1.
Elis
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Elis /ˈɛlᵻs/ or Eleia /ɛˈlaɪ. ə/ is an ancient district that corresponds to the modern Elis regional unit. Elis is in southern Greece on the Peloponnesos peninsula, bounded on the north by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messenia, thus the city-state of Elis was formed. Homer mentions that Elis participated in the Trojan War, the first Olympic festival was organized in Elean land, Olympia, Greece by the authorities of Elis in the 8th century BC, with tradition dating the first games at 776 BC. The Hellanodikai, the judges of the Games, were of Elean origin, the local form of the name was Valis, or Valeia, and its meaning, in all probability was, “the lowland”. In its physical constitution Elis is similar to Achaea and Arcadia, its mountains are mere offshoots of the Arcadian highlands, according to Strabo, the first settlement was created by Oxylus the Aetolian who invaded there and subjugated the residents. The city of Elis underwent synoikism—as Strabo notes—in 471 BC, Elis held authority over the site of Olympia and the Olympic games. As described by Strabo, Elis was divided into three districts, Coele or Lowland Elis, Pisatis, or the territory of Pisa, Coele Elis, the largest and most northern of the three, was watered by the river Peneus and its tributary the Ladon. The district was famous during antiquity for its cattle and horses, Pisatis extended south from Coele Elis to the right bank of the river Alpheus, and was divided into eight departments named after as many towns. Triphylia stretches south from the Alpheus to the river Neda, nowadays Elis is a small village of 150 citizens, located 14 km NE of Amaliada, built over the ruins of the ancient town. It has a museum that contains treasures, discovered in various excavations and it also has one of the most well-preserved ancient theaters in Greece. Built in the 4th century BC, the theater had a capacity of 8,000 people, below it Early Helladic, sub-Mycenaean, Elis is well known for breeding horses and its hosting of the Olympic games. And when he was asked again, according to the account given by Hegesander, which were the greatest barbarians, in Hesychius and other ancient lexica Eleans are also listed as barbarophones. Indeed, the North-West Doric dialect of Elis is, after the Aeolic dialects, chisholm, Hugh, ed. Elis, Philosophical School of. Map from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture Elis - the city of the Olympic games Mait Kõiv, Early History of Elis and Pisa, Invented or Evolving Traditions
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Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
3.
Ancient philosophy
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This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. Genuinely philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures roughly contemporaneously, karl Jaspers termed the intense period of philosophical development beginning around the 7th century and concluding around the 3rd century BCE an Axial Age in human thought. Chinese philosophy is the dominant philosophical thought in China and other countries within the East Asian cultural sphere share a common language, including Japan, Korea. The Hundred Schools of Thought were philosophers and schools that flourished from the 6th century to 221 BCE, the thoughts and ideas discussed and refined during this period have profoundly influenced lifestyles and social consciousness up to the present day in East Asian countries. The intellectual society of this era was characterized by itinerant scholars, who were employed by various state rulers as advisers on the methods of government, war. This period ended with the rise of the Qin Dynasty and the subsequent purge of dissent, a main idea of Confucianism is the cultivation of virtue and the development of moral perfection. Confucianism holds that one should give up ones life, if necessary, either passively or actively, for the sake of upholding the cardinal moral values of ren, the Legalists exalted the state above all, seeking its prosperity and martial prowess over the welfare of the common people. Harmony with the Universe, or the source thereof, is the result of many Taoist rules and practices. Mohism, which advocated the idea of love, Mozi believed that everyone is equal before heaven. Mozi advocated frugality, condemning the Confucian emphasis on ritual and music, naturalism, the School of Naturalists or the Yin-yang school, which synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements, Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school. Agrarianism, or the School of Agrarianism, which advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism, the Logicians or the School of Names, which focused on definition and logic. It is said to have parallels with that of the Ancient Greek sophists or dialecticians, the most notable Logician was Gongsun Longzi. Scholars from this school were good orators, debaters and tacticians, the Miscellaneous School, which integrated teachings from different schools, for instance, Lü Buwei found scholars from different schools to write a book called Lüshi Chunqiu cooperatively. This school tried to integrate the merits of various schools and avoid their perceived flaws, the School of Minor-talks, which was not a unique school of thought, but a philosophy constructed of all the thoughts which were discussed by and originated from normal people on the street. Another group is the School of the Military that studied strategy, however, this school was not one of the Ten Schools defined by Hanshu. The founder of the Qin Dynasty, who implemented Legalism as the official philosophy, Legalism remained influential until the emperors of the Han Dynasty adopted Daoism and later Confucianism as official doctrine. These latter two became the forces of Chinese thought until the introduction of Buddhism. In contrast, there was an Old Text school that advocated the use of Confucian works written in ancient language that were so much more reliable
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Western Philosophy
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Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. The word philosophy itself originated from the Hellenic, philosophia, literally, the scope of philosophy in the ancient understanding, and the writings of the ancient philosophers, were all intellectual endeavors. Western Philosophy is generally said to begin in the Greek cities of western Asia Minor with Thales of Miletus and his most noted students were respectively Anaximander and Anaximenes of Miletus. Pythagoras, from the island of Samos off the coast of Ionia, pythagoreans hold that all is number, giving formal accounts in contrast to the previous material of the Ionians. They also believe in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation, Socrates The key figure in Greek philosophy is Socrates. Socrates studied under several Sophists but transformed Greek philosophy into a unified, Socrates used a critical approach called the elenchus or Socratic method to examine peoples views. He aimed to study human things, the life, justice, beauty. Although Socrates wrote nothing himself, some of his many disciples wrote down his conversations and he was tried for corrupting the youth and impiety by the Greek democracy. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, although his friends offered to help him escape from prison, he chose to remain in Athens and abide by his principles. His execution consisting in drinking the poison hemlock and he died in 399 B. C, Plato Socrates most important student was Plato. Plato founded the Academy of Athens and wrote a number of dialogues, some central ideas of Platos dialogues are the immortality of the soul, the benefits of being just, that evil is ignorance, and the Theory of Forms. Forms are universal properties that constitute reality and contrast with the changeable material things he called becoming. Aristotle Platos most outstanding student was Aristotle, Aristotle was perhaps the first truly systematic philosopher and scientist. He wrote books on physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, politics, Aristotelian logic was the first type of logic to attempt to categorize every valid syllogism. Aristotelian philosophy exercised considerable influence on almost all western philosophers, including Greek, Roman, Christian, Jewish, the Neoplatonic and Christian philosophers of Late Antiquity. Early medieval philosophy was influenced by the likes of Stoicism, neo-Platonism, but, above all, the prominent figure of this period was St. Augustinianism was the preferred starting point for most philosophers up until the 13th century. The foundations of many northern European universities were built in the Middle Ages by waves of Irish, Scottish & English monks from the Celtic Church begun by Columba, see Celtic Christianity. Erigena is said to have been stabbed to death by his students with their pens and his theology would today be called pantheistic, in keeping with Celtic resolutions of pagan and Christian philosophy
