Life
He was a friend of Lucullus (the antagonist of Mithridates) and the teacher of Cicero during his studies at Athens (79 BC); but he had a school at Alexandria also, as well as in Syria, where he seems to have died. He was a philosopher of considerable reputation in his time, for Strabo in describing Ascalon, mentions his birth there as a mark of distinction for the city, and Cicero frequently speaks of him in affectionate and respectful terms as the best and wisest of the Academics, and the most polished and acute philosopher of his age.
He studied under the Stoic Mnesarchus, but his principal teacher was Philo, who succeeded Clitomachus as the head (scholarch) of the Academy. He is, however, better known as the adversary than the disciple of Philo; and Cicero mentions a treatise called Sosus, written by him against his master, in which he refutes the scepticism of the Academics. Another of his works, called Canonica, is quoted by Sextus Empiricus, and appears to have been a treatise on logic.
Antiochus was called the founder of the "fifth Academy," in the same way that Philo was called the founder of the fourth. This split occurred just before the First Mithridatic War began in 88 BC which would lead to the destruction of the Academy in 86 BC. During this time, Antiochus was resident in Alexandria. He had returned to Athens by the time Cicero studied there in 79 BC, and he seems to have died around 68 BC.
Read more about this topic: Antiochus Of Ascalon
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in the infringement as in the observance, and our lives are sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue of some kind. The decaying tree, while yet it lives, demands sun, wind, and rain no less than the green one. It secretes sap and performs the functions of health. If we choose, we may study the alburnum only. The gnarled stump has as tender a bud as the sapling.”
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“Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.”
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“He is a man of one idea: that life has a symbolic significance. Which is to say that life and art are one.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)