Cratippus of Pergamon

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Cratippus (Greek: Κρατίππος) of Pergamum, was a Peripatetic philosopher of the 1st century BC who taught at Mytilene and Athens. He became head of the Lyceum in 44 BC in succession to Andronicus of Rhodes. The only aspects of his teachings which are known to us are what Cicero records concerning divination.

Contents

[edit] Life

Cratippus was a contemporary of Cicero who was connected with him by intimate friendship, and entertained a very high opinion of him, for he declared him to be the most distinguished among the Peripatetics that he had known,[1] and thought him at least equal to the greatest men of his school.[2] Cratippus accompanied Pompey in his flight after the Battle of Pharsalia, and endeavoured to comfort and rouse him by philosophical arguments.[3] Several eminent Romans, such as M. Marcellus and Cicero himself, received instruction from him, and in 44 BC Cicero's son was his pupil at Athens, and was tenderly attached to him.[4] Young Cicero seems also to have visited Asia in his company.[5] When Caesar was at the head of the Roman republic, Cicero obtained from him the Roman franchise for Cratippus, and also induced the council of the Areopagus at Athens to invite the philosopher to remain in the city and to continue his instructions in philosophy,[6] where he became head of the Peripatetic school in succession to Andronicus of Rhodes. After the murder of Caesar, Brutus, while staying at Athens, also attended the lectures of Cratippus.[7]

[edit] Teachings

Notwithstanding the high opinion which Cicero entertained of the knowledge and talent of Cratippus, we do not hear that he wrote on any philosophical subject, and the only allusions we have to his tenets, refer to his opinions on divination, on which he seems to have written a work. Cicero states that Cratippus believed in dreams and supernatural inspiration (Latin: furor) but that he rejected all other kinds of divination.[8] He seems to have held that, while motion, sense and appetite cannot exist apart from the body, thought reaches its greatest power when most free from bodily influence, and that divination is due to the direct action of the divine mind on that faculty of the human soul which is not dependent on the body.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cicero, de Officiis, iii. 2
  2. ^ Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 3.
  3. ^ Plutarch, Pomp. 75; comp. Aelian, Varia Historia, vii. 21.
  4. ^ Cicero, Brut. 31, ad Fam. xii. 16, xvi. 21, de Officiis, i. 1, ii. 2, 7.
  5. ^ Cicero, Ad Fam. xii. 16.
  6. ^ Plutarch, Cicero, 24.
  7. ^ Plutarch, Brutus, 24.
  8. ^ Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 3, 32, 50, 70, 71, ii. 48, 52; Tertullian, de Anim. 46.

[edit] Sources

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Peripatetic philosophers
Greek era
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