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Democritus
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Democritus was an influential Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. Democritus was born in Abdera, Thrace, around 460 BC, although and his exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Largely ignored in ancient Athens, Democritus is said to have been disliked so much by Plato that the latter wished all of his books burned and he was nevertheless well known to his fellow northern-born philosopher Aristotle. Many consider Democritus to be the father of modern science, none of his writings have survived, only fragments are known from his vast body of work. Democritus was said to be born in the city of Abdera in Thrace and he was born in the 80th Olympiad according to Apollodorus of Athens, and although Thrasyllus placed his birth in 470 BC, the later date is probably more likely. John Burnet has argued that the date of 460 is too early since, according to Diogenes Laërtius ix.41 and it was said that Democrituss father was from a noble family and so wealthy that he received Xerxes on his march through Abdera. Democritus spent the inheritance which his father left him on travels into distant countries and he traveled to Asia, and was even said to have reached India and Ethiopia. It is known that he wrote on Babylon and Meroe, he visited Egypt and he himself declared that among his contemporaries none had made greater journeys, seen more countries, and met more scholars than himself. He particularly mentions the Egyptian mathematicians, whose knowledge he praises, theophrastus, too, spoke of him as a man who had seen many countries. During his travels, according to Diogenes Laërtius, he acquainted with the Chaldean magi. Ostanes, one of the magi accompanying Xerxes, was said to have taught him. After returning to his land he occupied himself with natural philosophy. He traveled throughout Greece to acquire a knowledge of its cultures. He mentions many Greek philosophers in his writings, and his wealth enabled him to purchase their writings, Leucippus, the founder of atomism, was the greatest influence upon him. Diogenes Laertius says that he was friends with Hippocrates and he may have been acquainted with Socrates, but Plato does not mention him and Democritus himself is quoted as saying, I came to Athens and no one knew me. Aristotle placed him among the natural philosophers. The many anecdotes about Democritus, especially in Diogenes Laërtius, attest to his disinterest, modesty, and simplicity, one story has him deliberately blinding himself in order to be less disturbed in his pursuits, it may well be true that he lost his sight in old age. He was cheerful, and was ready to see the comical side of life
6.
Gautama Buddha
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Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha, or simply the Buddha, after the title of Buddha, was an ascetic and sage, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the part of ancient India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region and he later taught throughout other regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala. Gautama is the figure in Buddhism. He is recognized by Buddhists as a teacher who attained full Buddhahood. Accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death, various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later. Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the facts of the Buddhas life. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddhas lifetime coincided with the flourishing of influential schools of thought like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism. Brahmajala Sutta records sixty-two such schools of thought, thus, Buddha was just one of the many śramaṇa philosophers of that time. The times of Gautamas birth and death are uncertain, most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet accepted by all historians. It was either a republic, or an oligarchy, and his father was an elected chieftain. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, no written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, another one of his edicts mentions the titles of several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era. These texts may be the precursor of the Pāli Canon and they are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different and these include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, a poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE, the Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE
7.
Protagoras
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Protagoras was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue, Protagoras, Plato credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist, Protagoras was born in Abdera, Thrace, opposite the island of Thasos. According to Aulus Gellius, he made his living as a porter. Democritus realized that Protagoras had tied the load together with such perfect geometric accuracy that he must be a mathematical prodigy, Democritus promptly took him into his own household and taught him philosophy. Protagoras became well known in Athens and even became a friend of Pericles, the dates of his lifetime are not recorded, but extrapolated from writings that have survived the ages. In Protagoras Plato wrote that, before a gathering of Socrates, Prodicus and this suggests a birth date of not later than 490 BC. In the Meno he is said to have died at approximately the age of 70, after 40 years as a practicing Sophist. His death, then, may be presumed to have occurred circa 420 BC, was his death to be attributed to the javelin, to the man who threw it, or to the authorities responsible for the conduct of the games. Even though he was mentored by Democritus, Protagoras did not share his enthusiasm for the pursuit of mathematics, Protagoras was skeptical about the application of theoretical mathematics to the natural world, he did not believe they were really worth studying at all. According to Philodemus, Protagoras said that The subject matter is unknowable, nonetheless, mathematics was considered to be by some a very viable form of art, and Protagoras says on the arts, art without practice and practice without art are nothing. Protagoras also was known as a teacher who addressed subjects connected to virtue and he especially was involved in the question of whether virtue could be taught, a commonplace issue of fifth century BC Greece, that has been related to modern readers through Platos dialogue. He also seems to have had an interest in orthoepeia—the correct use of words—although this topic is strongly associated with his fellow sophist Prodicus. In his eponymous Platonic dialogue, Protagoras interprets a poem by Simonides, focusing on the use of words, their meaning. This type of education would have been useful for the interpretation of laws, Diogenes Laërtius reports that Protagoras devised a taxonomy of speech acts such as assertion, question, answer, command, etc. Aristotle also says that Protagoras worked on the classification and proper use of grammatical gender, the titles of his books such as, Technique of Eristics prove that Protagoras also was a teacher of rhetoric and argumentation. Diogenes Laërtius states that he was one of the first to part in rhetorical contests in the Olympic games. Protagoras also said that on any matter, there are two opposed to one another, and according to Aristotle, Protagoras was criticized for having claimed to make the weaker argument stronger. Protagoras is credited with the philosophy of relativism, which he discusses in his work, by this, Protagoras meant that each individual is the measure of how things are perceived by that individual
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Socrates
