So ̄sigene ̄s (II) (ca 125 – 190 CE)
Peripatetic philosopher, teacher of A A, author of On Vision
(now lost). So ̄sigene ̄s’ critical commentary on A’s use of winding and unwinding
homocentric spheres in counting the number of celestial motions (Metaphysics 12.8
[1073a14–1074b14]) apparently drew on E’ History of Astronomy; it survives only in
citations by pseudo-Alexander, P, and S. Proklos, Hyp. astr. 4.97–99,
asserts that So ̄sigene ̄s explained that annular solar eclipses are observed when the Sun is
at perigee. Modern scholars have mistakenly concluded that So ̄sigene ̄s observed an annu-
lar eclipse, which they date to 164 CE. (No dated observational reports describing
annular eclipses survive from Greek or Latin antiquity.) In context, however, the point is
only that, for So ̄sigene ̄s, annular total solar eclipses are possible – a compromise between
P’s denial that such eclipses occur and the claim found, e.g., in P. P
G 1 col. 19.16–17 (cf. K, Cael. 2.4.108–115), that all total solar eclipses
are annular. According to Proklos, So ̄sigene ̄s constructed a Complete (or Perfect) Year of
648,483,416,738,640,000 years in which all the heavenly bodies return to their original
positions, using Babylonian and Egyptian parameters.
Neugebauer (1975) 606; Alan C. Bowen, “Eudemus’ History of Early Greek Astronomy: Two
Hypotheses,” in Bodnár and Fortenbaugh (2002) 307–322 at 315–318; Idem, “Simplicius’ Commen-
tary on Aristotle, De caelo 2.10–12: An Annotated Translation (Part 2)” SCIAMVS 9 (2008:
forthcoming).
Alan C. Bowen
So ̄sikrate ̄s (250 BCE – 80 CE)
A in G CMLoc 7.6 (13.114 K.) records his pill for orthopnoia, com-
pounded from opopanax, myrrh, pepper-corns, and rue, administered with water for
fevers, otherwise, with wine. A common name, known from the 4th c. BCE into the imperial
era, but attested more frequently during the Hellenistic era (LGPN).
RE 3A.1 (1927) 1166 (#6), F.E. Kind.
GLIM
So ̄sikrate ̄s of Rhodes (300 – 150 BCE?)
Geographer and doxographer, wrote Kre ̄tika and a chronological history of philosophers,
whose citations in D L preserve strictly biographical, chronological, and
political details (1.38, 1.49, 1.68, 1.75, 1.95, 1.101, 1.106–107, 6.13, 8.8), maintaining, e.g.,
that an Aristippos of Kure ̄ne ̄ and Diogene ̄s the Cynic left no writings (2.84, 6.80). In his
Kre ̄tika, considered reliable by D S (5.80.4) and extracted by A
A (the one upon whose testimony S relied), So ̄sikrate ̄s gave 2,300 stades
as the island’s length, with a circuit exceeding 5,000 stades, larger than dimensions recorded
by A E and H R (Str. 10.4.3). In other
fragments, So ̄sikrate ̄s provides ethnographic data regarding Crete.
Ed.: FGrHist 461.
GLIM
SO ̄SIKRATE ̄S OF RHODES