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Sextius, Quintus, philosopher  

Brad Inwood

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Quintus Sextius, philosopher of the Augustan period, refused a political career and founded a significant but short-lived philosophical movement. Though influenced by *Stoicism and *Neopythagoreanism, his school had a Roman character, which made it of interest to Seneca the Younger (L. *Annaeus Seneca (2)).

Article

Sextius, Titus, Roman military man  

Christopher Pelling

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Titus Sextius, Roman military man of obscure family, perhaps from *Ostia, he held commands under *Caesar in Gaul (53–50? bce) and perhaps in the Civil War. In 44 he became governor of Africa Nova (Numidia), and supported Antony (M. *Antonius (2)). After *Mutina he was ordered by the senate to send two of his legions back to Italy for the defence of the state and to transfer the third to Q. *Cornificius, governor of Africa Vetus. Later he attacked Cornificius on behalf of the triumvirs (Antony, Octavian (see augustus), and M. *Aemilius Lepidus (3)), defeated and killed him (42), and ruled both provinces till 41, when on request from L. *Antonius (Pietas) he handed them over to Octavian's lieutenant C. Fuficius Fango. He remained in Africa and regained the provinces for Antony during the Perusine War (see perusia), then surrendered them to Lepidus in 40.

Article

Sextus Empiricus  

Gisela Striker

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
30 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhonist Sceptic (see pyrrhon ; sceptics ) and medical doctor. Nothing is known about his life, but the name ‘Empiricus’ shows that he was a member of the Empiricist school of medicine (see medicine , § 5.3; Philinus (1); Serapion (1)). *Diogenes (6) Laertius (9. 116) tells us that his teacher was Herodotus, also a doctor. Most scholars now agree that Sextus' works were written towards the end of the 2nd cent. ce.

Sextus' extant works are traditionally cited under two titles:

1.Πυρρώνειοι ὑποτυπώσεις (Outlines of Pyrrhonism, abbrev. PH), in three books; the first offers a general outline of Pyrrhonist scepticism, including the Modes of *Aenesidemus and *Agrippa , and a discussion of the differences between Pyrrhonism and other schools or philosophers alleged to have held similar views; the second and third books contain refutations of dogmatic philosophies, divided by subject-matter: epistemology and logic, philosophy of nature, ethics.

Article

Simmias (1), of Thebes (1), veteran member of Socrates' circle  

Christopher Rowe

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Simmias (1) (or Simias) of *Thebes (1), a main character in *Plato (1)'s Phaedo (and in Plutarch's De genio Socratis, which contains many echoes of the Phaedo), was evidently a veteran member of Socrates' circle. Although, with *Cebes, he was ‘together with’ (συγγίγνεσθαι) Philolaus in Thebes (Phaedo 61d–e), his Pythagorean credentials (see Pythagoras (1)) are poor; Plato represents him putting forward an un-Pythagorean theory of soul (as a ‘kind of harmony’ of bodily constituents), and generally as a sound (Socratic) philosopher, and instigator of arguments (Phaedrus 242b).

Article

Simon, of Athens  

William David Ross and Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Simon of Athens, a shoemaker, was according to a late tradition a friend of *Socrates, who used to visit him in his workshop and discuss philosophical questions with him. He plays a considerable part in the (late) Socratic letters (Ep. Graec. 609 ff.), and *Diogenes (6) Laertius (2. 122) says he was the first to write reminiscences of Socrates in *dialogue form. He is never mentioned by *Plato (1) or *Xenophon (1), but his existence has been confirmed by the discovery of a black-glazed cup on which is scratched ΣΙΜΩΝΟΣ (‘Simon's’), together with hobnails and bone rings for laced boots, on a site just outside the agora (see athens, topography)—evidently Simon's cobbler shop.

Article

Simplicius, Neoplatonist, 6th cent. CE  

Richard Sorabji

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Simplicius, Neoplatonist (See neoplatonism) and one of seven philosophers who left Athens for *Ctesiphon after *Justinian closed the Athenian Neoplatonist school in 529. He probably wrote all his commentaries after 532, when it was safe for the philosophers to leave Ctesiphon. The suggestion is no longer widely accepted that he settled at Harrn (ancient *Charrae) in present-day Turkey. Simplicius was taught by Ammonius son of Hermias (c.440520) in Alexandria and by Damascius, head of the Athenian school. He wrote commentaries, all extant, on Aristotle's De caelo, Physics, and Categories (in that order), and on Epictetus' Manual, among other works. A commentary on Aristotle's De anima is of disputed authorship. His are the fullest Aristotle commentaries, recording debates on Aristotle from the preceding 850 years, and embedding many fragments from the entire millennium. At the same time, Simplicius gave his own views on many topics, including place, time, and matter. His commentaries express the revulsion of a devout Neoplatonist for Christianity and for its arch philosophical defender, *Philoponus.