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Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is a figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon. Platos dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which Socrates himself is hidden behind his best disciple, nothing written by Socrates remains extant. As a result, information about him and his philosophies depends upon secondary sources, furthermore, close comparison between the contents of these sources reveals contradictions, thus creating concerns about the possibility of knowing in-depth the real Socrates. This issue is known as the Socratic problem, or the Socratic question, to understand Socrates and his thought, one must turn primarily to the works of Plato, whose dialogues are thought the most informative source about Socrates life and philosophy, and also Xenophon. These writings are the Sokratikoi logoi, or Socratic dialogues, which consist of reports of conversations apparently involving Socrates, as for discovering the real-life Socrates, the difficulty is that ancient sources are mostly philosophical or dramatic texts, apart from Xenophon. There are no straightforward histories, contemporary with Socrates, that dealt with his own time, a corollary of this is that sources that do mention Socrates do not necessarily claim to be historically accurate, and are often partisan. For instance, those who prosecuted and convicted Socrates have left no testament, historians therefore face the challenge of reconciling the various evidence from the extant texts in order to attempt an accurate and consistent account of Socrates life and work. The result of such an effort is not necessarily realistic, even if consistent, amid all the disagreement resulting from differences within sources, two factors emerge from all sources pertaining to Socrates. It would seem, therefore, that he was ugly, also, Xenophon, being an historian, is a more reliable witness to the historical Socrates. It is a matter of debate over which Socrates it is whom Plato is describing at any given point—the historical figure. As British philosopher Martin Cohen has put it, Plato, the idealist, offers an idol, a Saint, a prophet of the Sun-God, a teacher condemned for his teachings as a heretic. It is also clear from other writings and historical artefacts, that Socrates was not simply a character, nor an invention, the testimony of Xenophon and Aristotle, alongside some of Aristophanes work, is useful in fleshing out a perception of Socrates beyond Platos work. The problem with discerning Socrates philosophical views stems from the perception of contradictions in statements made by the Socrates in the different dialogues of Plato and these contradictions produce doubt as to the actual philosophical doctrines of Socrates, within his milieu and as recorded by other individuals. Aristotle, in his Magna Moralia, refers to Socrates in words which make it patent that the virtue is knowledge was held by Socrates. Within the Metaphysics, he states Socrates was occupied with the search for moral virtues, however, in The Clouds, Aristophanes portrays Socrates as accepting payment for teaching and running a sophist school with Chaerephon. Also, in Platos Apology and Symposium, as well as in Xenophons accounts, more specifically, in the Apology, Socrates cites his poverty as proof that he is not a teacher. Two fragments are extant of the writings by Timon of Phlius pertaining to Socrates, although Timon is known to have written to ridicule, details about the life of Socrates can be derived from three contemporary sources, the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of Aristophanes
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Arcesilaus
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Arcesilaus was a Greek philosopher and founder of the Second or Middle Academy—the phase of Academic skepticism. Arcesilaus succeeded Crates as the head of the Academy c.264 BC. He did not preserve his thoughts in writing, so his opinions can only be gleaned second-hand from what is preserved by later writers and this brought in the skeptical phase of the Academy. His chief opponents were the Stoics and their belief that reality could be comprehended with certainty, Arcesilaus was born in Pitane in Aeolis. His early education was provided by Autolycus the mathematician, with whom he migrated to Sardis, afterwards, he studied rhetoric in Athens, but adopted philosophy and became a disciple first of Theophrastus and afterwards of Crantor. He subsequently became intimate with Polemo and Crates, and eventually head of the school. Arcesilaus committed nothing to writing, his opinions were imperfectly known to his contemporaries and this makes his philosophy difficult to evaluate and partly inconsistent. This led scholars to see his skepticism in several ways, some see his philosophy as completely negative or destructive of all philosophical views. Others regard him as taking the position that nothing can be known on the basis of his philosophical arguments, others claimed he held no positive views on any philosophical topic, including the possibility of knowledge. It involved a contradiction in terms, as the idea of phantasia implied the possibility of false as well as true conceptions of the same object. It is a question of importance as to how the Academic skepticism of the Middle. The sceptic Arcesilaus, who became a dogmatist, the Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
10.
Crates of Athens
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Crates of Athens was the son of Antigenes of the Thriasian deme, the pupil and eromenos of Polemo, and his successor as scholarch of the Platonic Academy, in 270/69 BC. The epigram, according to him, reads, The most distinguished of the pupils of Crates were the philosopher Arcesilaus, who succeeded him as scholarch, Theodorus the Atheist, the writings of Crates are lost. Diogenes Laërtius says that they were on subjects, on comedy, and also orations. Crates of Thebes Crates of Tralles Platonic Academy Diogenes Laertius Dorandi, the Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Attribution, This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
11.
Carneades
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Carneades was an Academic skeptic born in Cyrene. By the year 159 BC, he had started to refute all previous dogmatic doctrines, especially Stoicism, as head of the Academy, he was one of three philosophers sent to Rome in 155 BC where his lectures on the uncertainty of justice caused consternation among the leading politicians. He left no writings and many of his opinions are only via his successor Clitomachus. He seems to have doubted the ability, not just of the senses but of reason too and his skepticism was, however, moderated by the belief that we can, nevertheless, ascertain probabilities of truth, to enable us to live and act correctly. Carneades, the son of Epicomus or Philocomiis, was born at Cyrene and he migrated early to Athens, and attended the lectures of the Stoics, and learned their logic from Diogenes. He studied the works of Chrysippus, and exerted his energy of a very acute, Carneades lived twenty-seven years after this at Athens. Carneades was succeeded, in his old age, by his namesake Carneades, son of Polemarchus, the elder Carneades died at the advanced age of 85, in 129/128 BC. After the death of Crates of Tarsus in 127/126 BC Clitomachus became head of the Academy, Carneades is described as a man of unwearied industry. Carneades is known as an Academic skeptic, Academic skeptics hold that all knowledge is impossible, except for the knowledge that all other knowledge is impossible. In ethics, which more particularly were the subject of his long and laborious study, all this, however, was nothing but the special application of his general theory, that people did not possess, and never could possess, any criterion of truth. Carneades argued that, if there were a criterion, it must exist either in reason, or sensation, therefore, sensation, conception, and reason, are alike disqualified for being the criterion of truth. For, although we cannot say that any given conception or sensation is in true, yet some sensations appear to us more true than others. Anti-realism Moral relativism Plank of Carneades Philosophical skepticism Pyrrhonism Subjectivism Dorandi, the Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Attribution, This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Grenfell. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
12.
