A Note on the Platonist Boethus: In Light of New Evidence from the Syriac Tradition
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Tianqin Ge
Abstract
This article re-examines the identity and chronology of the lexicographer Boethus, by analyzing three pieces of evidence. It is argued that the lexicographer Boethus is a Middle Platonist flourishing in the late first or early second century, who believed in the transmigration of souls and was engaged in exegesis of Plato. In particular, this article draws attention to a testimony on Boethus from a newly discovered treatise preserved in Syriac, which is identified as Porphyry’s On Principles and Matter.
Acknowledgements
This paper would not exist without John M. Dillon, who first drew my attention to the Platonist Boethus, and gave me many valuable suggestions. Thanks should also go to Yury Arzhanov for his generous help. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. “This paper was supported by the Zhishan Young Scholars Program of Southeast University”.
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© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze
- A Note on the Platonist Boethus: In Light of New Evidence from the Syriac Tradition
- Galeno sulla lunghezza di un’epitome da Didimo: De indolentia 24 a BJP (= 121–122 KS). ἐν ἑξακισχιλίοις στίχοις versus ἐν ἓξ βιβλίοις
- Homerus sceptra potitus (Lucr. 3,1037–1038). De rerum natura als Hinführung zur Homerlektüre?
- Ein überflüssiger und ein nur ansatzweise richtiger Eingriff in den überlieferten Text von Ciceros Schrift De fato
- Tra gli Inferi e le stelle: un problema testuale nel mito di Orfeo in Virgilio (georg. 4,509) e il Leitmotiv astronomico nelle catabasi da Omero a Dante (con echi di Apollonio Rodio)
- Doctus Amyclas. I presagi della tempesta in Luc. 5.539‒560 tra epica, poesia didascalica e retorica
- A New Emendation for matavitatau in Petronius’ Satyricon
- Pater Vulkan: Martial als Vergil-Interpret in Epigramm 5,7
- Schulübungen oder Kalenderblätter? Zur Interpretation einer Gruppe spätantiker Kulthymnen in der Appendix Claudianea
- Miszellen
- A Brief Note on religio and the Ending of De Rerum Natura
- Una nota testuale a Ciris 90
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze
- A Note on the Platonist Boethus: In Light of New Evidence from the Syriac Tradition
- Galeno sulla lunghezza di un’epitome da Didimo: De indolentia 24 a BJP (= 121–122 KS). ἐν ἑξακισχιλίοις στίχοις versus ἐν ἓξ βιβλίοις
- Homerus sceptra potitus (Lucr. 3,1037–1038). De rerum natura als Hinführung zur Homerlektüre?
- Ein überflüssiger und ein nur ansatzweise richtiger Eingriff in den überlieferten Text von Ciceros Schrift De fato
- Tra gli Inferi e le stelle: un problema testuale nel mito di Orfeo in Virgilio (georg. 4,509) e il Leitmotiv astronomico nelle catabasi da Omero a Dante (con echi di Apollonio Rodio)
- Doctus Amyclas. I presagi della tempesta in Luc. 5.539‒560 tra epica, poesia didascalica e retorica
- A New Emendation for matavitatau in Petronius’ Satyricon
- Pater Vulkan: Martial als Vergil-Interpret in Epigramm 5,7
- Schulübungen oder Kalenderblätter? Zur Interpretation einer Gruppe spätantiker Kulthymnen in der Appendix Claudianea
- Miszellen
- A Brief Note on religio and the Ending of De Rerum Natura
- Una nota testuale a Ciris 90