Article

Socrates, Athenian public figure, 469–399 BCE  

Alexander Nehamas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Athenian public figure and central participant in the intellectual debates so common in the city in the middle and late 5th cent. His influence has been enormous, although he himself wrote nothing.

Socrates' philosophy and personality reached a broad ancient audience mainly through the dialogues a number of his associates wrote with him as protagonist. These were numerous and popular enough for *Aristotle to classify them in the Poetics as a species of fiction in their own right. But apart from the works of *Plato (1), only a few fragments survive of the dialogues of *Antisthenes, *Aeschines (2) of Sphettus, and *Phaedon of Elis, and nothing of the *dialogues of *Aristippus (1), *Cebes of Thebes, and many others. In addition to Plato, most of our own information about Socrates comes from *Aristophanes (1) and *Xenophon (1), both of whom also knew him personally, and from Aristotle, who did not.

Article

Socratic dialogues  

Catherine Osborne

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Of the genre ‘Sokratikoi logoi’ we know little beyond *Plato's famous dialogues. But the form evidently antedated Plato, and many authors used it (see dialogue, and aristotle, Poetics 1447b11). A fragment from Aristotle's dialogue De poetis attributes the genre to Alexamenos of Teos.Besides Plato's works, *Xenophon's Memorabilia, Apology, Symposium, and Oeconomicus survive.

Article

sophists  

C. C. W. Taylor

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
30 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Itinerant professors of higher education. From its original senses of ‘sage’ and ‘expert’ the word came to be applied in the 5th. cent. bce in the technical sense given above to a number of individuals who travelled widely through the Greek world, giving popular lectures and specialized instruction in a wide range of topics. They were not a school, nor even a single movement, having neither a common set of doctrines nor any shared organization.

Their activities included the popularization of Ionian natural philosophy, *mathematics and the ‘social sciences’ of history, *geography, and speculative *anthropology; *Hippias (2) was active in all and *Protagoras in at least some of these fields. They pioneered the systematic study of techniques of persuasion and argument, which embraced various forms of the study of language, including grammar, literary criticism, and semantics. Protagoras was reputedly the first person to write a treatise on techniques of argument, and was notorious for his claim to ‘make the weaker argument the stronger’.

Article

Sotion (1), of Alexandria (1), Peripatetic  

Robert Sharples

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Sotion (1) of *Alexandria (1), *Peripatetic, wrote (? between 200 and 170 bce) Succession of the Philosophers in thirteen books, and a book on *Timon (1)'s Silloi. The former work, treating each philosopher as the definite successor of another, was a main though not a direct source for *Diogenes (6) Laertius, and for the doxographic summaries in patristic writers such as *Eusebius and *Theodoret; it apparently introduced the division of philosophical successions into Ionian and Italian.

Article

Sotion (2), Peripatetic  

William David Ross and Robert Sharples

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Peripatetic, not earlier than ce 14. Works: Cornucopia; Strange Stories about rivers, springs, and pools (formerly identified with the surviving Paradoxographus Florentinus); Dioclean Disputations (against *Epicurus); commentary on the Topics.

Article

soul  

Christopher Rowe

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
The term in Greek nearest to English ‘soul’, ψυχή (psyche, Latin anima), has a long history and a wide variety of senses in both philosophical and non-philosophical contexts. In *Homer, the psyche is what leaves the *body on death (i.e. life, or breath?), but also an insubstantial image of the dead person, existing in *Hades and emphatically not something alive. But some vague idea of psyche as the essence of the individual, capable of surviving the body (and perhaps entering another) is well-established by the 5th cent. (e.g. IG 13. 1179. 6; Pind., Ol. 2. 56–80), though without necessarily displacing the older idea and even being combined with it (Pind., fr. 131 b Snell/Maehler). Simultaneously, in medical contexts and elsewhere, psyche begins to be found regularly in contrast with σῶμα (sōma), suggesting something like the modern contrast between ‘mind’ and body.All of these ideas are found, separately or in combination, in the philosophers. *Democritus stresses the interconnectedness of psyche (‘mind’) and body, while *Socrates regards the psyche primarily as our essence qua moral beings.

Article

Speusippus, Athenian philosopher, c. 407–339 BCE  

Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen and Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Speusippus (c. 407–339 bce), Athenianphilosopher, son of Eurymedon and of *Plato (1)'s sister Potone. He accompanied Plato on his last visit to Sicily (361) and succeeded him as head of the *Academy from 347 to 339. Of his voluminous writings (Diog. Laert. 4. 4) only fragments and later reports remain, but Aristotle treats him with respect and it is clear that he continued and helped to shape some major philosophical interests which the Academy had acquired under Plato.Speusippus argued that, since a definition is designed to identify its subject and differentiate it from everything else, it can only be established by knowing everything there is. This can hardly have been intended, as some ancient critics thought, to refute all attempts at defining. More probably it was this view of definition which prompted Speusippus in his ten books of Homoia (‘Similar Things’) to set about collecting the observable resemblances between different sorts of plant and animal, for he may have thought (as .

