DOCSLIB.ORG

Cicero's Doctrine of the Great Year P

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cicero's Doctrine of the Great Year P Document généré le 29 sept. 2021 11:01 Laval théologique et philosophique Cicero's Doctrine of the Great Year P. R. Coleman-Norton Volume 3, numéro 2, 1947 URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1019794ar DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1019794ar Aller au sommaire du numéro Éditeur(s) Laval théologique et philosophique, Université Laval ISSN 0023-9054 (imprimé) 1703-8804 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Coleman-Norton, P. (1947). Cicero's Doctrine of the Great Year. Laval théologique et philosophique, 3(2), 293–302. https://doi.org/10.7202/1019794ar Tous droits réservés © Laval théologique et philosophique, Université Laval, Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des 1947 services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ Cicero’s Doctrine of the Great Year Among ancient authors M. Tullius Cicero appears to have the most separate references to the Great Year(annus magnus), as this celestial configuration commonly is called.1 Since mention of this theory is made only in his philosophical treatises, we may suppose not unreasonably that for Cicero this phaenomenon possessed a philosophical significance. But, on the other hand, even a casual scrutiny of Cicero’s philosophical works will show that in these there are not a few topics for which a philosophical connexion can not be claimed. If our inquiry will have supported this supposition, we shall inquire then what this doctrine meant to Cicero and how effective was Cicero’s employment of this tenet, — a subject not hith­ erto investigated. The origin of the tradition of the Great Yearadhuc is sub iudice: scholars are divided between an oriental and an occidental provenience for it.2 While our knowledge of the contribution of eastern speculation to western thought in antiquity is still somewhat scanty in spite of sweeping statements slavishly borrowed from book to book, yet especially in the astrological sector of the celestial arena is our information incomplete. From the ancient assertions, which are not likely to be augmented, until more textual treasures have been assembled, we may assume conjectures; certainty we can not attain, until more tractable testimony has been 1 So C ic e r o, Arati Phaenomena, 232;De Natura Deorum, II. 20. 51 and in another place of tins dialogue accordingServitis to (Commentarii in Vergilii Aeneida, III. 284); in Hortensius according toS er v iu s (op. cit., I. 269), but according to T acitus (Dialogus de Oratoribus, 16. 7) magnus et verus annus; De Re Publica, VI. 22. 24,vertens annus; Timaeus, 9. 33,absolutus annus perfectusque. Other variants forannus magnus are these: annus maximus (Censorin us, De Die Natali, 18. 11), which apparently represents^liyurros iviavrós in an unknown work of A r isto tele s; annus mundanus (M acrobius, Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis, II. 11. 8, 10 (bis), 11, 12, 13(bis), 14, 17). So far as we know,C icero was the earliest Latin author who used this expression, for its appearance in his metrical version of Phaenomenathe ofA ratus (c. 86) ante­ dated its adoption by his younger contemporaries,L ucretiu s (De Rerum Natura, I. 1029,V. 644) and V er g iliu s (Aeneis, III. 284, which, however, refers only to the ordinary year; inEclogae, IV. 5, on the other hand, the majestic versemagnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo shows that the poet was not ignorant of the idea). On tlie Greek side we have of courseS ntyas hiavrcx from Pythagoras o f Sam os according toA e tiu s (De Placitis, II. 32. 2). Mí^os ivtavrbs (sine articulo) stands as part of the title of a work ascribedDemocritus to of Abderaby Diogenes Laertius(De Vitis et Dogmatibus et Apophthegmatibus Clarorum Philo­ sophorum, IX. 48ad init.). H . D ie ls in his Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 5th ed., Berlin 1934, I. 147. 1-5conjectures thatH eraclitus of Ephesusused 9«oDcnavrfc on the basis of whatA e tiu s (op. cit., II. 32. 3) and Censorinus(op. cit., 18. 10) report. FromP l a t o (Timaeus, 39 D ) comes ó t í Xm s iviavrtn. Aratus of Soli (Phaenomena, 458)uses jiaxpdjiviavrm, but also offers(op. cit., 741) piyas iviavrit, each without the article. Diodorus Siculus(Bibliotheca Historica, XII. 36. 2) has ris itiyas iviavrm. Arius Didymus(Epitomes Fragmenta Physica, 37) furnishes ó níyioToí iviavrós. Cf. Hesiodus,Theogonia, 799, for the earliest use ofpiyas with kviavrfa. For both the Latin and the Greek I have given only the earliest citation in each instance. I may add that the phrasemagnus Platonicus annus has no ancient an­ cestry, since it seems to date from the end of our sixteenth century; on its history J. A d a m in his critical edition ofThe Republic of Plato, Cambridge 1921, II. 304-305, has an illuminating instruction. 