Timon of Phlius
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Timon of Phlius was a Greek skeptic philosopher, a pupil of Pyrrho, and a celebrated writer of satirical poems called Silloi. He was born in Phlius, moved to Megara, and then he returned home and he next went to Elis with his wife, and heard Pyrrho, whose tenets he adopted. He also lived on the Hellespont, and taught at Chalcedon, before moving to Athens and his writings were said to have been very numerous. He composed poetry, tragedies, satiric dramas, and comedies and his most famous composition was his Silloi, a satirical account of famous philosophers, living and dead, in hexameter verse. The Silloi has not survived intact, but it is mentioned and quoted by ancient authors. He was a native of Phlius, and was the son of Timarchus and he next went to Elis with his wife, and heard Pyrrho, whose tenets he adopted, so far at least as his restless genius and satirical scepticism permitted him to follow any master. During his residence at Elis, he had children born to him, driven again from Elis by straitened circumstances, he spent some time on the Hellespont and the Propontis, and taught at Chalcedon as a sophist with such success that he made a fortune. He then moved to Athens, where he lived until his death, with the exception of a residence at Thebes. Among the great men with whom he personally acquainted in the course of his travels were the kings Antigonus. He died at an age of almost ninety, according to Diogenes Laërtius, Timon was a one-eyed man, and he used even to make a jest of his own defect, calling himself Cyclops. The writings of Timon are represented as very numerous, according to Diogenes Laërtius, he composed lyric and epic poems, and tragedies and satiric dramas, and thirty comedies, and sixty tragedies and the Silloi and amatory poems. No remains of his dramas have survived, of his epic poems little is known, but it may be presumed that they were chiefly ludicrous or satirical poems in the epic form. Possibly his Python, which contained an account of a conversation with Pyrrho, during a journey to the Delphic oracle. It appears probable that his Funeral Banquet of Arcesilaus was a poem in epic verse. The invention of this species of poetry is ascribed to Xenophanes of Colophon, the subject was a sarcastic account of the tenets of all philosophers, living and dead, an unbounded field for scepticism and satire. Commentaries were written on the Silloi by Apollonides of Nicaea, the poem entitled Images in elegiac verse, appears to have been similar in its subject to the Silloi. Diogenes Laërtius also mentions Timons iamboi, but perhaps the word is here used in the sense of satirical poems in general. He also wrote in prose, to the quantity, according to Diogenes Laërtius and these works were no doubt on philosophical subjects, and Diogenes mentions On Sensations, On Inquiries, and Towards Wisdom
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Epicurus
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Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicuruss 300 written works remain, much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators. As a boy, he studied philosophy for four years under the Platonist teacher Pamphilus, at the age of eighteen, he went to Athens for his two-year term of military service. The playwright Menander served in the same age-class of the ephebes as Epicurus, after the death of Alexander the Great, Perdiccas expelled the Athenian settlers on Samos to Colophon, on the coast of what is now Turkey. After the completion of his service, Epicurus joined his family there. He studied under Nausiphanes, who followed the teachings of Democritus, in 311/310 BC Epicurus taught in Mytilene but caused strife and was forced to leave. He then founded a school in Lampsacus before returning to Athens in 306 BC where he remained until his death, even though many of his teachings were heavily influenced by earlier thinkers, especially by Democritus, he differed in a significant way with Democritus on determinism. Epicurus would often deny this influence, denounce other philosophers as confused, Epicurus never married and had no known children. He was most likely a vegetarian, for I have been attacked by a painful inability to urinate, and also dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind, which comes from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplation, and I beg you to take care of the children of Metrodorus, in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the young man to me, and to philosophy. Epicurus school, which was based in the garden of his house and thus called The Garden, had a small and his school was the first of the ancient Greek philosophical schools to admit women as a rule rather than an exception. An inscription on the gate to The Garden is recorded by Seneca in epistle XXI of Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, Stranger, here you will do well to tarry, here our highest good is pleasure. Epicurus emphasised friendship as an important ingredient of happiness, and the school resembled in many ways a community of living together. However, he instituted a hierarchical system of levels among his followers. He was a key figure in the Axial Age, the period from 800 BC to 200 BC, during which, according to Karl Jaspers, similar thinking appeared in China, India, Iran, the Near East, and Ancient Greece. Epicuruss teachings represented a departure from the other major Greek thinkers of his period, and before, like Democritus, he was an atomist, believing that the fundamental constituents of the world were indivisible little bits of matter flying through empty space. Everything that occurs is the result of the atoms colliding, rebounding and his theory differs from the earlier atomism of Democritus because he admits that atoms do not always follow straight lines but their direction of motion may occasionally exhibit a swerve. This allowed him to avoid the implicit in the earlier atomism
14.
David Hume
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David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of radical philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Humes empiricist approach to philosophy places him with John Locke, Francis Bacon, beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature, Hume strove to create a total naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Humes compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom, Kant himself credited Hume as the spur to his philosophical thought who had awakened him from his dogmatic slumbers. Arthur Schopenhauer once declared there is more to be learned from each page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart. Hume is thus regarded as a pivotal figure in the history of philosophical thought. David Hume was the second of two born to Joseph Home of Ninewells, an advocate, and his wife The Hon. Katherine. He was born on 26 April 1711 in a tenement on the side of the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh. Humes father died when Hume was a child, just after his birthday, and he was raised by his mother. He changed the spelling of his name in 1734, because of the fact that his surname Home, throughout his life Hume, who never married, spent time occasionally at his family home at Ninewells in Berwickshire, which had belonged to his family since the sixteenth century. His finances as a man were very slender. His family was not rich and, as a younger son and he was therefore forced to make a living somehow. Hume attended the University of Edinburgh at the early age of twelve at a time when fourteen was normal. He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735 that there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books. Aged around 18, he made a discovery that opened up to him a new Scene of Thought. He did not recount what this scene was, and commentators have offered a variety of speculations, due to this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of ten years reading and writing. He soon came to the verge of a breakdown, suffering from what a doctor diagnosed as the Disease of the Learned. Hume wrote that it started with a coldness, which he attributed to a Laziness of Temper, later, some scurvy spots broke out on his fingers. This was what persuaded Humes physician to make his diagnosis, Hume wrote that he went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills, taken along with a pint of claret every day
15.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
16.
Philosopher
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A philosopher is someone who practices philosophy, which involves rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theology or science. The term philosopher comes from the Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος meaning lover of wisdom, the coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras. Typically, these brands of philosophy are Hellenistic ones and those who most arduously commit themselves to this lifestyle may be considered philosophers. The separation of philosophy and science from theology began in Greece during the 6th century BC, thales, an astronomer and mathematician, was considered by Aristotle to be the first philosopher of the Greek tradition. While Pythagoras coined the word, the first known elaboration on the topic was conducted by Plato, in his Symposium, he concludes that Love is that which lacks the object it seeks. Therefore, the philosopher is one who seeks wisdom, if he attains wisdom, therefore, the philosopher in antiquity was one who lives in the constant pursuit of wisdom, and living in accordance to that wisdom. Disagreements arose as to what living philosophically entailed and these disagreements gave rise to different Hellenistic schools of philosophy. In consequence, the ancient philosopher thought in a tradition, as the ancient world became schism by philosophical debate, the competition lay in living in manner that would transform his whole way of living in the world. Philosophy is a discipline which can easily carry away the individual in analyzing the universe. The second is the change through the Medieval era. With the rise of Christianity, the way of life was adopted by its theology. Thus, philosophy was divided between a way of life and the conceptual, logical, physical and metaphysical materials to justify that way of life, philosophy was then the servant to theology. The third is the sociological need with the development of the university, the modern university requires professionals to teach. Maintaining itself requires teaching future professionals to replace the current faculty, therefore, the discipline degrades into a technical language reserved for specialists, completely eschewing its original conception as a way of life. In the fourth century, the word began to designate a man or woman who led a monastic life. Gregory of Nyssa, for example, describes how his sister Macrina persuaded their mother to forsake the distractions of life for a life of philosophy. Later during the Middle Ages, persons who engaged with alchemy was called a philosopher - thus, many philosophers still emerged from the Classical tradition, as saw their philosophy as a way of life. Among the most notable are René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche, with the rise of the university, the modern conception of philosophy became more prominent
17.
