of Aristippus-
and it must be confessed, that the accusation is slightly confirmed by the circumstance
that he died in the 76th year of his age from a fit of excessive drunkenness;
on which event an epigram has been preserved by Diogenes.
It was on the death of Crantor that Arcesilaus succeeded to the chair
of the Academy, in the history of which he makes so important an era. As, however,
he committed nothing to writing, his opinions were imperfectly known to his contemporaries,
and can now only be gathered from the confused statements of his opponents. There
seems to have been a gradual decline of philosophy since the time of Plato and
Aristotle : the same subjects had been again and again discussed, until no room
was left for original thought--a deficiency which was but poorly compensated by
the extravagant paradox or overdrawn subtlety of the later schools. Whether we
attribute the scepticism of the Academy to a reaction from the dogmatism of the
Stoics, or whether it was the natural result of extending to intellectual truth
the distrust with which Plato viewed the information of sense, it would seem that
in the time of Arcesilaus the whole of philosophy was absorbed in the single question
of the grounds of human knowledge. What were the peculiar views of Arcesilaus
on this question, it is not easy to collect. On the one hand, he is said to have
restored the doctrines of Plato in an uncorrupted form; while, on the other hand,
according to Cicero (Acad. i. 12), he summed up his opinions in the formula, "that
he knew nothing, not even his own ignorance."There are two ways of reconciling
the difficulty: either we may suppose him to have thrown out such aporiai as an
exercise for the ingenuity of his pupils, as Sextus Empiricus (Pyrrh. Hypotyp.
i. 234), who disclaims him as a Sceptic, would have us believe; or he may have
really doubted the esoteric meaning of Plato, and have supposed himself to have
been stripping his works of the figments of the Dogmatists, while he was in fact
taking from them all certain principles whatever (Cic. de Orat. iii. 18). A curious
result of the confusion which pervaded the New Academy was the return to some
of the doctrines of the elder Ionic school, which they attempted to harmonize
with Plato and their own views (Euseb. Pr. Ev. xiv. 5, 6). Arcesilaus is also
said to have restored the Socratic method of teaching in dialogues; although it
is probable that he did not confine himself strictly to the erotetic method, perhaps
the supposed identity of his doctrines with those of Plato may have originated
in the outward form in which they were conveyed.
The Stoics were the chief opponents of Arcesilaus; he attacked their
doctrine of a convincing conception (kataleptike phantasia) as understood to be
a mean between science and opinion--a mean which he asserted could not exist,
and was merely the interpolation of a name (Cic. Acad. ii. 24). It involved in
fact a contradiction in terms, as the very idea of phantasia implied the possibility
of false as well as true conceptions of the same object.
It is a question of some importance, in what the scepticism of the
New Academy was distinguished from that of the followers of Pyrrhon. Admitting
the formula of Arcesilaus, "that he knew nothing, not even his own ignorance",
to be an exposition of his real sentiments, it was impossible in one sense that
scepticism could proceed further : but the New Academy does not seem to have doubted
the existence of truth in itself, only our capacities for obtaining it. It differed
also from the principles of the pure sceptic in the practical tendency of its
doctrines : while the object of the one was the attainment of perfect equanimity
(epoche), the other seems rather to have retired from the barren field of speculation
to practical life, and to have acknowledged some vestiges of a moral law within,
at best but a probable guide, the possession of which, however, formed the real
distinction between the sage and the fool. Slight as the difference may appear
between the speculative statements of the two schools, a comparison of the lives
of their founders and their respective successors leads us to the conclusion,
that a practical moderation was the characteristic of the New Academy, to which
the Sceptics were wholly strangers. (Sex. Empiricus, adv. Math. ii. 158, Pyrrh.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Autolycus of Pitane (fl. 300 BC)
Life
One of the most eminent of the ancient Greek scientists, Autolycus was born in Pitane, in Aeolis (Asia Minor). He is cited by Diogenes Laertius and Simplicius. Two of his surviving works (extant in Greek, Latin and Arabic) are the oldest known treatises on astronomy. One of the three biggest craters on the moon (above the "Apennines" north of the centre of the moon) has been named "Autolycus" in his honour.
Work
Autolycus wrote two treatises on mathematical astronomy:
"On the movement of the sphere": 1 book, extant. Describes a sphere constructed by the author to revolve about its axis. Upon it he marked two poles, the parallels of latitude and the meridians. The book includes 12 questions on spherical astronomy, and discusses the aspect of the heavens and the position of the different celestial circles, in connection with geographical latitude. Euclid consulted this work in writing his "Phaenomena".
"On the Rising and Setting of Stars": 2 books, extant. The first book contains 13 propositions on astronomical questions, while the second discusses the division of the circle of the zodiac into twelve equal parts. These works are considered the oldest fully preserved mathematical texts in Greek.
This text is based on the Greek book "Ancient Greek Scientists", Athens, 1995 and is cited Nov 2005 from The Technology Museum of Thessaloniki URL below.
Autolycus, a mathematician, who is said to have been a native of Pitane in Aeolis,
and the first instructor of the philosopher Arcesilaus (Diog. Laert. iv. 29).