2 Since for C i c e r o this dilemma posed no difficulty and therefore was of no importance for him, it is necessary merely to refer the curious reader, who may rejoice in a roster of proponents, to the industry ofB oP. y a n c é ,who has collected some of such names in his Etudes sur le Songe de Scipion, Bordeaux 1936, p.161, nn.2, 3. 294 LAVAL THÉOLOGIQUE ET PHILOSOPHIQUE acquired. But, even if we accept the pro-oriental proponents’ position that the Greeks and through them the Romans received from the Chal- daeans their tradition about the Great Year, it can not be denied that this theory wended its way westward in time to be taken by Plato1 for his Timaeus, where we find the first full account of it in Greek,2 at least a century and perhaps two centuries ere its earliest authentic appearance east of the Aegaean.3 On the other hand, we can not claim that Plato 1 The Platonicloci concerning the Great Year are these:Politicus, 269 C - 273 E, Politeia, 546 BC,Timaeus, 38 B - 39 E. While the chronology ofP lato ’s dialogues never has been settled to the satisfac­ tion of all scholars, I adopt the order of these three as proposed byT aylor A. E. in his Plato: The Man and His Work, 2nd ed., New York 1927, pp.371, 437, where the Politicus precedes the Politeia and thePoliteia precedes the Timaeus. The clearest account of the Great Year is in the last, curiously enough, for the Timaeus is the most difficult of his dialogues to understand, even in English. We can claim with confidence thatC icer o knew Greek better than any modern scholar and, while he knew whatP lato wrote, yetC icero failed to give the readers of his version of theTimaeus a clear idea of whatP lato meant. C icero himself may have considered his translation a failure, because in telling us that obscurity may be due to abstruseness of subject and not of style he proffers in testimonyP lato ’s Timaeus (De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, II. 5. 15). This judgment is justified by St. J erom e (Sophronius E usebiu s H iero ny m u s), who calls theTimaeus anobscurissimus .. .liber... qui ne Ciceronis quidem aureo ore fit planior (Commentarii in Amos, II. 5. 283). 2 P lato concludes a description of celestial mechanics begunTimaeus, in 37 D, to illustrate the conception of Time, which came into existence along with Heaven (38 B) and which is constituted by the wanderings of the planets (39 D), with the statement that it is possible to perceive that the complete number of Time(6 rlXeos αριθμός χρόνου) fulfills the Complete Year (ό τίλκκivLavrós) at the time when the re­ lative speeds of all the eight circuits(reploSoi: of Moon, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Whorl of Fixed Stars C[38 with Politeia, X 616 D - 617 B]), having finished together, come to a head(Ιχειν κεφαλήν, after having been measured by the revolution(<c buXos) of the Same and Similarly-Moving (39 D). SoC ic also er o, Timae­ us, 9. 33, in his version. That is to say, when all the planets, which move at va­ rious but definite speeds in one direction (36 D), and the circle of fixed stars, which surrounds these and moves in another direction (36 D), have returned simultaneous­ ly to the points whence they have started, the Great Year is accomplished. EarlierP lato appears to have considered the duration of the Great Year in his Politeia, VIII. 546 C, in a passage which not only has puzzled many commentators but also has defied some translators. But taken in conjunction with the myth of two cycles of equal and enormous duration Politicus,in his 269 C - 273 E, it seems that each of the two harmonies (one a square and one an oblong)Politeia of the (loc. cit.) represents a Great Year. FromP lato ’s matnematical maze the Great Year then may be calculated at 36,000 ordinary years. The evidence on this point is presented elaborately byA dam , op. cit., II. 206-208, 295-305. But, on the other hand, there is not sufficient testimony to connect this figure with the riXeosbiavris as found in theTimaeus, where the phrase is set in a purely planetary sense.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 4 a Pocockian Moment
