Ammonios (Plutarch's teacher)

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Ammonios ( Greek  Ἀμμώνιος Ammṓnios , also Markos Annios Ammonios , Latin Marcus Annius Ammonius ; * probably between 5 and 20 AD; † around 80 or 85 in Athens ) was an ancient philosopher of Egyptian origin who taught in Athens. He was a Platonist and lived in the epoch of Middle Platonism , whose reception of Plato's teachings shaped his thinking. Ammonios is known for the role he plays in the works of his famous student Plutarch .

Life

Ammonios came from Egypt. The dates of his birth vary between approx. 5 AD and approx. 20 AD. It is possible that he received his training in Platonic philosophy in Alexandria . He moved to Athens, where he acquired citizenship and was accepted into the Demos Cholleidai. In Athens he was active as a philosophy teacher, but not - as was believed earlier - as head ( scholarch ) of the Platonic Academy . Since the fall of the "Younger Academy" and the "Old Academy" founded by Antiochus of Askalon in the 1st century BC. There was no longer an academy as an institution in Athens, only individual Platonists who gave their students lessons. However, the term “academy” continued to be used in a contemporary way when the study of Platonic teachings was discussed. Apparently Ammonios ran a private school he founded.

Probably in the year 67, during Emperor Nero's stay in Greece, Ammonios met the Roman senator Marcus Annius Afrinus, who was suffect consul that year . Afrinus, a benefactor of Athens, gave him Roman citizenship . Therefore, Ammonios took the first name and family name of his benefactor and called himself Markos Annios Ammonios (Latin: Marcus Annius Ammonius).

As an Athenian, Ammonius enjoyed a high reputation among his fellow citizens. Three times he held the prestigious office of strategist of the hoplites , which was associated with considerable expenses for the respective carrier.

Ammonios was married and had a son Thrasyllos and possibly another son Ammonius. Thrasyllos achieved the highly respected office of Herald of the Areopagus during his father's lifetime .

The hypothesis that Plutarch's teacher Ammonios can be identified with the writer Ammonios von Lamptrai is no longer supported in recent research.

Teaching

Nothing is known of the works of Ammonius. All the surviving information about his teaching activities, which apparently took place exclusively in Athens, come from his student Plutarch, who admired him very much. Plutarch often mentions him in his writings. He lets him appear as a participant in his dialogues About the E in Delphi and About the extinct oracles as well as in the table conversations. In About the E in Delphi , Ammonios is the main character. He also plays an important role in On the Extinct Oracle . In the table discussions , Plutarch gives him the presentation of views that he himself shares. Another work by Plutarch with the title Ammonios or On the Intolerance of Joy and Badness has not been preserved. Apparently it was a dialogue in which Ammonios played a central role.

According to Plutarch's account, Ammonius was exemplary as a teacher. In the literary dialogues of his pupil, he appears as a sensitive and competent discussion leader who leads stimulating discussions and chooses the topics skillfully and carefully. He never treats the younger interlocutors with condescension or harshness, rather he values ​​their zeal, even if they are wrong, and motivates them to put forward their own thoughts. In addition to scientific training, he also attaches importance to moral guidance. Plutarch's account shows that Ammonios was interested in many things and was well educated. As a strategist, he tested the young men, the Ephebe , in literature, geometry, rhetoric and music. As a participant in the conversation in Plutarch's works, Ammonios expertly deals with topics from biology, mathematics, physics, language and linguistic history, dance art, poetry, painting, astronomy and religion.

From Plutarch's statements it can be seen that his teacher was influenced by Pythagorean ideas. Ammonius introduced Plutarch to mathematics, for which he was enthusiastic as a youth, and to the religious dimension of Platonism.

In research it is mostly assumed that the views that Ammonios puts forward as a dialogue figure in Plutarch essentially agree with the convictions of the historical philosophy teacher, albeit not in every detail. Plutarch's Dialogue About the E in Delphi is particularly instructive . There Ammonios represents neo-Pythagorean teachings, including the equation of the "one", the supreme deity, with Apollo , the name of the god being interpreted etymologically in this sense ; Apollon is the “not much” or “not much” (from a “not”, the alpha privativum , and pollá “much”). Ammonios makes a sharp distinction between the world of growth and decay and the unchanging world of the immortal and timeless, which he believes is inaccessible to human reason. Apollo is “pure”, that is, uniform, not composed. In a certain way he is present in the world of transitory things and thereby brings about their cohesion, since it tends to dissolve itself. However, the incessant changes of earthly conditions do not fall within the competence of the supreme deity, but in a subordinate god or demon, a demiurge , the pluton is called. Pluton, the ruler of the underworld in Greek mythology, appears in Ammonios' and Plutarch's view of the world as the lord of the earth and natural processes. In contrast to Apollon, the “not much”, he is assigned diversity (his name means “the rich”), and Plutarch lets Ammonios point out that Pluton is “dark” and - as a verse from Homer's Iliad says - of all gods most hated by mortals. Accordingly, people are subject to a power hostile to them.

In the controversial question of whether the world creation account in Plato's dialogue Timaeus is to be understood in the sense of a temporal beginning of the world, Ammonius confessed to the direction of interpretation, according to which the cosmos according to Plato's teaching and in reality has no beginning or end and is constantly becoming is located. Accordingly, Plato's statements about creation are to be understood metaphorically . Plutarch disagreed.

reception

Ancient posterity was dependent on the scattered information in Plutarch's works, as no other information from contemporary sources was available. The late antique philosopher Eunapios von Sardis stated that although there was no biography of Ammonius, one could collect the details by carefully reading the writings of Plutarch and thus gain an impression of the life of this thinker.

