Chapter XXIII: The New Academy (14)

[1532] Clitomachus was a native of Carthage. Hence he is called by Max Tyr. Diss. 10, 3, ὁ Λίβυς. He originally bore the name of Hasdrubal. At home he devoted himself to study, and wrote several treatises in his mother tongue (τῇ ἰδίᾳ φωνῇ ἐν τῇ πατρίδι ἐφιλοσόφει). When 40 years of age (according to Steph. Byz. De urbe Καρχηδὼν; 28), he came to Athens, was initiated by Carneades into Greek philosophy, and devoted himself to it with such zeal and success (Cic. Acad. ii. 6, 17; 31, 98; Athen. ix. 402, c) that he became esteemed as a philosopher and voluminous writer (Diog. iv. 67). Treatises of his are mentioned by Cic. Acad. ii. 31, 98; 32, 102; Diog. ii. 92. He died (according to Stob. Floril. vii. 55) by suicide, not before 110 B.C. (as Zumpt remarks, Ueber d. philosoph. Schulen in Ath., Abh. d. Berl. Akad., Jahrg. 1842. Hist. Philol. Kl. p. 67), since, according to Cic. De Orat. i. 11, 45, L. Crassus, during his quæstorship, which falls at the earliest in this year, met him at Athens. He must then have been very old.

[1533] Diog. iv. 67; Cic. Acad. ii. 32, 102.

[1534] As the peculiar observation in Diog. iv. proves: (ἀνὴρ ἐν ταῖς τρισὶν αἱρέσεσι διαπρέψας, ἔν τε τῇ Ἀκαδημαϊκῇ Περιπατητικῇ καὶ Στωϊκῇ).

[1535] According to Cic. Acad. ii. 6, 17; De Orat. i. 11. 45; Orator, 16, 51, Charmadas was a pupil of Carneades, whom he followed not only in teaching but also in method. He must have survived Clitomachus, since he taught at the same time with Philo. See p. 566, 1. Philo, however, according to Clitomachus, undertook the presidency of the School (Eus. Pr. Ev. xiv. 8, 9). According to Cic. De Orat. ii. 88, 360. Tusc. i. 24, 59, he was remarkable for a good memory.

[1536] Cic. De Orat. i. 18, 84: Charmadas asserted, eos qui rhetores nominabantur et qui dicendi præcepta traderent nihil plane tenere, neque posse quenquam facultatem assequi dicendi, nisi qui philosophorum inventa didicissent. Sext. Math. ii. 20, also mentions the hostile attitude of Clitomachus and Charmadas towards rhetoricians, and says that both he and the School to which he belonged were engaged in disputes with them. His fellow-disciple Agnon drew up a treatise, according to Quintil. ii. 17, 15, entitled ‘Charges against the rhetoricians.’ Ritter’s inferences, that Charmadas recommended philosophy as the only way to eloquence, and thus betrayed the object of the philosophical doctrine of probability, iii. 695, make far too much of a casual expression which means no more than what the Stoics, and before them Plato, had said.

[1537] In addition to Clitomachus and Charmadas, Cic. Acad. ii. 6, 16, mentions Agnon and Melanthius of Rhodes, the former of whom is also referred to by Quintilian. (See Athen. xiii. 602, d.) Cicero adds that Metrodorus of Stratonice passed for a friend of Carneades; he had come over from among the Epicureans (Diog. x. 9) to join him. This Metrodorus must neither be confounded with Metrodorus of Skepsis, the pupil of Charmadas (see p. 566, 1), nor with the Metrodorus distinguished as a painter, 168 B.C., whom Æmilius Paulus brought to Rome (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 11, 135). The former must have been younger, the latter older, than Metrodorus of Stratonice. A pupil of Melanthius (Diog. ii. 64), and also of Carneades in his later years (Plut. An Seni. s. ger. Resp. 13, 1, p. 791), was Æschines of Naples, according to Cic. De Orat. i. 11, 45, who was likewise a distinguished teacher in the Academic School towards the close of the second century. Another pupil, Mentor, was by Carneades forbidden the School, because he was caught with his concubine (Diog. iv. 63; Numen. in Eus. Pr. Ev. xiv. 8, 7).