Classical antiquity
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It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwestern Asia. Conventionally, it is taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Epic Greek poetry of Homer, and continues through the emergence of Christianity and it ends with the dissolution of classical culture at the close of Late Antiquity, blending into the Early Middle Ages. Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many disparate cultures, Classical antiquity may refer also to an idealised vision among later people of what was, in Edgar Allan Poes words, the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome. The culture of the ancient Greeks, together with influences from the ancient Near East, was the basis of art, philosophy, society. The earliest period of classical antiquity takes place before the background of gradual re-appearance of historical sources following the Bronze Age collapse, the 8th and 7th centuries BC are still largely proto-historical, with the earliest Greek alphabetic inscriptions appearing in the first half of the 8th century. Homer is usually assumed to have lived in the 8th or 7th century BC, in the same period falls the traditional date for the establishment of the Ancient Olympic Games, in 776 BC. The Phoenicians originally expanded from Canaan ports, by the 8th century dominating trade in the Mediterranean, carthage was founded in 814 BC, and the Carthaginians by 700 BC had firmly established strongholds in Sicily, Italy and Sardinia, which created conflicts of interest with Etruria. The Etruscans had established control in the region by the late 7th century BC, forming the aristocratic. According to legend, Rome was founded on April 21,753 BC by twin descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas, Romulus and Remus. As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins and the Sabines. Archaeological evidence indeed shows first traces of settlement at the Roman Forum in the mid-8th century BC, the seventh and final king of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus. As the son of Tarquinius Priscus and the son-in-law of Servius Tullius, Superbus was of Etruscan birth and it was during his reign that the Etruscans reached their apex of power. Superbus removed and destroyed all the Sabine shrines and altars from the Tarpeian Rock, the people came to object to his rule when he failed to recognize the rape of Lucretia, a patrician Roman, at the hands of his own son. Lucretias kinsman, Lucius Junius Brutus, summoned the Senate and had Superbus, after Superbus expulsion, the Senate voted to never again allow the rule of a king and reformed Rome into a republican government in 509 BC. In fact the Latin word Rex meaning King became a dirty and hated throughout the Republic. In 510, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow the tyrant Hippias, cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy conducted by Isagoras. Greece entered the 4th century under Spartan hegemony, but by 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes and Corinth, the two of which were formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC
18.
Ionian Sea
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The Ionian Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily, and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, all major islands in the sea belong to Greece. They are collectively referred to as the Ionian Islands, the ones being Corfu, Zakynthos, Kephalonia, Ithaca. There are ferry routes between Patras and Igoumenitsa, Greece, and Brindisi and Ancona, Italy, that cross the east and north of the Ionian Sea, and from Piraeus westward. Calypso Deep, the deepest point in the Mediterranean at −5,267 m, is located in the Ionian Sea, the sea is one of the most seismically active areas in the world. The name Ionian comes from the Greek language Ἰόνιον, Ancient Greek writers, especially Aeschylus, linked it to the myth of Io. In Ancient Greek the adjective Ionios was used as an epithet for the sea because Io swam across it, according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, the name may derive from Ionians who sailed to the West. There were also narratives about other eponymic legendary figures, according to one version, Ionius was a son of Adrias, according to another, Ionius was a son of Dyrrhachus. When Dyrrhachus was attacked by his own brothers, Heracles, who was passing through the area, came to his aid, the corpse was cast into the sea, which thereafter was called the Ionian Sea. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Ionian Sea as follows, On the North. A line running from the mouth of the Butrinto River in Albania, to Cape Karagol in Corfu, along the North Coast of Corfu to Cape Kephali, from the mouth of the Butrinto River in Albania down the coast of the mainland to Cape Matapan. A line from Cape Matapan to Cape Passero, the Southern point of Sicily, the East coast of Sicily and the Southeast coast of Italy to Cape Santa Maria di Leuca
19.
Megarian school of philosophy
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The Megarian school of philosophy, which flourished in the 4th century BC, was founded by Euclides of Megara, one of the pupils of Socrates. Its ethical teachings were derived from Socrates, recognizing a single good, some of Euclides successors developed logic to such an extent that they became a separate school, known as the Dialectical school. Their work on logic, logical conditionals, and propositional logic played an important role in the development of logic in antiquity. The Megarian school of philosophy was founded by Euclides of Megara and his successors, as head of the school in Megara, were said to have been Ichthyas, and Stilpo. It is unlikely, however, that the Megarian school was a genuine institution, besides Ichthyas, Euclides most important pupils were Eubulides of Miletus and Clinomachus of Thurii. However, Euclides himself taught logic, and his pupil, Eubulides, via Stilpo, the Megarian school is said to have influenced Pyrrho, the Eretrian school under Menedemus and Asclepiades, and Zeno, the founder of Stoicism. Zeno was said to have studied under Stilpo and Diodorus Cronus, Euclides had been a pupil of Socrates, but ancient historians regarded him as a successor to the Eleatics, hence his philosophy was seen as a fusion of Eleatic and Socratic thought. Thus the Eleatic idea of The One was identified with the Socratic Form of the Good, and the opposite of Good was regarded by Euclides as non-existent. But the emphasis of his thought is not on being but on the good and this theme is typically Socratic, what matters is the moral good and the will of the good person to strive towards it. Stilpo is said to have continued the Eleatic tendency, by asserting a strict monism and denying all change and motion, in ethics, Stilpo taught freedom, self-control, and self-sufficiency, approaching the teachings of the Cynics, another Socratic school. This was the work of Diodorus Cronus and Philo the Dialectician, through their development of propositional logic, the Dialectical school played an important role in the development of logic, which was an important precursor of Stoic logic. The Megarians and the Stoics, in Gabbay, Dov, Woods, John, Handbook of the History of Logic, Greek, Indian, the Dialectical School and the Origin of Propositional Logic with an annotated bibliography Herbermann, Charles, ed. Megarians
20.