    77 4 A Pocockian Moment My encounter with John G. A. Pocock, not in person but in bookish mode, took place more than two decades ago in rather unexpected cir- cumstances. It was in the course of my struggle with a couple of medieval English poems that I came across The Machiavellian Moment. 1 Reading it was for me a revealing experience and helpful in making out those oth- erwise intractable pieces of work. The poems in question were by Geoffrey Chaucer, The House of Fame and The Parliament of Fowls, both belonging to the medieval poetic genre called the “dream vision,” in which the poet/narrator describes in the first person singular the con- tents of a dream. Briefly put, the visionary experience comprising The House of Fame is made up largely of three sections through which the poet/narrator goes through: (1) in the first section (called the Temple of Venus) we are given an abridged version of the story of the Aeneid as the poet/narrator sees it portrayed on the walls of the temple. It should be noted for our present purposes that the Virgilian story is an exemplary instance of the topos “translatio imperii ”; (2) in the second section, the poet/narrator undergoes a version of the cosmic flight vision, in which the visionary/narrator describes his/her flight from the earth to some higher place. Its celebrated examples include the Somnium Scipionis, Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae (esp. Book IV, metrum I), and Dante’s Paradiso. In Chaucer’s House of Fame, however, as we shall see later, what is supposed to be a transcendental cosmic flight was parodied so that the destination of the flight was neither the other side of the uni- verse (“on the outside of the swift air”) as in the case of Boethius, nor the 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period
    Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period This volume is an investigation of how Augustine was received in the Carolingian period, and the elements of his thought which had an impact on Carolingian ideas of ‘state’, rulership and ethics. It focuses on Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims, authors and political advisers to Charlemagne and to Charles the Bald, respectively. It examines how they used Augustinian political thought and ethics, as manifested in the De civitate Dei, to give more weight to their advice. A comparative approach sheds light on the differences between Charlemagne’s reign and that of his grandson. It scrutinizes Alcuin’s and Hincmar’s discussions of empire, rulership and the moral conduct of political agents during which both drew on the De civitate Dei, although each came away with a different understanding. By means of a philological–historical approach, the book offers a deeper reading and treats the Latin texts as political discourses defined by content and language. Sophia Moesch is currently an SNSF-funded postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, working on a project entitled ‘Developing Principles of Good Govern- ance: Latin and Greek Political Advice during the Carolingian and Macedonian Reforms’. She completed her PhD in History at King’s College London. Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period Political Discourse in Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims Sophia Moesch First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • Life with Augustine
    Life with Augustine ...a course in his spirit and guidance for daily living By Edmond A. Maher ii Life with Augustine © 2002 Augustinian Press Australia Sydney, Australia. Acknowledgements: The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the following people: ► the Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, Australia, for support- ing this project, with special mention of Pat Fahey osa, Kevin Burman osa, Pat Codd osa and Peter Jones osa ► Laurence Mooney osa for assistance in editing ► Michael Morahan osa for formatting this 2nd Edition ► John Coles, Peter Gagan, Dr. Frank McGrath fms (Brisbane CEO), Benet Fonck ofm, Peter Keogh sfo for sharing their vast experience in adult education ► John Rotelle osa, for granting us permission to use his English translation of Tarcisius van Bavel’s work Augustine (full bibliography within) and for his scholarly advice Megan Atkins for her formatting suggestions in the 1st Edition, that have carried over into this the 2nd ► those generous people who have completed the 1st Edition and suggested valuable improvements, especially Kath Neehouse and friends at Villanova College, Brisbane Foreword 1 Dear Participant Saint Augustine of Hippo is a figure in our history who has appealed to the curiosity and imagination of many generations. He is well known for being both sinner and saint, for being a bishop yet also a fellow pilgrim on the journey to God. One of the most popular and attractive persons across many centuries, his influence on the church has continued to our current day. He is also renowned for his influ- ence in philosophy and psychology and even (in an indirect way) art, music and architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • Iamblichus and Julian''s ''Third Demiurge'': a Proposition
