Thrasyllos (philosopher)

Thrasyllos ( Greek  Θράσυλλος , rarely Thrasylos , Latin Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus ; † 36 ) was an ancient philosopher of the Middle Platonic direction and astrologer . He was a long-time astrological advisor to the Roman emperor Tiberius . He is sometimes named after his presumed hometown Thrasyllos of Alexandria . The name Thrasyllos by Mendes is based on his equation with an author named Thrasyllos from Mendes in Egypt, which is however hypothetical.

Life

It can be assumed that Thrasyllos came from Alexandria in Egypt or had acquired citizenship there, since his son later lived there and was a prominent citizen of the city.

In the years 6 BC Tiberius stayed in voluntary exile on Rhodes until 2 AD , as his relationship with the then reigning Emperor Augustus was temporarily strained. In Rhodes he met Thrasyllos and accepted him into the circle of his confidants. The close relationship of trust between the two continued until the philosopher's death. Thanks to the support of Tiberius, Thrasyllos received Roman citizenship . In doing so he took the name of his patron; henceforth he was called in Latin Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus .

When Tiberius returned to Rome in AD 2, Thrasyllos accompanied him. In the last time before the death of Augustus (14 AD) he obviously belonged to his circle; together with Tiberius he dined with the emperor. During the reign of Tiberius, Thrasyllos remained in his vicinity, even after the emperor had moved to Capri .

Thrasyllos died in the year 36. From information in an incompletely preserved poem it has been inferred in older research that his wife was called Aka and was of royal origin, presumably a daughter of a member of the ruling dynasty of Kommagene . According to the current state of research, this assumption is based on a wrong reading and addition to the fragmentary text. Thrasyllos had a son, Tiberius Claudius Balbillus , who also became a famous scholar and astrologer. As Tacitus reports, Balbillus is said to have foretold the rule of Nero . Nero appointed him prefectus Aegypti . Presumably a granddaughter of Thrasyllos was Ennia Thrasylla, wife of the powerful Praetorian prefect Quintus Naevius Sutorius Macro ; the couple were forced by Emperor Caligula in 38 to give themselves to death.

Anecdotes

Anecdotes have been passed down about the relationship between Thrasyllos and Tiberius, some of which - like many other claims of historians - correspond to the strongly tendentious character of the sources on the personality and rule of this emperor. It was said that Thrasyllos had already predicted the empire on Rhodes by Tiberius. The suspicious Tiberius put him to the test by asking him to comment on his own future. It was Tiberius' habit to secretly kill astrologers whom he suspected of fraud or boastfulness. Thereupon Thrasyllos recognized the threatening mortal danger astrologically and was violently frightened. With this he made a deep impression on Tiberius and won his trust. He is also said to have truthfully announced that a ship arriving in Rhodes was bringing good news; it was a request to Tiberius to return to Rome. It was also reported that Thrasyllos not only advised Tiberius astrologically, but also taught him good astrological skills so that the emperor could foresee his own future fate as well as that of other people. According to another story, Thrasyllos foresaw the imminent death of Tiberius, but withheld his knowledge from the emperor and deceived him by promising him a further ten years of life. As a result, executions that had already been planned were postponed, which meant that they were not carried out. It was said that Thrasyllos accurately foretold the day and hour of his own death.

Suetonius says that as a child he heard from his grandfather that a prediction by Thrasyllos was the reason why Emperor Caligula had a ship bridge built over the Gulf of Baiae , on which he crossed the Gulf on horseback. Thrasyllos had told Tiberius that Caligula would never become emperor, any more than he would ride across the Bay of Baiae.

Works and teaching

The writings of Thrasyllos, which dealt with philosophical as well as mathematical, astronomical, astrological and musical topics, are only preserved in fragments or in excerpts or are known from mentions by other authors.

One of his philosophical works dealt with the Platonic and Pythagorean principles. A fragment about the Logos from an unknown work by Thrasyllos has come down to us from the Neo-Platonist Porphyrios . In this text Thrasyllos takes the view that the Logos is present not only in the intelligible world and in natural things, but also in artificially created things.