Stilpo
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Stilpo was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school. He was a contemporary of Theophrastus, Diodorus Cronus, and Crates of Thebes, none of his writings survive, he was interested in logic and dialectic, and he argued that the universal is fundamentally separated from the individual and concrete. His ethical teachings approached that of the Cynics and Stoics and his most important followers were Pyrrho, the founder of Pyrrhonism, and Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism. He was a native of Megara, uniting elevated sentiment with gentleness and patience, he, as Plutarch says, was an ornament to his country and friends, and had his acquaintance sought by kings. Among his followers were Menedemus and Asclepiades, the leaders of the Eretrian school of philosophy, one of his pupils, Nicarete, was also said to have been his mistress. Stilpo was praised for his wisdom, his simple, straightforward disposition. Cicero relates that Stilpos friends had described him as addicted to wine and women. Of the dialogues ascribed to him, we know only the titles and he belonged to the Megarian school of philosophy, but we learn only a little about his doctrines in the few fragments and sayings of his which are quoted. Stilpo argued that the genus, the universal, is not contained in the individual, whoever speaks of any person, speaks of no-one, for he neither speaks of this one nor that. For why should it rather be of one than that. Hence it is not of this one, one of his examples was that the vegetable is not what is here shown. For a vegetable existed ten years ago, therefore this here is not a vegetable. Hence since the musical Socrates is another determination from the wise Socrates, Socrates was separated from himself, thus one thing cannot be predicated of another, that is, the essence of things cannot be reached by means of predicates. Plutarch quotes Stilpo as arguing, To be a horse differs from to be running, for being asked the definition of the one and of the other, we do not give the same for them both, and therefore those err who predicate the one of the other. For if good is the same people, and to run the same with a horse, how is good affirmed also of food and medicine, and again to run of a lion. But if the predicate is different, then we do not rightly say that a person is good, but Plutarch, in turn, replied, but what man lived any the worse for this. Is there any man who hears this said, and who does not understand it to be the speech of a man who rallies gallantly, Stilpo seems to have been interested in Virtue, and its self-sufficiency. This story was an inspiration for Friedrich Klingers Sturm und Drang play Stilpo und seine Kinder written in 1777, a one-page fragment or paraphrase from a work concerning exile is preserved in the writings of Teles of Megara, a 3rd-century BC Cynic
21.
Alexander the Great
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Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of twenty and he was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of historys most successful military commanders. During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16, after Philips assassination in 336 BC, he succeeded his father to the throne and inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his fathers Panhellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia, in 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Following the conquest of Anatolia, Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of battles, most notably the battles of Issus. He subsequently overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety, at that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. He sought to reach the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea and invaded India in 326 BC and he eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city that he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in the establishment of several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexanders surviving generals, Alexanders legacy includes the cultural diffusion which his conquests engendered, such as Greco-Buddhism. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt, Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and he is often ranked among the most influential people in human history. He was the son of the king of Macedon, Philip II, and his wife, Olympias. Although Philip had seven or eight wives, Olympias was his wife for some time. Several legends surround Alexanders birth and childhood, sometime after the wedding, Philip is said to have seen himself, in a dream, securing his wifes womb with a seal engraved with a lions image. Plutarch offered a variety of interpretations of dreams, that Olympias was pregnant before her marriage, indicated by the sealing of her womb. On the day Alexander was born, Philip was preparing a siege on the city of Potidea on the peninsula of Chalcidice. That same day, Philip received news that his general Parmenion had defeated the combined Illyrian and Paeonian armies, and it was also said that on this day, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, burnt down. This led Hegesias of Magnesia to say that it had burnt down because Artemis was away, such legends may have emerged when Alexander was king, and possibly at his own instigation, to show that he was superhuman and destined for greatness from conception
22.
Gymnosophists
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Gymnosophists is the name given by the Greeks to certain ancient Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought. There were also gymnosophists among the priests of Ethiopia, the term was used by Plutarch in the 1st century CE, when describing an encounter by Alexander the Great with ten gymnosophists near the banks of the Indus river in what is now Pakistan. He captured ten of the Gymnosophists who had done most to get Sabbas to revolt, and had made the most trouble for the Macedonians. The first one, accordingly, being asked which, in his opinion, were more numerous, the second, being asked whether the earth or the sea produced larger animals, said the earth did, since the sea was but a part of the earth. The third, being asked what animal was the most cunning, said, the fourth, when asked why he had induced Sabbas to revolt, replied, Because I wished him either to live nobly or to die nobly. The fifth, being asked which, in his opinion, was older, day or night, replied, Day, by one day, and he added, upon the king expressing amazement, that hard questions must have hard answers. Passing on, then, to the sixth, Alexander asked how a man could be most loved, If, said the philosopher, he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear. And the last, asked how long it were well for a man to live, answered, so, then, turning to the judge, Alexander bade him give his opinion. The judge declared that they had answered one worse than another, well, then, said Alexander, thou shalt die first for giving such a verdict. That cannot be, O King, said the judge, unless thou falsely saidst that thou wouldst put to death first him who answered worst and these philosophers, then, he dismissed with gifts. Strabo says that gymnosophists were religious people among the Indians, and otherwise divides Indian philosophers into Brahmins and Sramanas and he further divides the Sramanas into Hylobioi and Physicians. Of the Sarmanes second in honour to the Hylobii, are the physicians and they are of frugal habits, but do not live in the fields, and subsist upon rice and meal, which every one gives when asked, and receive them hospitably. Both this and the class of persons practise fortitude, as well in supporting active toil as in enduring suffering, so that they will continue a whole day in the same posture. But it is necessary for us. to bring forward as corroborative testimonies the lives of some good men who are the most undeniable evidences of freedom. The Greek word gymnosophist literally meant naked sage or naked sophist, the Greeks encountered the gymnosophists in the third century BCE at the town of Taxila in Ancient India, which was an ancient centre of Vedic, Jain and Buddhist learning. The naked saints, whom Alexander met, are considered to be Digambara Jain monks. According to a recent study, the gymnosophists could not have been Jains. One such noted gymnosophist was Calanus, before immolation, he is said to have prophesied the death of Alexander at Babylon
23.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
24.
Magi
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Magi denotes followers of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster. The earliest known use of the word Magi is in the inscription written by Darius the Great. Old Persian texts, pre-dating the Hellenistic period, refer to a Magus as a Zurvanic, the plural magi entered the English language from Latin around 1200, in reference to these. The singular appears considerably later, in the late 14th century, the Avestan word magâunô, i. e. the religious caste of the Medes, seems to be the origin of the term. The term only appears twice in Iranian texts from before the 5th century BCE and this one instance occurs in the trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius the Great, and which can be dated to about 520 BCE. In this trilingual text, certain rebels have magian as an attribute, the meaning of the term in this context is uncertain. The other instance appears in the texts of the Avesta, i. e. in the literature of Zoroastrianism. In this instance, which is in the Younger Avestan portion, an unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in the older Gathic Avestan language texts. A description of the rituals that Heraclitus refers to has not survived, better preserved are the descriptions of the mid-5th century BCE Herodotus, who in his portrayal of the Iranian expatriates living in Asia minor uses the term magi in two different senses. In the first sense, Herodotus speaks of the magi as one of the tribes/peoples of the Medes, in another sense, Herodotus uses the term magi to generically refer to a sacerdotal caste, but whose ethnic origin is never again so much as mentioned. Their influence was widespread throughout Asia Minor. It is, therefore, quite likely that the caste of the Magi was distinct from the Median tribe of the same name. Other Greek sources from before the Hellenistic period include the gentleman-soldier Xenophon, in his early 4th century BCE Cyropaedia, Xenophon depicts the magians as authorities for all religious matters, and imagines the magians to be responsible for the education of the emperor-to-be. Victor H. Mair provides archaeological and linguistic evidence suggesting that Chinese wū was maybe a loanword from Old Persian *maguš magician and it is especially interesting that one of the figurines bears on the top of his head the clearly incised graph ☩ which identifies him as a wu. These figurines, which are dated circa 8th century BCE, were discovered during a 1980 excavation of a Zhou Dynasty palace in Fufeng County, compared with the linguistic reconstructions of many Indo-European languages, the current reconstruction of Old Chinese is more provisional. This velar final -g in Mairs *myag is evident in several Old Chinese reconstructions, as early as the 5th century BCE, Greek magos had spawned mageia and magike to describe the activity of a magus, that is, it was his or her art and practice. But almost from the outset the noun for the action and the noun for the actor parted company, the early Greek texts typically have the pejorative meaning, which in turn influenced the meaning of magos to denote a conjurer and a charlatan. Already in the mid-5th century BC, Herodotus identifies the magi as interpreters of omens, once the magi had been associated with magic—Greek magikos—it was but a natural progression that the Greeks image of Zoroaster would metamorphose into a magician too
25.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
26.