    Iamblichus and Julian”s ”Third Demiurge”: A Proposition Adrien Lecerf To cite this version: Adrien Lecerf. Iamblichus and Julian”s ”Third Demiurge”: A Proposition . Eugene Afonasin; John M. Dillon; John F. Finamore. Iamblichus and the Foundations of Late Platonism, 13, BRILL, p. 177-201, 2012, Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval Texts and Contexts. Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition, 10.1163/9789004230118_012. hal-02931399 HAL Id: hal-02931399 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02931399 Submitted on 6 Sep 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Iamblichus and Julian‟s “Third Demiurge”: A Proposition Adrien Lecerf Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France [email protected] ABSTRACT. In the Emperor Julian's Oration To the Mother of the Gods, a philosophical interpretation of the myth of Cybele and Attis, reference is made to an enigmatic "third Demiurge". Contrary to a common opinion identifying him to the visible Helios (the Sun), or to tempting identifications to Amelius' and Theodorus of Asine's three Demiurges, I suggest that a better idea would be to compare Julian's text to Proclus' system of Demiurges (as exposed and explained in a Jan Opsomer article, "La démiurgie des jeunes dieux selon Proclus", Les Etudes Classiques, 71, 2003, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Cicero's Somnium Scipionis and Chaucer's Early
    “FOR I HADDE RED OF AFFRYCAN BYFORN:” CICERO’S SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS AND CHAUCER’S EARLY DREAM VISIONS Timothy A. Shonk When Marcus Tullius Cicero began his contemplative work on the perfect state, De re publica, he confronted two questions, one public and one per- sonal, that must have consumed his psychic energies: how to remain influential in the growth of the Roman state after his year of exile in Greece, and how to ensure that his words and concomitant reputation for rhetorical power endured. To answer the first question, Cicero, removed from the office of Consul and the hall of the Senate, had little choice in continuing to work to meld the classes into an ideal functioning govern- ment but to “do so from his study.”1 To this end, he developed an imagined conversation, closely modeled on Plato’s Republic, featuring personages who loomed large in Rome’s recent history: among them, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus the Younger, Manius Manillus, Publius Rutilus Rufus, and Quintus Mucius Scaevola. The primary speaker, Scipio the Younger, following an opening discussion of the possible explanations of the recent phenomenon of two suns in one day, begins the theme that dominates the work: the three types of government—dictatorship, aristo- cratic rule, and pure democracy of rule by the people—outlining the mer- its and demerits of each system before settling on the view that Rome comes closest to perfection in balancing the three types as best as can be imagined. The second question consuming Cicero had to be his future and his name.
    [Show full text]
  • Martyred for the Church
    Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament · 2. Reihe Herausgeber / Editor Jörg Frey (Zürich) Mitherausgeber/Associate Editors Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford) · James A. Kelhoffer (Uppsala) Tobias Nicklas (Regensburg) · J. Ross Wagner (Durham, NC) 471 Justin Buol Martyred for the Church Memorializations of the Effective Deaths of Bishop Martyrs in the Second Century CE Mohr Siebeck Justin Buol, born 1983; 2005 BA in Biblical and Theological Studies, Bethel University; 2007 MA in New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; 2009 MA in Classical and Near Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota; 2017 PhD in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity, University of Notre Dame; currently an adjunct professor at Bethel University. ISBN 978-3-16-156389-8 / eISBN 978-3-16-156390-4 DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-156390-4 ISSN 0340-9570 / eISSN 2568-7484 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 2. Reihe) The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2018 Mohr Siebeck Tübingen, Germany. www.mohrsiebeck.com This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to repro- ductions, translations and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed by Laupp & Göbel in Gomaringen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Nädele in Nehren. Printed in Germany. Preface This monograph represents a revised version of my doctoral dissertation. It has been updated to take into account additional scholarly literature, bring in new argumentation, and shorten some sections for relevance.
