The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1986

Abstract

The fifth book of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Philosophers is concerned with the first four heads of the Peripatos – Aristotle, Theophrastus, Strato, and Lyco – and two outstanding members of the school – Demetrius of Phalerum and Heraclides of Pontus. Consideration is given her to rather general matters of structure, organization, and arrangement of material in Book Five as a whole, to the different categories of information in the individual lives, and to the most striking feature of this book which set it apart from other books: namely, the wills of the first four scholarchs and the extensive catalogues of writings which Diogenes has included for five of the six philosophers.

Notes

Michael Sollenberger presented “The Lives of the Peripatetics: Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum, Book Five” to the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy meeting with the American Philological Association December 1986 in San Antonio. A much revised version was published in W. Haase and H. Temporini, eds. Aufsteig und Niedergang der römische Welt II.36.6, De Gruyter 1992, pp. 3793-3879.

Michael Sollenberger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Mt. St. Mary's University.

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