Philonides ( Greek: Φιλωνίδης, c. 200 – c. 130 BCE) of Laodicea in Syria, was an Epicurean philosopher and mathematician who lived in the Seleucid court during the reigns of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Demetrius I Soter.
He is known principally from a Life of Philonides, which was discovered among the charred papyrus scrolls at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. [1] Philonides was born into a family with good connections with the Seleucid court. [2] He is said to have been taught by Eudemus and Dionysodorus the mathematician. [3] Philonides attempted to convert Antiochus IV Epiphanes to Epicureanism, and later instructed his nephew, Demetrius I Soter, in philosophy. [2] Philonides was highly honoured in the court, and he is also known from various stone inscriptions. [4]
He was renowned as a mathematician, and is mentioned by Apollonius of Perga in the preface to the second book of his Conics. [3] [5]
Philonides was a zealous collector of the works of Epicurus and his colleagues, and is said to have published over 100 treatises, probably compilations of the works he collected. [6]
Notes
- ^ Vita Philonidi, PHerc. 1044
- ^ a b Dov Gera, (1998), Judaea and Mediterranean Politics, 219 to 161 B.C.E., page 274. BRILL
- ^ a b Ian Mueller, Geometry and scepticism, in Jonathan Barnes, (2005), Science and Speculation: Studies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice, page 94. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Dewitt, (1999), Epicurus and His Philosophy, pages 119–120. U of Minnesota Press
- ^ Apollonius, I 192.7–11
- ^ H. Gregory Snyder, (2000), Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World, pages 49–50. Routledge
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