    [Show full text]
  • The Age of Aquarius by Don Cerow, NCGR IV
    The Age of Aquarius by Don Cerow, NCGR IV Welcome to the Age of Aquarius.* We are a generation that is perched on the dawn of a new epoch, a new vibration. The world is changing. Everything from politics to industry to our mortgages turns on a new pivot, and we are lucky enough to be able to witness the unfolding. There are those who feel as though the Age has already begun. Others believe that the Age is not yet here, and the called for changes have not yet fully unfolded. Both are correct. As we look around us, electricity fills the air. Lights, power, technology, refrigeration, computers, smart phones, microchips, and science are all manifestations of the New Age at work, of a brave new world already (up and running). But the use of fossil fuels, oil, coal, and natural gas, the inability of Congress to get things done due to party allegiances, the growing intensity of storms and the general weather patterns, are all indications Alpha Piscium and Omega Piscium are the stars thought by Don Cerow that the Age of Pisces is not yet over. to observationally “benchmark” the Age of Pisces. We are building to a crescendo with the warming of the planet being the Revelation 22:13 says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” When Revelation was written in the first century AD, the substantial catalyst that inaugurates “New Age” (Pisces) stretched out before them, describing what the future would hold. these changes.
    [Show full text]
  • 1489 Macrobius
    1489 Ambrosius A.T. Macrobius –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Although the T-O diagrams were the first to be published (see 1472), other more detailed drawings in the medieval manuscripts of early scholars were copied too, notably those with climatic zones by the Roman philosopher, Ambrosius Aurelius !eodosius Macrobius. Some of these early circular woodcut maps after Macrobius are attractive miniatures, all very similar in design but differing in both their dimensions and details. The British Library !e first in this series of nine maps was printed in Venice by Johann L. Santritter in 1489 (see above). It measures 93 x 98 mm. with east and west reversed and this mistake does not much help in deciphering the topography. !e cities of Babylon, Jerusalem and Alexandria are shown pictorially, but only Babylon survives on all the later blocks and then without its name. Two mountain ranges are also indicated, the Riphaean in the north and the Atlas in Africa, but only the first is on all the later maps. !ule, Britain, Spain, France and Italy are shown in Europe and on later versions too, but Sardinia and Sicily only on the first one. Parthia, India and Taprobana are named in Asia but the last of these not again. Ethiopia in Africa is found on all versions and the Red Sea on most. !e maps which followed were of various sizes, all somewhat smaller than the first but four of them were almost the same as each other, about 80 mm. square. Although the nomenclature in the northern hemisphere was much simplified, it remained unchanged in the southern one.
    [Show full text]
  • Numenius and the Hellenistic Sources of the Central Christian Doctrine
    ! Numenius and the Hellenistic Sources ! of the Central Christian Doctrine Marian Hillar Center for Philosophy and Socinian Studies Houston, TX 77004 Paper published in A Journal from the Radical Reformation. A testimony to Biblical Unitarianism. Vol. 14, No.! 1, Spring 2007, pp. 3-31. Quis obsecro, nisi penitus amens logomachias has sine risu toleraret? Nec in Thalmud, nec in Alchoran, sunt tam horrendae blasfemiae. Haec nos hactenus audire ita sumus alsuefacti, ut nihil miremur. Futurae vero generationes stupenda haec iudicabunt. Stupenda sunt vere, plusquam ea daemonum inventa, quae Valentinianis tribuit Irenaeus. I implore you, who in his sane mind could tolerate such logomachias without bursting into laughter? Not in the Talmud, nor in the Qu’ran can one find such horrendous blasphemies. But we are accustomed to hear them to the point that nothing astonishes us. Future generations will judge them obscure. Indeed, they are obscure, much more than the diabolic inventions which Irenaeus attributed to the Valentinians. ! Michael Servetus Christianismi Restitutio, De Trinitate, lib. I. p. 46. Si locum mihi aliquem ostendas, quo verbum illud filius olim vocetur, fatebor me victum. Christianismi Restitutio, If you show me a single passage in which the Son was called the Word, I will give up. Michael Servetus, Christianismi Restitutio, De Trinitate, lib. III p. 108. ! Abstract This paper attempts to explain the sources of the central Christian doctrine about the nature of deity. We can trace a continuous line of thought from the Greek philosophy to the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. The first Christian doctrine was developed by Justin Martyr (114-165 C.E.).
