Charmadas

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Charmadas ( Greek  Χαρμάδας Charmádas ; * probably 168/167 BC; † between 102 and 91 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher . He belonged to the Platonic Academy in Athens .

Life

Charmadas came from Alexandria and apparently also spent his youth there. In the Chronicle of Apollodorus , from which a relevant fragment has been preserved in the Academica (Academicorum index) of Philodemos , there is an account of a young man who came to Athens for the first time at the age of 22 when Aristophantus was Archon . The unnamed youth is identified in research as Charmadas based on the description. The year of Aristophantos' archonate, in which he arrived in Athens, was probably 146/145, so that his birth is 168/167. The philosopher's move to Greece may have been linked to the persecution of intellectuals that took place in Alexandria after King Ptolemy VIII came to power in 145 BC. Began. The king's action was directed against supporters of his brother and predecessor Ptolemy VI. which teachers of Charmada and perhaps himself might have belonged to. In Athens, Charmadas entered the Platonic Academy. At that time, this philosophy school was in the era of the “Younger Academy”, in which skepticism (“academic skepticism”) was the prevailing view. The head ( scholarch ) of the academy was the famous philosopher Karneades , the most prominent representative of academic skepticism. Charmadas became one of Karneades' numerous students and attended his classes for seven years. Then he went to Asia, where he was successful and his eloquence made him famous.

After a while he returned to Athens. His persuasiveness, his extraordinary memory and his excellent education earned him esteem so that he could easily acquire citizenship. His memory was legendary; Pliny the Elder reports that he could memorize entire books and then recall the texts from memory as if he were reading them aloud. It was a natural gift, not mnemonic .

Charmadas was not only active in the academy, where he held a prominent position as a teacher, but also had his own school in the Ptolemaion, a gymnasium in the city center. This school was apparently a state institution whose management he was entrusted with, not a private philosophy school he founded to compete with the academy.

Teaching

Nothing is known of any scriptures or an independent philosophical approach of Charmada. Karneades valued him and praised his ability not only to reproduce the content correctly, but also to present it like the teacher himself. Although Charmadas excelled above all with his eloquence, he shared the reservations about rhetoric that had prevailed in the Academy since Plato's time . According to a report by the Sextus Empiricus , he was one of the academics who emphasized the primacy of philosophy over rhetoric and pointed out that rhetoric can be harmful and is therefore opposed by governments in some countries. He advocated rhetoric only on the condition that it was conveyed within the framework of philosophical education and placed in the service of philosophical endeavors. He criticized the lessons of non-philosophical rhetoric teachers as useless because they had no real knowledge, but only deal with opinions and there was no rhetorical technique. In this polemic he relied on Plato's dialogue Phaedrus .

His listeners included two prominent Roman politicians, Lucius Licinius Crassus and Marcus Antonius , the grandfather of the famous general of the same name. Crassus and Antonius were the two outstanding Roman litigators of their time. Her interest in Charmadas was arguably more his oratorical skills than his philosophy. In his dialogue “About the Orator”, Cicero describes a literary debate about the value and rank of rhetoric in which Charmadas attacks the schools of rhetoric. Cicero assigns Antonius, who is one of his participants in the dialogue, the role of reporter, as Antonius Charmadas experienced in Athens. Otherwise, some of the students of Charmada are known by name through Philodemos: Diodorus von Adramyttion , who later became a leading politician in his homeland and was a follower of Mithridates VI. proceeded with great brutality against his opponents, Apollodorus of Tarsus, Heliodorus of Mallos, Phanostratos of Tralleis, who is associated with the psychagogy of the masses, and the carnival student Apollonios.

The teaching activity of Charmada in the academy fell to a large extent during the time when Philon von Larisa , the last scholarch of the Younger Academy, was head of the school (from 110/109). Sextus Empiricus and Eusebius of Caesarea attribute a significant role to Charmadas alongside Philo. It can therefore be assumed that Charmadas, like Philo, represented a moderate skepticism and not the radical variant of Philon's predecessor Kleitomachos .

