RE 5A.2 (1934) 1860–1863 (#41), K. Ziegler (prints relevant passages); KP 5.692–693 (#II.4), Idem;
PLRE 2 (1980) 1091 (#29); NP 12/1.332 (#28), L. Brisson (cites recent editions of Proklos).
GLIM
Theodo ̄ros of Asine ̄ (300 – 360 CE)
Studied Neo-Platonic philosophy under P T, then may have joined
I K. He is credited with two titles: On Names, a discussion based on
the myth of the Phaedrus about the first heaven, to be identified with the first principle (Test.
8 = P, Theol. Plat. 4, pp. 68.24–69.25 S–W.), That the Soul is All the Forms addressing
the transmigration of souls (Test. 37 = N, De nat. hom. 115.5–116.2, 117.1– 4
Matthaei), culminating in the thesis that human souls can reside in animal bodies. He may
also have composed commentaries on some of P’s dialogues (Timaeus, Phaedrus, Phaedo).
He taught a system of different realms of being, revealing a triadic structure at each level
except for the first one, beyond human grasp and called “unspeakable,” thus anticipating
D. The One, itself displaying a triadic structure, comes only second to the
“unspeakable.” The members of each triadic structure were named after the gods of the
traditional Greek mythology, a procedure recalling Proklos. Theodo ̄ros’ sympathy for
arithmological symbolism led him to identify numbers and letters (Test. 6 = Proklos, In Tim.
2, pp. 274.10–277.26 D.). These considerations, linked to his theory of the soul, have their
origin in the interpretation of Plato’s view on the generation of the world-soul. Numbers
are also symbols of the soul, since composed of ratios.
Ed.: W. Deuse, Theodoros von Asine. Sammlung der Testimonien und Kommentar (1973).
RE 5A.2 (1934) 1860–1863, K. Ziegler.
Peter Lautner
Theodo ̄ros of Gadara (30 BCE – 10 CE)
Rhetor and sophist who taught the emperor Tiberius and wrote learned works, including
the probably geographical On “Hollow” Syria, all entirely lost.
Ed.: FGrHist 850.
PTK
Theodo ̄ros of Kure ̄ne ̄ (ca 470 – 400 BCE)
Known as a mathematician of the Pythagorean school, a friend of P and a
teacher of T (44 A4 DK). According to E’ History of Geometry (fr. 133
Wehrli), he was a contemporary of H K. His name occurs in the list of
the Pythagoreans compiled by A (A1). Theodo ̄ros figures in several Platonic
dialogues (Theaetetus, Sophist, Politicus); he must have been one of P’s teachers in mathe-
matics (D L 2.103 = A3) and spent considerable time in Athens. Theodo ̄ros
was the first mathematician of whom we know who taught professionally all four sciences of
the Pythagorean quadrivium – geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and harmonics (A4).
Since the contemporary Pythagorean P was also familiar with these sciences,
and the Pythagorean H with all but astronomy, the formation of the quadrivium
must go back to the Pythagorean school of the early 5th c.
Plato (Tht. 147d = A 4) ascribes to Theodo ̄ros a proof of irrationality of the magnitudes
between √ 3 to √ 17 , which means that Theodo ̄ros relied on the proof of the irrationality of
THEODO ̄ROS OF KURE ̄NE ̄