Philokalos (ca 100 BCE – ca 90 CE)
A, in G, CMLoc 10.2 (13.349 K.), records his ointment (malagma) for
sciatica. The name is very rare before the 1st c. BCE (of 37 in the LGPN only one, 2.454, is
earlier, 349/348 BCE).
Fabricius (1726) 367.
PTK
Philokle ̄s (250 BCE – 80 CE)
G quotes A’ record of his akopon: wild cucumber root, frankincense,
galbanum, and sampsukhon (marjoram), in beeswax, deer marrow, goose-fat, olive oil, and
wine: CMGen 7.13 (13.1034–1035 K.).
Fabricius (1726) 367.
PTK
Philokrate ̄s (250 BCE – 25 CE)
C 5.19.14 (cf. 5.26.35C) transmits his wound-plaster: sal ammoniac, birthwort,
galbanum, iris-root, and litharge, said to be especially good for deep wounds.
Fabricius (1726) 367.
PTK
Philolaos of Kroto ̄n (ca 430 – after 400 BCE)
The Pythagorean philosopher and scientist, born ca 470 BCE. Because of the anti-
Pythagorean revolt in Italy ca 450 he fled to Thebes, where he lived and taught for a long
time; at the end of his life he probably moved to Taras. His book is preserved in several
dozens of fragments and testimonia. Relying on Burkert’s fundamental study, Huffman
considers as authentic B1–7, 13, 17; A7a, 9, the beginning of 16, 17–24, 27–29; the rest
goes back to the pseudo-Pythagorean literature. Contrary to the late legendary tradition,
Philolaos was not the first to publish the “Pythagorean teaching” that before him allegedly
was oral and/or secret. Earlier Pythagoreans also wrote books, in which they like
Philolaos set forth their own views, not never-existent “general Pythagorean teaching.”
Under the influence of the Eleatics, who asserted that Being cannot be generated,
Philolaos modified P’ cosmogonic principles, limit and unlimited. His kosmos
arose from and consists of the unlimited and limiting things, which are eternal (as is Being)
and fitted together by cosmic “harmony” (B1–2, 6). Educated in Pythagorean mathemat-
ics, Philolaos was first among them to place number and mathematics in a philosophical,
above all an epistemological context (A29). Like A, he believed that human know-
ledge is limited (B6), yet tried to rely not on empirical evidence, but on mathematics and
related sciences. He asserted that “if all things are unlimited, there will not be anything that
is going to be known” (B3); “all the things that are known have number, without which it is
impossible to understand or to know anything” (B4), i.e. things are cognizable to the extent
that they can be expressed in numbers. Philolaos’ number is not an ontological principle,
but a function of the limiting things which bring certainty in the world and make it
cognizable.
PHILOLAOS OF KROTO ̄N