Eastern philosophy
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This is because in Asia there is no single unified philosophical tradition with a single root. Some Western thinkers claim that philosophy as such is only characteristic of Western cultures, martin Heidegger is even reported to have said that only Greek and German languages are suitable for philosophizing. It is still commonplace in Western universities to teach only Western philosophy and to ignore Asian philosophy altogether, Hinduism is the dominant religion, or way of life, in South Asia. It includes Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism among numerous other traditions, and a spectrum of laws and prescriptions of daily morality based on karma, dharma. Hinduism is a categorisation of distinct intellectual or philosophical points of view, rather than a rigid, Hinduism, with about one billion followers is the worlds third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some refer to it as Sanātana Dharma. Western scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and it prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, compassion, among others. Nevertheless, the schools are in many ways related. The āstika schools are, Samkhya, an atheistic and strongly dualist theoretical exposition of consciousness, Yoga, a school emphasising meditation, contemplation and liberation. Nyaya or logic, explores sources of knowledge, vaisheshika, an empiricist school of atomism Mīmāṃsā, an anti-ascetic and anti-mysticist school of orthopraxy Vedānta, the last segment of knowledge in the Vedas, or the Jnan Kanda. Vedanta came to be the dominant current of Hinduism in the post-medieval period, in Hindu history, the distinction of the six orthodox schools was current in the Gupta period golden age of Hinduism. Nyaya survived into the 17th century as Navya Nyaya Neo-Nyaya, while Samkhya gradually lost its status as an independent school, its tenets absorbed into Yoga, Jain philosophy deals extensively with the problems of metaphysics, reality, cosmology, ontology, epistemology and divinity. Jainism is essentially a religion of ancient India. It continues the ancient Śramaṇa tradition, which co-existed with the Vedic tradition since ancient times, Jain philosophy attempts to explain the rationale of being and existence, the nature of the Universe and its constituents, the nature of bondage and the means to achieve liberation. It has often described as an ascetic movement for its strong emphasis on self-control, austerities. Jainism strongly upholds the individualistic nature of soul and personal responsibility for decisions. Throughout its history, the Jain philosophy remained unified and single, although as a religion, Jainism was divided into various sects, the contribution of Jain philosophy in developing the Indian philosophy has been significant. Jain philosophical concepts like Ahimsa, Karma, Moksa, Samsara, Buddhism is a system of religious beliefs based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama
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Eusebius
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Eusebius of Caesarea, also known as Eusebius Pamphili, was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima about 314 AD, together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon and is regarded as an extremely well learned Christian of his time. He wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel, as Father of Church History he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs. Little is known about the life of Eusebius and his successor at the See of Caesarea, Acacius, wrote a Life of Eusebius, a work that has since been lost. Eusebius own surviving works probably only represent a portion of his total output. Beyond notices in his extant writings, the sources are the 5th-century ecclesiastical historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. There are assorted notices of his activities in the writings of his contemporaries Athanasius, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Eusebius pupil, Eusebius of Emesa, provides some incidental information. In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius writes of Dionysius of Alexandria as his contemporary, if this is true, Eusebius birth must have been before Dionysius death in autumn 264, most modern scholars date the birth to some point in the five years between 260 and 265. He was presumably born in the town in which he lived for most of his adult life and he was baptized and instructed in the city, and lived in Palestine in 296, when Diocletians army passed through the region. Eusebius was made presbyter by Agapius of Caesarea, S. Wallace-Hadrill, deem the phrase too ambiguous to support the contention. By the 3rd century, Caesarea had a population of about 100,000 and it had been a pagan city since Pompey had given control of the city to the gentiles during his command of the eastern provinces in the 60s BC. The gentiles retained control of the city for the three centuries to follow, despite Jewish petitions for joint governorship, gentile government was strengthened by the citys refoundation under Herod the Great, when it had taken on the name of Augustus Caesar. In addition to the settlers, Caesarea had large Jewish. Eusebius was probably born into the Christian contingent of the city.46 states that Zacchaeus was the first bishop, through the activities of the theologian Origen and the school of his follower Pamphilus, Caesarea became a center of Christian learning. Origen was largely responsible for the collection of information, or which churches were using which gospels. On his deathbed, Origen had made a bequest of his library to the Christian community in the city. Together with the books of his patron Ambrosius, Origens library formed the core of the collection that Pamphilus established, Pamphilus also managed a school that was similar to that of Origen. Pamphilus was compared to Demetrius of Phalerum and Pisistratus, for he had gathered Bibles from all parts of the world, like his model Origen, Pamphilus maintained close contact with his students
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Eudaimonia
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Etymologically, it consists of the words eu and daimōn. Discussion of the links between virtue of character and happiness is one of the concerns of ancient ethics. As a result there are varieties of eudaimonism. Two of the most influential forms are those of Aristotle and the Stoics, Aristotle takes virtue and its exercise to be the most important constituent in eudaimonia but acknowledges also the importance of external goods such as health, wealth, and beauty. By contrast, the Stoics make virtue necessary and sufficient for eudaimonia, everyone wants to be eudaimon, and everyone agrees that being eudaimon is related to faring well and to an individual’s well being. The really difficult question is to specify just what sort of activities enable one to live well, Aristotle presents various popular conceptions of the best life for human beings. The candidates that he mentions are a life of pleasure, a life of political activity, one important move in Greek philosophy to answer the question of how to achieve eudaimonia is to bring in another important concept in ancient philosophy, arete. Aristotle says that the life is one of “virtuous activity in accordance with reason”. And even Epicurus who argues that the life is the life of pleasure maintains that the life of pleasure coincides with the life of virtue. So the ancient ethical theorists tend to agree that virtue is closely bound up with happiness, however, they disagree on the way in which this is so. We shall consider the main theories in a moment, but first a warning about the translation of areté. As already noted, the Greek word areté is usually translated into English as virtue, one problem with this is that we are inclined to understand virtue in a moral sense, which is not always what the ancients had in mind. For a Greek, areté pertains to all sorts of qualities we would not regard as relevant to ethics, for example, physical beauty. So it is important to bear in mind that the sense of ‘virtue’ operative in ancient ethics is not exclusively moral and includes more than such as wisdom, courage. The sense of virtue which areté connotes would include saying something like speed is a virtue in a horse, doing anything well requires virtue, and each characteristic activity has its own set of virtues. The alternative translation excellence might be helpful in conveying this general meaning of the term, the moral virtues are simply a subset of the general sense in which a human being is capable of functioning well or excellently. What we know of Socrates philosophy is almost entirely derived from Platos writings, scholars typically divide Platos works into three periods, the early, middle, and late periods. This division will be employed here in dividing up the positions of Socrates, as with all other ancient ethical thinkers Socrates thought that all human beings wanted eudaimonia more than anything else