literature

  • Charles Brittain: Philo of Larissa. The Last of the Academic Skeptics . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-19-815298-1 .
  • Tiziano Dorandi: Charmadas . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques . Vol. 2, CNRS Éditions, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-271-05195-9 , pp. 297-298.
  • Kilian Fleischer: The academician Charmadas in Apollodors Chronik (PHerc. 1021, col. 31-32) . In: Cronache Ercolanesi 44, 2014, pp. 65–75.
  • Kilian Fleischer: The Disciples of Charmada (PHerc.1021, XXXV 32 - XXXVI 14) . In: Cronache Ercolanesi 45, 2015, pp. 49–53.
  • Kilian Fleischer: The Academic Philosopher Charmadas of Alexandria: Uncovering His Origins . In: Quaderni del Museo del Papiro 16, 2019, pp. 153–164.
  • Woldemar Görler : Charmadas . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity , Vol. 4: The Hellenistic philosophy . 2nd half volume, Schwabe, Basel 1994, ISBN 3-7965-0930-4 , pp. 906-908.
  • Carlos Lévy: Les Petits Académiciens: Lacyde, Charmadas, Métrodore de Stratonice . In: Mauro Bonazzi, Vincenza Celluprica (ed.): L'eredità platonica. Studi sul platonismo da Arcesilao a Proclo . Bibliopolis, Napoli 2005, pp. 51-77.
  • Hans von Arnim : Charmadas 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 2, Stuttgart 1899, Col. 2172 f.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Kilian Fleischer: The academician Charmadas in Apollodors Chronik (PHerc. 1021, col. 31-32). In: Cronache Ercolanesi 44, 2014, pp. 65–75, here: 66 f. The origin of the Charmada has now been confirmed by another papyrus reading, as well as Kilian Fleischer: The Academic Philosopher Charmadas of Alexandria: Uncovering His Origins . In: Quaderni del Museo del Papiro 16, 2019, pp. 153–164.
  2. ^ Charles Brittain: Philo of Larissa. The Last of the Academic Skeptics , Oxford 2001, pp. 313-318; Woldemar Görler: Charmadas . In: Outline of the History of Philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , vol. 4: The Hellenistic philosophy , 2nd half-volume, Basel 1994, pp. 906–908, here: 906 with information on older literature.
  3. ^ The alternative 142/141 v. BC for the archonate is much less likely, see Christian Habicht: The Eponymous Archons of Athens from 159/8 to 141/0 BC In: Hesperia 57, 1988, pp. 237–247, here: 243–246; Charles Brittain: Philo of Larissa. The Last of the Academic Skeptics , Oxford 2001, p. 46 and note 25; Woldemar Görler: Charmadas . In: Outline of the History of Philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , vol. 4: The Hellenistic philosophy , 2nd half volume, Basel 1994, pp. 906–908, here: 906; Tiziano Dorandi: Charmadas . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 2, Paris 1994, pp. 297-298, here: 298.
  4. ↑ Kilian Fleischer: The academician Charmadas in Apollodors Chronik (PHerc. 1021, col. 31-32) . In: Cronache Ercolanesi 44, 2014, pp. 65–75, here: 67.
  5. ↑ Philodemos, Academica col. 32. See also Kilian Fleischer: The academician Charmadas in Apollodors Chronik (PHerc. 1021, col. 31-32) . In: Cronache Ercolanesi 44, 2014, pp. 65–75, here: p. 66 and note 10.
  6. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 7,89; see. Cicero , De oratore 2,88,360 and Tusculanae disputationes 1,24,59.
  7. ↑ Herwig Blum: Die antike Mnemotechnik , Hildesheim 1969, p. 119f.
  8. ↑ See also Kilian Fleischer: The academician Charmadas in Apollodors Chronik (PHerc. 1021, col. 31-32) . In: Cronache Ercolanesi 44, 2014, pp. 65–75, here: 69–75.
  9. ↑ Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians 2.20.
  10. ↑ Cicero, De oratore 1,18,84-1,20,93. See Herwig Blum: Die antike Mnemotechnik , Hildesheim 1969, pp. 118f .; Harold Tarrant: Skepticism or Platonism? , Cambridge 1985, pp. 35-37, 39f .; Carlos Lévy: Les Petits Académiciens: Lacyde, Charmadas, Métrodore de Stratonice . In: Mauro Bonazzi, Vincenza Celluprica (ed.): L'eredità platonica. Studi sul platonismo da Arcesilao a Proclo , Napoli 2005, pp. 51-77, here: 62-68; Charles Brittain: Philo of Larissa. The Last of the Academic Skeptics , Oxford 2001, pp. 319-328.
  11. ↑ Cicero, De oratore 1,18,84-1,20,93. See also Anton D. Leeman, Harm Pinkster: M. Tullius Cicero, De oratore libri III, Commentary , Volume 1: Book I, 1-165 , Heidelberg 1981, pp. 171-173.
  12. ↑ For the list of disciples of Charmada, which is handed down in the Index Academicorum des Philodemos, see Kilian Fleischer: The students of Charmada (PHerc. 1021, XXXV 32 - XXXVI 14) . In: Cronache Ercolanesi 45, 2015, pp. 49–53 (new edition of the passage).
  13. ↑ Strabo 13,1,66; see also Charles Brittain: Philo of Larissa. The Last of the Academic Skeptics , Oxford 2001, p. 317.
  14. ↑ See Kilian Fleischer: Phanostratos von Tralleis . In: Hermes 142, 2014, pp. 476–479 as well as additions in Kilian Fleischer: Die Schüler des Charmadas (PHerc. 1021, XXXV 32 - XXXVI 14) . In: Cronache Ercolanesi 45, 2015, pp. 49–53, here: 52.
  15. ^ Probably Apollonios from Barke; see also Kilian Fleischer: Phanostratos von Tralleis . In: Hermes 142, 2014, pp. 476–479, here: p. 477 note 8.
  16. ^ Sextus Empiricus, Fundamentals of Pyrrhonism (PH) 1,220; Eusebius of Caesarea, Praeparatio evangelica 14,4,16. See Harold Tarrant: Scepticism or Platonism? , Cambridge 1985, p. 34f., Who suspects that this message originally came from Ainesidemos .
  17. ^ Carlos Lévy: Les Petits Académiciens: Lacyde, Charmadas, Métrodore de Stratonice . In: Mauro Bonazzi, Vincenza Celluprica (ed.): L'eredità platonica. Studi sul platonismo da Arcesilao a Proclo , Napoli 2005, pp. 51-77, here: 62-68; Charles Brittain: Philo of Larissa. The Last of the Academic Skeptics , Oxford 2001, pp. 54, 213f., 312; Harold Tarrant: Skepticism or Platonism? , Cambridge 1985, p. 37.
personal data
SURNAME Charmadas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: 168 BC BC or 167 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH between 102 BC BC and 91 BC Chr.