From this, it would follow, that he lived about the middle of the fourth century
B. C., and was contemporary with Aristotle. We know nothing more of his history.He
wrote two astronomical treatises, which are still extant, and are the most ancient
existing specimens of the Greek mathematics. The first is on the Motion
of the Sphere (peri kinoumenes sphairas). It contains twelve propositions concerning
a sphere which with its principal circles is supposed to revolve uniformly about
a fixed diameter, whilst a fixed great circle (the horizon) always divides it
into two hemispheres (the visible and invisible). Most of them are still explicitly
or implicitly included amongst the elements of astronomy, and they are such as
would naturally result from the first systematic application of geometrical reasoning
to the apparent motion of the heavens. This treatise may be considered as introductory
to the second, which is on the risings and settings of the fixed stars, peri epitolon
kai duseon in two books. Autolycus first defines the true risings and settings,
and then the apparent. The former happen when the sun and a star are actually
in the horizon together ; and they cannot be observed, because the sun's light
makes the star invisible. The latter happen when the star is in the horizon, and
the sun just so far below it that the star is visible, and there are in general
four such phaenomena in the year in the case of any particular star; namely, its
first visible rising in the morning, its last visible rising in the evening, its
first visible setting in the morning, and last visible setting in the evening.
In a favourable climate, the precise day of each of these occurrences might be
observed, and such observations must have constituted the chief business of practical
astronomy in its infancy; they were, moreover, of some real use. because these
phaenomena afforded a means of defining the seasons of the year. A star when rising
or setting is visible according to its brilliance, if the sun be from 10 to 18
degrees below the horizon. Autolycus supposes 15 degrees, but reckons them along
the ecliptic instead of a vertical circle; and he proceeds to establish certain
general propositions concerning the intervals between these apparent risings and
settings, taking account of the star's position with respect to the ecliptic and
equator. It was impossible, without trigonometry, to determine beforehand the
absolute time at which any one of them would happen; but one having been observed,
the rest might be roughly predicted, for the same star, by the help of these propositions.
The demonstrations, and even the enunciations, are in some cases not easily understood
without a globe; but the figures used by Autolycus are simple. There is nothing
in either treatise to shew that he had the least conception of spherical trigonometry.
There are three Greek manuscripts of each treatise in the Bodleian
and Savilian libraries at Oxford. The propositions without the demonstrations
were printed in Greek and Latin by Dasypodius in his "Sphaericae Doctrinae Propositiones,"
Argent. 1572. Both the works were translated into Latin from a Greek MS. by Jos.
Auria, Rom. 1587 and 1588; and a translation of the first by Maurolycus, from
an Arabic version, is given, without the name of Autolycus, at the " Universae
Geometriae, etc. Synopsis" of Mersennus, Paris, 1645.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
360 - 290
Autolycus of Pitane (fl. 300 BC). Mathematician, Astronomer, Geographer
Life
One of the most eminent of the ancient Greek scientists, Autolycus was born in Pitane, in Aeolis (Asia Minor). He is cited by Diogenes Laertius and Simplicius. Two of his surviving works (extant in Greek, Latin and Arabic) are the oldest known treatises on astronomy. One of the three biggest craters on the moon (above the "Apennines" north of the centre of the moon) has been named "Autolycus" in his honour.
Work
Autolycus wrote two treatises on mathematical astronomy:
"On the movement of the sphere": 1 book, extant. Describes a sphere constructed by the author to revolve about its axis. Upon it he marked two poles, the parallels of latitude and the meridians. The book includes 12 questions on spherical astronomy, and discusses the aspect of the heavens and the position of the different celestial circles, in connection with geographical latitude. Euclid consulted this work in writing his "Phaenomena".
"On the Rising and Setting of Stars": 2 books, extant. The first book contains 13 propositions on astronomical questions, while the second discusses the division of the circle of the zodiac into twelve equal parts. These works are considered the oldest fully preserved mathematical texts in Greek.
Matron of Pitana, a celebrated writer of parodies upon Homer, often quoted by Eustathius and Athenaeus.
(Eustath. ad Hom. pp. 1067, 1571, &c.; Ath. i. p. 5, a., p. 31, b., xv. p. 699,
e., &c.) Athenaeus (iv. pp. 134-137) quotes a long fragment from a poem of his,
in which an Athenian feast was described, beginning
Deipna moi xnnepe, Mousa, polutropha kai mala
polla.
He was probably a contemporary of Hegemon of Thasos. about the end of the fifth
and the beginning of the fourth centuries B. C., but at all events he cannot be
placed later than the time of Philip of Macedon. Athenaeus calls him Matreas in
some places, but this is clearly an error of the transcriber. The fragments of
his parodies were printed by H. Stephens, in the Dissertation on Parodies, appended
to the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, 1573, 8vo., and in Brunck's Analecta, vol.
ii. p. 245. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 550; G. H. Moser, Ueber Matron den
Parodiker, in Daub and Creuzer's Studien, vol. vi. p. 293; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen.
Dichtk. vol. ii. p. 324.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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