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Ephectics
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An ephectic potentially describes three interrelated concepts, 1) a type of skeptic, 2) the practice of a type of skepticism, or 3) the general state of being given to suspense of judgment. Ephectic comes from the Ancient Greek ἐφεκτικός, which itself dervives from the verb ἐπέχειν, Pyrrho was an ancient philosopher credited with forming the first comprehensive school of skeptical thought, now described as Pyrrhonism, or Pyrrhonian Skepticism. The school of though can be divided into ephectic Pyrrhonism. Prior to Pyrrho, others had given the same rationale for which he is famed, ephectic Pyrrhonism can describe either a state, attitude, or practice, with the state sometimes experienced after balanc perceptions and thoughts against one another. It is an aggressive form of skepticism which may occur in that sometimes uspension of judgment evidently just happens to the sceptic. Aporetic Pyrrhonism, in contrast, describes a more form of scepticism. Aporetic skepticism may also be described as a state of perplexity and they are actively engaged in refutation. Zetetic Pyrrhonism, differing from the two, is engaged in seeking, one benefit of practicing ephectic Pyrrhonism is that it may be a path to happiness. It has been argued that Pyrrho was teaching an attitude and it clear that it was intended as a way of producing happiness. Said to have possessed the great certitude that suspension of judgment, therefore, being ephectic admits to flaws not only of ones ignorance but also of mans palsied moral and intellectual nature as well as the very nature of language itself
30.
Onesicritus
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Onesicritus, a Greek historical writer, who accompanied Alexander on his campaigns in Asia. He claimed to have been the commander of Alexanders fleet but was only a helmsman, Arrian. When he returned home, he wrote a history of Alexanders campaigns and he is frequently cited by later authors, who also criticize him for his inaccuracies. He was a native of Astypalaia, and it was probably to this origin that he owed the nautical skills which would prove so advantageous to him. He was a disciple of Diogenes of Sinope, the Cynic philosopher, if so, he must have been already advanced in years when he joined the expedition of Alexander. It was Onesicritus, whom Alexander first sent to summon Dandamis to his court, when later Onesicritus returned empty-handed with the reply of Dandamis, the King went to forest to visit Dandamis. When Alexander constructed his fleet on the Hydaspes, he appointed Onesicritus to the important position of pilot of the kings ship, Onesicritus held this position not only during the descent of the Indus, but throughout the long and perilous voyage from the river to the Persian gulf. Alexander was so satisfied with his work that, on his arrival at Susa, Onesicritus was rewarded with a crown of gold, at the same time as Nearchus. Yet Arrian blames him for lack of judgment, and on one occasion expressly ascribes the safety of the fleet to the firmness of Nearchus in overruling his advice. It is most frequently cited in regard to the campaigns of Alexander in Asia, though an eye-witness of much that he described, it appears that he intermixed many fables and falsehoods with his narrative, so that he early fell into discredit as an authority. Strabo is especially severe upon him, aulus Gellius even associates him with Aristeas of Proconnesus, and other purely fabulous writers. In particular he was the first author mentioned the island of Taprobane. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
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Nearchus
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Nearchus was one of the officers, a navarch, in the army of Alexander the Great. He is known for his voyage from the Indus river to the Persian Gulf following the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great. An account of his voyage is given in Arrians Indica, written in the 2nd century AD. A native of Lato in Crete and son of Androtimus, his family settled at Amphipolis in Macedonia at some point during Philip II’s reign, at which point Nearchus was probably a young boy. Nearchus, along with Ptolemy, Erigyius and Laomedon, and Harpalus, was one of Alexander’s ‘mentors’ – and it is not known where the exiles went, but they were recalled only after Philip’s death, on Alexander’s accession. After their recall, these men were held in the highest honour, Nearchus was appointed as satrap of Lycia and Pamphylia in 334/3 BC, one of the earliest of Alexanders satrapal appointments. In 328 BC he was relieved of his post and rejoined Alexander in Bactria, after the siege of Aornus Nearchus was sent at the head of a reconnaissance mission – especially to find out about elephants. In 326 BC, Nearchus was made admiral of the fleet that Alexander had built at the Hydaspes, during the voyage some of the ships were damaged, and Nearchus was instructed to remain behind to oversee repairs, before continuing down the river. This perhaps indicates some knowledge of shipbuilding, but he could hardly have been the only one qualified, however, he remained in command of the fleet for the voyage from the Indus to the Persian Gulf, which he recorded in detail. Again, although he was the admiral, in command of the fleet, during the voyage, Nearchus was reputedly the first Greek commander to visit Bahrain, which was called Tylos by the Greeks. His visit marked the start of Bahrains inclusion within the Hellenic world, after many adventures, Nearchus arrived in Carmania, meeting up with Alexander after the latter’s crossing of the Gedrosian desert. Alexander sent him off to complete his voyage – he went as far as the Euphrates before turning back to rejoin Alexander at Susa, Nearchus married the daughter of Barsine and Mentor, and received a crown as recognition of his exertions. He then took the fleet up to Babylon, where he gave Alexander the Chaldeans’ warning not to enter the city. Nearchus had a place in Alexander’s final plans, as he was to be the admiral of the Arabian invasion fleet, in the initial arguments over the rule of the empire Nearchus supported Heracles, Alexander’s son by Barsine – the king’s mistress was now his mother-in-law. Once order broke down he joined Antigonus’ camp and his last mention is as an adviser to Demetrius in 313/2 BC, what happened after that is not known, although he probably retired to write his history. Ancient authorities, Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri, vi,4,19,20,25, Plutarch, Life of Alexander,10,68,75, Strabo, xv. pp.721,725, Diodorus Siculus, xvii. Arrian, The Indica translated by E. Iliff Robson, pothos. org, Nearchus by Marcus Pailing Livius, Nearchus by Jona Lendering The Trierarchs of Nearchus by livius. org Nearchus the Cretan and the Foundation of Cretopolis
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pyrrho of Elis". Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 696.