Another area of ​​activity of the Thrasyllos was the division of Plato's dialogues into tetralogies (groups of four). But he was probably not the originator of this apparently as early as the 1st century BC. Known classification, but has probably only edited it and contributed significantly to its spread, which led to the fact that it remained associated with his name for posterity. He probably dealt with the classification in a work that also contained a biography of Plato and an introduction to his writings.

In addition to Plato, he was particularly interested in the pre-Socratic Democritus , whom he regarded as a Pythagorean. He wrote an introduction to reading the writings of Democritus, in which he listed the works of this philosopher and divided them, like those of Plato, into groups of four; there were 13 tetralogies, grouped into five subject areas. This classification probably existed earlier and was only revised by him.

Thrasyllos wrote an astronomical work, a music-theoretical treatise "About the seven-stringed canon" ( Peri tou heptachórdou ) and an astrological manual for which the title Pros Hierokléa pínax (" Pinax to Hierocles") has been passed down. The word pinax referred to a table or a directory, in a special meaning it was used symbolically and abbreviated for "astrology". The Pinax of Thrasyllos, which has been handed down in excerpts and was still used in Byzantine times, was an elementary book that described, among other things, the zodiac and the movements of the sun and moon.

If the philosopher Thrasyllos is to be equated with Thrasyllos von Mendes, he is also to be regarded as the author of two works ascribed to this author, which are only known from mentions in Pseudo- Plutarch : a treatise "About stones" ( Peri líthōn ) in at least three books and one Font "Egyptian" ( Aigyptiaká ).

reception

The astrological handbook of Thrasyllos had a considerable aftereffect; it was consulted by Pliny the Elder , among others . Juvenal mentions "Numbers of the Thrasyllos", which in the early 2nd century provided the basis for many astrological or numerological decisions in everyday matters. The theory of harmony presented in the book on the canon met with criticism from Theon of Smyrna and Nicomachus of Gerasa . The work on the doctrine of principles was still known in the third century; the scholar Longinos commented on it in a paper quoted by Porphyrios.

In the 4th century, Emperor Julian and the rhetorician Themistios referred to the friendship between Thrasyllos and Tiberius. Julian wrote in a letter to Themistius that Thrasyllos would be forever discredited by his association with a tyrant like Tiberius if he had not succeeded in creating a favorable impression of his character in his writings.

Source collections

• Andrew Barker (Ed.): Greek Musical Writings , Vol. 2: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989, ISBN 0-521-30220-X , pp. 211–213, 226–229 (English translation of source texts on Thrasyllos' music theory)
• Heinrich Dörrie , Matthias Baltes (ed.): Platonism in antiquity . Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt (source texts with translation and commentary)
  • Vol. 2, 1990, ISBN 3-7728-0358-X , pp. 12 f., 86-91, 96-99, 338-341, 349
  • Vol. 3, 1993, ISBN 3-7728-1155-8 , pp. 12 f., 16-19, 68 f., 149, 267

literature

• Michael Chase, Richard Goulet: Thrasyllos. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 1150–1172
• Wilhelm Gundel , Hans Georg Gundel : Astrologumena. The astrological literature in antiquity and its history . Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 1966, pp. 148–151
• Michael Kaplan: Greeks and the Imperial Court. From Tiberius to Nero . Garland, New York 1990, ISBN 0-8240-3213-6 , pp. 43-62 (also dissertation, University of Cambridge 1977).
• Irmgard Männlein-Robert : T. Klaudios Thrasyllos. In: Christoph Riedweg et al. (Hrsg.): Philosophy of the imperial era and late antiquity (= outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 5/1). Schwabe, Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7965-3698-4 , pp. 563-565, 679
• Harold Tarrant: Thrasyllan Platonism . Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1993, ISBN 0-8014-2719-3 (with a compilation of the source texts, pp. 215–249)

