Demetrios of skepticism

Demetrios von Skeptisis was a Greek writer out of skepticism in the northwestern Asia Minor region of Troas , who in the 2nd century BC. Lived and worked as a private scholar.

He has written 30 books a comprehensive review of the "Catalog of the Trojans," a passage in the Iliad of Homer . The title of Demetrios' work was probably "Περὶ τοῦ Τρωικοῦ διακόσμου" ("About the Trojan army show"). The text has not survived, but the ancient geographer Strabo used it several times. Demetrios von Skeptis was according to him a contemporary of the Aristarchus of Samothrace (217-145) and the Krates of Mallos in Cilicia (2nd century BC). Strabo also writes that Demetrios was still a youth around the time of the Battle of Magnesia ("μειράκιον"). Diogenes Laertios names in his work “On the life and teachings of famous philosophers” a Demetrios who was “a rich man from a noble family and very learned” and who skeptically supported his compatriot Metrodorus in his training. Accordingly, Demetrios must have been skeptical about 130 BC. BC probably still alive.

Demetrios had excellent geographical knowledge and a profound erudition. His work inspired the writer Apollodorus of Athens to comment on the Iliad's catalog of ships .

literature

Richard Gaede: Demetrii Scepsii quae supersunt . Dissertation, University of Greifswald 1880 ( PDF version ).
Anna Maria Biraschi: Demetrios skeptical. In: Brill's New Jacoby : The fragments of the Greek historians Part V. Brill, Leiden 2011 ff.
Eduard Schwartz : Demetrios 78 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 2, Stuttgart 1901, Col. 2807-2813.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Stefan Radt : Strabons Geographika. Volume 7: Book IX-XIII: Commentary. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-25956-6 , p. 507.
^ For example Strabo, Geographie 8,3,6 (p. 339); 13,1,27 (p. 563), 13,1,43-45 (p. 602 f.), 13,1,53 (p. 607) and 13,1,55 (p. 609).
↑ Diogenes Laertius: Lives and opinions of famous philosophers. Book I – X. Translated by Otto Apelt (= Philosophical Library . Volume 53/54). 2nd edition, Felix Meiner, Hamburg 1967, p. 287.
^ Eduard Schwartz : Demetrios 78 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 2, Stuttgart 1901, Col. 2807-2813, here Col. 2807 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Demetrios of skepticism
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek author
DATE OF BIRTH	around 205 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	around 130 BC Chr.

[Radt-1] Stefan Radt : Strabons Geographika. Volume 7: Book IX-XIII: Commentary. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-25956-6 , p. 507.

[2] For example Strabo, Geographie 8,3,6 (p. 339); 13,1,27 (p. 563), 13,1,43-45 (p. 602 f.), 13,1,53 (p. 607) and 13,1,55 (p. 609).

[3] Diogenes Laertius: Lives and opinions of famous philosophers. Book I – X. Translated by Otto Apelt (= Philosophical Library . Volume 53/54). 2nd edition, Felix Meiner, Hamburg 1967, p. 287.

[4] Eduard Schwartz : Demetrios 78 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 2, Stuttgart 1901, Col. 2807-2813, here Col. 2807 f.