Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/211

Rh ANTIOCHUS. Bcriliing Ascalon, mentions his birth there as a mark of distinction for the city (Strab. xiv. p. 759), and Cicero frequently speaks of him in affectionate and respectful terms as the best and wisest of the Academics, and the most polished and acute philo- sopher of his age. (Cic. AciuL ii. 35, Brul. 91.) He studied under the stoic Mnesarchus, but his principal teacher was Philo, who succeeded Plato, Arccsilas, and Carneades,as thefounder of the fourth Academy. He is, however, better known as the adversary than the disciple of Philo ; and Cicero mentions a treatise called Sosus (Cic. Acad. iv. 4), written by him against his master, in which he refutes the scepticism of the Academics. Another of his works, called ** Canonica," is quoted by Scxtus Empiricus, and appears to have been a treatise on logic. (Sext. Emp. vii. 201, see not. in loc.) The sceptical tendency of the Academic philoso- phy before Antiochus, probably had its origin in Plato's successful attempts to lead his disciples to abstract reasoning as the right method of discover- ing truth, and not to trust too much to the impres- sions of the senses. Cicero even ranks Plato him- self with those philosophers Avho held, that there was no such thing as certainty in any kind of knowledge {Acad. ii. 23); as if his depreciation of the senses as trustworthy organs of perception, and of the kind of knowledge which they convey, invalidated also the conclusions of the reason. There is, however, no doubt that later philosophers, either by insisting too exclusively on the uncer- tainty of the senses (in order like Arcesilas to ex- acrgerate by comparison the value of speculative truth), or like Carneades and Philo, by extending the same fallibilit}- to the reason likewise, had gradually fallen into a degree of scepticism that seemed to strike at the root of all truth, theoretical and practical. It was, therefore, the chief object of Antiochus, besides inculcating particular doc- trines in moral philosophy, to exandne the grounds of our knowledge, and our capacities for discover- ing truth ; though no complete judgment can be fonned of his success, as the book in which Cicero gave the fullest representation of his opinions has been lost. (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 8.) He professed to be reviving the doctrines of the old Academy, or of Plato's school, when he main- tained, in opposition to Philo and Carneades, that the intellect had in itself a test by which it could distinguish truth from falsehood ; or in the lan- guage of the Academics, discern between the images arising from actual objects and those con- ceptions that had no corresponding reality. (Cic. Acad, ii. 18.) For the argument of the sceptics was, that if two notions were so exactly similar as that they could not be distinguished, neither of them could be said to be known with more cer- tainty than the other ; and that every true notion was liable to have a false one of this kind attached to it : therefore nothing could be certainly known. (/(/. 13.) This reasoning was obviously over- thrown by the assertion, that the mind contained within itself the standard of tnith and falsehood ; and was also met more generally by the argument that all such reasoning refutes itself, since it pro- ceeds upon principles assumed to be true, and then concludes that there can be no certain ground for any assumption at all. {Id. 34.) In like manner Antiochus seems to have taken the side of the Stoics in defending the senses from the charge of ANTIOCHUS. 193 utter fallaciousness brought againgt them by the Academics. {Id. 32.) It is evident that in such discussions the same questions were examined which had formerly l)ecn more thoroughly sifted by Plato and Aristotle, in analyzing the nature of science and treating of the different kinds of truth, according as they were objects of pure intellectual apprehension, or only of probaljle and uncertain knowledge (to iwia-TrjTdv and t6 So^aa-rov) : and as the result was an attempt to revive the dialectic art which the Academics despised, so the notices extant of Antiochus' moral teaching seem to shew, that without yielding to the paradoxes of the Stoics, or the latitudinarian- ism of the Academics, he held in the main doc- trines nearly coinciding with those of Aristotle : as, that happiness consists essentially in a virtuous life, yet is not independent of external things. {Id. 42, de Fin. v. 25, Tusc. Quaest. . 8.) So he denied the Stoic doctrine, that all crimes were equal {Acad. ii. 43), but agreed with them in holding, that all the emotions ought to be sup- pressed. On "the whole, therefore, though Cicero inclines to rank him among the Stoics {id. 43), it appears that he considered himself an eclectic phi- losopher, and attempted to unite the doctrines of the Stoics and Peripatetics, so as to revive the old Academy. (Sext. Empir. i. 235.) [C. E. P.] ANTl'OCHUS {'Avrioxos), an Astronomer of uncertain date, whose work 'AiroreXeo'fiaTiKd still exists in MS. in various libraries, and has not .yet been printed. (Fabr. liiOl. Gr. iv. p. 1 5 1 .) There is an introduction to the Tetrabiblus of Ptolemaeus, of which the original text with a Latin translation by H. Wolf was published at Basel, 1559, fol., as the work of an anonymous writer. T. Gale {ad Iambi, de MysL p. 364) claims this introduction as the work of Antiochus, whose name, however, occurs in the work itself. (P. 194.) [L. S.] ANTl'OCHUS ('Avrroxos), an Athenian, was left by Alcibiades at Notium in command of the Athenian fleet, B. c. 407, with strict injunctions not to fight with Lysander. Antiochus was the master of Alcibiades' own ship, and his personal friend ; he was a skilful seaman, but arrogant and heedless of consequences. His intimacy with Alci- biades had first arisen upon an occasion mentioned by Plutarch {Alcih. 10), who tells us, that Alcibiades in one of his first appearances in the popular assem- bly allowed a tame quail to escape from under his cloak, which occurrence suspended the business of the assembly, till it was caught by Antiochus and given to Alcibiades. Antiochus gave no heed to the injunctions of Alcibiades, and provoked Lysander to an engage- ment, in which fifteen Athenian ships were lost, .ind Antiochus himself was slain. This defeat was one of the main causes that led to the second banishment of Alcibiades. (Xen. Hell. i. 5. § 11, &c.; Diod. xiii. 71; Plut. Alcib. 35.) ANTl'OCHUS I. ('Ai/Ti'oxoy), king of Com- MAGENE, a small country between the Euphrates and mount Taunis, the capital of which was Samo- sata. It formerly formed part of the Syrian king- dom of the Seleucidae, but probably became an independent principality during the civil wars of Antiochus Grypus and his brother. It has been supposed by some, that Antiochus Asiaticus, the last king of Syria, is the same as Antiochus, the first king of Commagene ; but there are no good reasons for this opinion. (Clinton, F.H. iii. p. 343.)