Remarks

1. ↑ Conrad Cichorius : The astrologer Ti. Claudius Balbillus, son of Thrasyllus . In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie Neue Reihe 76, 1927, pp. 102-105, here: 102 f.
2. ↑ CIL 3, 7107 .
3. ^ Suetonius, Augustus 98; Alfred Schmid: Augustus and the power of the stars. Ancient astrology and the establishment of the monarchy in Rome , Cologne 2005, p. 355.
4. ↑ On the hypothesis see Conrad Cichorius: Der Astrologe Ti. Claudius Balbillus, son of Thrasyllus . In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie Neue Reihe 76, 1927, pp. 102-105, here: p. 103 Note 1. Cf. Wilhelm Gundel, Hans Georg Gundel: Astrologumena , Wiesbaden 1966, pp. 148 f. and note 14.
5. ↑ Michael Kaplan: Greeks and the Imperial Court , New York 1990, pp. 49, 390.
6. ↑ For Balbillus and his descent see Reinhold Merkelbach : Ephesische Parerga 21. A testimony for Ti. Claudius Balbillus from Smyrna . In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 31, 1978, p. 186 f .; Michael Kaplan: Greeks and the Imperial Court , New York 1990, pp. 50-62; Bernadette Puech: Balbillus . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 2, Paris 1994, pp. 49-53.
7. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 6:21; see. Cassius Dio 55.11.2. See Michael Kaplan: Greeks and the Imperial Court , New York 1990, pp. 44, 387.
8. ^ Suetonius, Tiberius 14.
9. ↑ Suetonius, Caligula 19.
10. ↑ Porphyrios, Commentary on Ptolemy's theory of harmony , ed. by Ingemar Düring , Göteborg 1932 (reprint Hildesheim 1978), p. 12, lines 21-28. See Heinrich Dörrie: La manifestation du Logos dans la création . In: Jacqueline Bonnamour (ed.): Néoplatonisme. Mélanges offerts à Jean Trouillard , Fontenay aux Roses 1981, pp. 141-157. See Harold Tarrant: Thrasyllan Platonism , Ithaca 1993, p. 108 ff.
11. ↑ Harold Tarrant objects to this prevailing doctrine, which Thrasyllos' own contribution considers relatively minor: Thrasyllan Platonism , Ithaca 1993, p. 11 ff.
12. ↑ Jaap Mansfeld : Prolegomena , Leiden 1994, pp. 59-74.
13. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 9.38; see Jaap Mansfeld: Prolegomena , Leiden 1994, p. 97 ff.
14. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 9.41 and 9.45-48; see Jaap Mansfeld: Prolegomena , Leiden 1994, p. 101.
15. ↑ For details see Aldo Brancacci, Pierre-Marie Morel (ed.): Democritus: Science, the Arts, and the Care of the Soul , Leiden 2007, pp. 11–41.
16. ↑ Cited by the astronomer Achilleus Tatios ; see Harold Tarrant: Thrasyllan Platonism , Ithaca 1993, p. 228.
17. ↑ On the meanings of the word pinax and its change, especially with regard to its astrological use, see Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, Micah Ross: Various Renderings of Πίναξ in Greek and Demotic at Medīnet Māḍi. In: Nicholas Campion, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (Ed.): Astrology in Time and Place: Cross-Cultural Questions in the History of Astrology. Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2015, pp. 109-129.
18. ↑ Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, Micah Ross: Various Renderings of Πίναξ in Greek and Demotic at Medīnet Māḍi. In: Nicholas Campion, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (Ed.): Astrology in Time and Place: Cross-Cultural Questions in the History of Astrology. Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2015, pp. 109–129, here: 116 f.
19. ↑ Compilation of the source texts by Felix Jacoby (ed.): The Fragments of the Greek Historians , Part 3 C, Vol. 1, Leiden 1958, p. 156 f. (No. 622).
20. ↑ Juvenal, Satires 6,572-576.
21. ↑ Andrew Barker (Ed.): Greek Musical Writings , Vol. 2, Cambridge 1989, pp. 210, 213, 266; Flora R. Levin: The Manual of Harmonics of Nicomachus the Pythagorean , Grand Rapids 1994, pp. 164-166.
22. ↑ Porphyrios, Vita Plotini 20.
23. ↑ See Michael Kaplan: Greeks and the Imperial Court , New York 1990, p. 46 f.