Article

Sphaerus, of Borysthenes, b. c. 285 or 265– d. c. 221 BCE  

Julia Annas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Sphaerus of Borysthene (b. c. 285 or 265, lived at least to 221 bce), Stoic (See stoicism), pupil of *Zeno (2) and *Cleanthes; adviser of the Spartan reforming king *Cleomenes (2) III, he also attended the court of *Ptolemy (1) II. His numerous writings dealt with all branches of philosophy and with *Heraclitus (1); he is linked by anecdote to epistemological dispute.

Article

Staseas, of Naples  

William David Ross and Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Staseas of Naples, the first *Peripatetic philosopher known to have settled in Rome. M. *Pupius Piso Frugi became his pupil c.92 bce. He is frequently mentioned by *Cicero. He seems to have occupied himself particularly with the problem of the normal length of human life.

Article

Stertinius, Stoic writer  

Edward Courtney

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
  2. Philosophy

A Stoic writer (See stoicism), alleged source in Hor.Sat. 2. 3 (see l. 296) said by [Helenius Acro] (on Hor.Epist. 1. 12. 20) to have written 220 books; the implication that these were in verse is not credible.

Article

Sthenidas, of Locri Epizephyrii  

D. O'Meara

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Sthenidas of *Locri Epizephyrii, nominal author of a Neopythagorean work On Kingship (variously dated between the 3rd cent. bce and the 2nd cent. ce) which calls for the king to imitate the universal rule of the highest god. See ecphantus; kingship; neopythagoreanism.

Article

Stilpon, of Megara, d. early 3rd cent. BCE  

D. Sedley

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Third and perhaps last head of the *Megarian school. He was a familiar and popular figure in Athens. His numerous pupils included *Zeno (2) the founder of Stoicism, *Menedemus (1) the founder of the *Eretrian school, and the orator Alcimus. He is reported to have written at least twenty dialogues.

His teaching was largely ethical—Socratic in inspiration, with some Cynic colouring (see cynics). Renowned for overcoming his own innate moral weaknesses (Cicero, Fat. 10), he taught the autonomy of human good: moral and intellectual attainments, he maintained, were inalienable. In metaphysics, he argued against Platonic Forms, and rejected the copula as incoherent, dismissing all ‘x is y’ statements as false identity-statements.

Article

Stoa Poecile  

Karim Arafat

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Philosophy
Known from over 50 literary testimonia, and excavated from 1981, it lies in the NW part of the Athenian Agora; see athens, topography. It measures 12.5 by c.36 m., made of various limestones, with Doric exterior columns, and Ionic interior columns with marble capitals (see orders, architectural), and is finely jointed. It dates from c.475–450, part of the Cimonian improvement of the area; see cimon. The name ‘Poecile’ (first attested in the 4th cent.), derived from the panel paintings it housed. Pausanias (1. 15. 1–4) gives the fullest account, mentioning scenes of the Athenians arrayed against the Spartans at Oenoe near *Argos (1) (perhaps an error for one of the *Attic*demes called Oenoe and preparations for Marathon; see marathon, battle of), the Amazonomachy, Greeks at Troy, and the battle of *Marathon. Sources name the painters as *Micon, *Polygnotus, and *Panaenus.

Article

Stoicism  

Julia Annas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
06 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Stoicism, philosophical movement, founded by *Zeno (2) of Citium, who came to Athens in 313 bce, and, after studying with various philosophers, taught in his own right in the *Stoa Poecile (Painted Porch). We know little of the institutional organization of the school, except that at Zeno's death one of his pupils, *Cleanthes, took over the ‘headship’ of the school. He was not, however, the most famous of Zeno's pupils, and the original position got developed in different directions. *Ariston (1) of Chios stressed ethics to the exclusion of physics and logic; *Herillus emphasized knowledge at the expense of moral action. Cleanthes stressed a religious view of the world, interpreting Stoic ideas in works like his Hymn to Zeus. Stoicism was in danger of dissolving into a number of different positions, but was rescued by Cleanthes' pupil *Chrysippus of Soli. He restated and recast Zeno's position in his voluminous writings, defending it with powerful arguments. It was correctly thought later that ‘if there had been no Chrysippus there would have been no Stoa’; the work of Zeno's earlier pupils came to be seen as unorthodox, and Chrysippus' works became the standard formulation of Stoicism. Although Chrysippus claimed to adhere to Zeno's ideas, modern scholars have often held that there are divergences between them; but this is hazardous given the fragmentary state of our sources. Chrysippus' own innovations were mainly in the technical area of logic.