    [Show full text]
  • When Kings Become Philosophers: the Late Republican Origins of Cicero’S Political Philosophy
    When Kings Become Philosophers: The Late Republican Origins of Cicero’s Political Philosophy By Gregory Douglas Smay A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Erich S. Gruen, Chair Professor Carlos F. Noreña Professor Anthony A. Long Summer 2016 © Copyright by Gregory Douglas Smay 2016 All Rights Reserved Abstract When Kings Become Philosophers: The Late Republican Origins of Cicero’s Political Philosophy by Gregory Douglas Smay Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology University of California, Berkeley Professor Erich S. Gruen, Chair This dissertation argues that Cicero’s de Republica is both a reflection of, and a commentary on, the era in which it was written to a degree not previously recognized in Ciceronian scholarship. Contra readings which treat the work primarily as a theoretical tract in the tradition of late Hellenistic philosophy, this study situates the work within its historical context in Late Republican Rome, and in particular within the personal experience of its author during this tumultuous period. This approach yields new insights into both the meaning and significance of the work and the outlook of the individual who is our single most important witness to the history of the last decades of the Roman Republic. Specifically, the dissertation argues that Cicero provides clues preserved in the extant portions of the de Republica, overlooked by modern students in the past bur clearly recognizable to readers in his own day, indicating that it was meant to be read as a work with important contemporary political resonances.
    [Show full text]
  • 582 in Altman's Two Books on Plato, Plato the Teacher
    582 Book Reviews William H. F. Altman, (2016) The Revival of Platonism in Cicero’s Late Philosophy: Platonis aemulus and the invention of Cicero. Lanham, MD; London: Lexington Books. xxxii + 351 pp. $100.00. ISBN 9781498527118 (hbk). In Altman’s two books on Plato, Plato the Teacher (2012) and The Guardians in Action (2016), we find the traditional reading of Plato, i.e., the philosopher of ‘unchanging, eternal, and transcendent Ideas’ (p. xviii), combined with a rather unique interpretation of Plato as a pedagogue, whose main goal is not to instantiate the ideal state in reality but rather to spread an enlightened form of democracy through an ennobling education program of philosophy. Altman’s interpretation of Cicero as reader of Plato naturally progresses from these two books. Cicero is not the Academic Skeptic, as recent scholarship has argued, but rather an advocate for Platonic transcendence – and one no less relevant to our own historical moment than to the crisis for which Cicero’s philosophy was immediately intended: the fallen Republic. Central to Altman’s argument on Cicero is the main theme of his earlier work on Plato: the return to the cave. According to Altman, although Plato’s belief in transcendent Ideas of the world of intelligibility is genuine, the goal of Plato as philosophical pedagogue is not transcendence but rather a return to the chaotic world of becoming, in which politics take place. Cicero then, in his emulation and rivalry of Plato, is picking up where Plato left off. He is not merely indulging in Platonic transcendence but relying on his philosophical rhetoric at its most subtle level to win over an ideologically fraught and often incredulous Roman readership to political enlightenment and devotion to the Ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • The Succession of World Ages Jane B
    The Succession of World Ages Jane B. Sellers From The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt © 1992, 2007 by Jane Sellers aking up the challenge laid been the product of a long development, for down in Hamlet’s Mill to find it is not until the fourth century bc that we Tarchaeoastronomical origins for find the first use of signs for these segments. many of humanity’s myths, Jane Sellers But certainly by 700 bc, in a Babylonian text undertook to discover the correlations between known as MUL.APIN the path of the sun was the astronomical knowledge of the ancient divided into 4 parts with the sun spending Egyptians and their mythic structures. In this three months in each. Since the months were selection, she discusses the precession of the usually reckoned to have 30 days, it easily equinoxes, vital to the understanding of the followed that the monthly segments of the Mithraic Mysteries. Hipparchus may have zodiac would be each assigned 30 “degrees.” rediscovered this astronomical phenomenon, Antiquity of the Zodiac however, it is clear that the Egyptians were Many astronomers harbor a belief that aware of it centuries before. the division of the sun’s path into twelve At the moment of the Spring equal segments far predated this text. Equinox the heavens are never in Charles A. Whitney, Professor of Astronomy quite the same position they were at Harvard, in Whitney’s Starfinder, 1986– in the year before, since there is a 89 writes, “Three thousand years ago and very slight annual lag of about 50 perhaps longer—astronomers chose the seconds, which in the course of sun signs according to the corresponding 72 years amounts to 1 degree (50 zodiacal constellations, and they set Aries at seconds x 72 years = 3,600 seconds the spring equinox.”2 = 60 minutes = 1 degree) and in 2,160 years amounts to 30 degrees, which is one “sign” of the zodiac.
    [Show full text]