Source edition with translation

  • Marie-Luise Lakmann (Ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC - 2nd century AD. Prosopography, fragments and testimony with German translation (= Philosophia antiqua , volume 145). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2017, ISBN 978-90-04-31533-4 , pp. 43–49, 276–331 (critical edition)

literature

  • Bernadette Puech: Ammonios (M. Annius) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 1, Éditions du CNRS, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-222-04042-6 , pp. 164-165
  • John Dillon : The Middle Platonists . Duckworth, London 1977, ISBN 0-7156-1091-0 , pp. 189-192
  • Christopher P. Jones : The Teacher of Plutarch . In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology Vol. 71, 1967, pp. 205-213
  • Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (Ed.): The Origins of the Platonic System. Platonisms of the Early Empire and their Philosophical Contexts. Peeters, Louvain et al. 2009, ISBN 978-90-429-2182-5 , pp. 123-186
  • John Whittaker: Ammonius on the Delphic E . In: The Classical Quarterly New Series Vol. 19, 1969, pp. 185-192

Remarks

  1. ↑ Eunapios of Sardis, Vitae sophistarum 2,1,3. See Christopher P. Jones: The Teacher of Plutarch . In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 71, 1967, pp. 205–213, here: 207.
  2. ^ Marie-Luise Lakmann (ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC - 2nd century AD , Leiden / Boston 2017, p. 43.
  3. ^ John Dillon: The Middle Platonists , London 1977, pp. 184, 190; John Glucker: Antiochus and the Late Academy , Göttingen 1978, p. 133.
  4. ^ Marie-Luise Lakmann (ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC - 2nd century AD , Leiden / Boston 2017, pp. 43, 276–279.
  5. ^ Pier Luigi Donini: Plutarco, Ammonio e l'Academia . In: Frederick E. Brenk, Italo Gallo (ed.): Miscellanea Plutarchea , Ferrara 1986, pp. 97-110.
  6. ^ Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (ed.): The Origins of the Platonic System , Louvain et al. 2009, pp. 123-186, here: 125 f.
  7. ↑ See also Christopher P. Jones: The Teacher of Plutarch . In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 71, 1967, pp. 205–213, here: 208 f., 211.
  8. ↑ Plutarch, Table Discussions 8,3,1. See Christopher P. Jones: The Teacher of Plutarch . In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 71, 1967, pp. 205–213, here: 206 f., 211.
  9. ↑ For family relationships, see Christopher P. Jones: The Teacher of Plutarch . In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 71, 1967, pp. 205-213, here: 207 f., 210 (genealogical table), 211 and John S. Traill: Greek Inscriptions from the Athenian Agora . In: Hesperia 47, 1978, pp. 269-331, here: 300 f.
  10. ↑ See Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (ed.): The Origins of the Platonic System , Louvain et al. 2009, pp. 123-186, here: 124.
  11. ^ Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (eds.): The Origins of the Platonic System , Louvain et al. 2009, pp. 123-186, here: 147.
  12. ^ Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (ed.): The Origins of the Platonic System , Louvain et al. 2009, pp. 123-186, here: 143-146.
  13. ^ Plutarch, Table Discussions 3.1; 3.2; 8.3; 9.1; 9.2; 9.5; 9.14; 9.15. See Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (ed.): The Origins of the Platonic System , Louvain et al. 2009, pp. 123-186, here: 126-142.
  14. ^ Konrat Ziegler : Plutarchus of Chaironeia . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XXI, 1, Stuttgart 1951, Sp. 636-962, here: 652.
  15. ^ Marie-Luise Lakmann (ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC - 2nd century AD , Leiden / Boston 2017, p. 45.
  16. ^ Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (eds.): The Origins of the Platonic System , Louvain et al. 2009, pp. 123–186, here: 166–169; Marie-Luise Lakmann (Ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC BC - 2nd century AD , Leiden / Boston 2017, p. 46.
  17. ^ Marie-Luise Lakmann (ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC Chr. - 2nd century AD , Leiden / Boston 2017, p. 47 f.
  18. ^ Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (eds.): The Origins of the Platonic System , Louvain et al. 2009, pp. 123–186, here: 125, 172–174; Franco Ferrari: La costruzione del platonismo nel De E apud Delphos di Plutarco. In: Athenaeum 98, 2010, pp. 71–87, here: p. 80 and note 22; Marie-Luise Lakmann (Ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC - 2nd century AD , Leiden / Boston 2017, p. 45.
  19. ↑ See this etymology John Whittaker: Ammonius on the Delphic E . In: The Classical Quarterly New Series 19, 1969, pp. 185–192, here: 187.
  20. ↑ Plutarch, On the E in Delphi 17-21 ( Moralia 392a-394c). See John Dillon: The Middle Platonists , London 1977, p. 191.
  21. ^ Marie-Luise Lakmann (ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC BC - 2nd century AD , Leiden / Boston 2017, p. 47.
  22. ^ Marie-Luise Lakmann (ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC Chr. - 2nd century AD , Leiden / Boston 2017, pp. 43, 276 f .; Jan Opsomer: M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile. In: Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer (ed.): The Origins of the Platonic System , Louvain et al. 2009, pp. 123-186, here: 123.
personal data
SURNAME Ammonios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marcus Annius Ammonius; Markos Annios Ammonios
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: between 5 and 20
DATE OF DEATH at 80 or 85
Place of death Athens