[1538] Exc. Vatic. xii 26: καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνων [τῶν ἐν Ἀκαδημίᾳ] τινὲς βουλόμενοι περί τε τῶν προφανῶς καταληπτῶν εἶναι δοκούντων καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀκαταλήπτων εἰς ἀπορίαν ἄγειν τοὺς προσμαχομένους τοιαύταις χρῶνται παραδοξολογίαις καὶ τοιαύτας εὐποροῦσι πιθανότητας, ὥστε διαπορεῖν, ἀδύνατόν [l. εἰ δυνατόν] ἐστι, τοὺς ἐν Ἀθήναις ὄντας ὀσφραίνεσθαι τῶν ἑψομένων ὠῶν ἐν Ἐφέσῳ, καὶ διστάζειν, μή πω καθ’ ὃν καιρὸν ἐν Ἀκαδημίᾳ διαλέγονται περὶ τούτων οὐχ ὑπὲρ ἄλλων ἄρ’ ἐν οἴκῳ κατακείμενοι τούτους διατίθενται τοὺς λόγους· ἐξ ὧν δι’ ὑπερβολὴν τῆς παραδοξολογίας εἰς διαβολὴν ἤχασι τὴν ὅλην αἵρεσιν, ὥστε καὶ τὰ καλῶς ἀπορούμενα παρὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις εἰς ἀπιστίαν ἦχθαι, καὶ χωρὶς τῆς ἰδίας ἀστοχίας καὶ τοῖς νέοις τοιοῦτον ἐντετόκασι ζῆλον, ὥστε τῶν μὲν ἠθικῶν καὶ πραγματικῶν λόγων μηδὲ τὴν τυχοῦσαν ἐπίνοιαν ποιεῖσθαι, δι’ ὧν ὄνησις τοῖς φιλοσοφοῦσι, περὶ δὲ τὰς ἀνωφελεῖς καὶ παραδόξους εὑρεσιλογίας κενοδοξοῦντες κατατρίβουσι τοὺς βίους. In the time of Carneades, whose cotemporary was Polybius, to whom the language as to the enthusiasm of youth for Sceptical teaching refers, such depreciatory remarks could not have been made of the Academy. The historical value, therefore, of the whole passage is suspicious. It bears besides the mark of exaggeration so strongly that it is of no greater use for giving a view of the Academy than are the caricatures of opponents for conveying an idea of modern German philosophy.

[1539] Among these pupils the tendency to lay stress on the doctrine of probabilities in relation to Scepticism was already strong. Proof may be found not only in the accounts already given us of Clitomachus and Æschines, but also in the circumstance that many of the older writers made the fourth Academy date from Philo and Charmadas, the fifth from Antiochus (Sext. Pyrrh. i. 220; Eus. Pr. Ev. xiv. 4, 16). At a still earlier date, Metrodorus is said to have departed from the platform of Carneades. Augustin. c. Acad. iii. 18, 41, after speaking of Antiochus and his renunciation of Scepticism, says: Quamquam et Metrodorus id antea facere tentaverat, qui primus dicitur esse confessus, non decreto placuisse Academicis, nihil posse comprehendi, sed necessario contra Stoicos hujus modi eos arma sumsisse. Probably Augustin borrowed this passage from a lost treatise of Cicero; hence it may be relied upon. The Metrodorus referred to is probably Metrodorus of Stratonice (see p. 564, 5), mentioned by Cic. Acad. ii. 6, 16. Metrodorus of Skepsis might also be suggested (Strabo, xiii. 155, p. 609; xvi. 4, 16, p. 775; Plut. Lucull. 22; Diog. v. 84; Cic. De Orat. ii. 88, 360; 90, 365; iii. 20, 75; Tusc. i. 24, 59; Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 24, 89; Quintil. x. 6, 1; xi. 2, 22; Müller, Hist. Gr. iii. 203), who first learned rhetoric at Chalcedon, afterwards entered the service of Mithridates, and was put to death by his orders, B.C. 70, at an advanced age. Cic. De Orat. iii. 20, 75, calls him an Academician; and he is mentioned, Ibid. i. 11, 45, as a pupil of Charmadas. The language quoted by Augustin may have come from the treatise περὶ συνηθείας (Strabo, p. 775). He is otherwise only known as a rhetorician and politician. The same uncertainty prevails as to the Metrodorus referred to in Cic. Acad. ii. 24, 78 (see p. 554, 3). We do not know who he is, but it may be inferred that it is the same Metrodorus who is mentioned by Augustin.