Sotion (teacher of Seneca)

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Sotion ( Greek  Σωτίων Sōtíōn ) was a Greek philosopher . He lived in the late 1st century BC. BC and early 1st century AD in Rome. According to a very late source, the late antique chronicle of the church father Hieronymus , Sotion came from Alexandria in Egypt and reached his akmḗ - the age of 40 years considered as the high point of life - in the year 13 AD.

Sotion belonged to the "Sextier" philosophy school that Quintus Sextius founded in the 1st century BC. In Rome. In this school, stoic and neo-Pythagorean ideas were mixed , with the latter apparently predominating: Quintus Sextius emphasized the statement that he was not a Stoic, and Sotion strongly advocated Pythagorean teachings.

Sotion is known as Seneca's teacher . He took part in Sotion's lessons as a youth (puer) and youth (iuvenis) , i.e. in the second and perhaps even in the third decade of the 1st century AD. At times Seneca took over vegetarianism from his teacher . Sotion justified the meatless diet with the doctrine of wandering souls, referring to Pythagoras , and also - following Quintus Sextius - with health considerations and the demand to avoid cruelty; in addition, this way of eating belonged to him for philosophical frugality (frugalitas) , because eating meat was regarded as a luxury. At Sotion Seneca also learned the Pythagorean tradition, already carried out by Quintus Sextius, of evening recapitulation of the day and self-questioning before going to sleep: “Which of your (character) ailments have you cured today? What vice did you withstand? In what way have you (got) better? ” Cicero had already known this self-examination as a Pythagorean custom.

It is unclear whether Seneca's teacher can be identified with the author of the same name, "On Anger" (Peri orgḗs) . Some fragments from this work have come down to us from Stobaius .

literature

  • Jean-Pierre Schneider: Sotion d'Alexandrie. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 518-521

Remarks

  1. ↑ Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 64.2.
  2. ↑ Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 49.2 and 108.17.
  3. ↑ Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 108, 17-21. See Charles H. Kahn: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans , Indianapolis 2001, pp. 92f., 151.
  4. ↑ Seneca, De ira 36: 1-3.
  5. ↑ Cicero, Cato maior de senectute 38; Charles H. Kahn: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans , Indianapolis 2001, p. 92f.
personal data
SURNAME Sotion
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek philosopher and teacher of Seneca
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century