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HERACLIDES PONTICUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 309 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HERACLIDES PONTICUS , See also:

Greek philosopher and See also:miscellaneous writer, See also:born at See also:Heraclea in See also:Pontus, flourished in the 4th See also:century B.C. He studied See also:philosophy at See also:Athens under See also:Speusippus, See also:Plato and See also:Aristotle. According to Suidas, Plato, on his departure for See also:Sicily, See also:left his pupils in See also:charge of Heraclides. The latter See also:part of his See also:life was spent at Heraclea. He is said to have been vain and See also:fat, and to have been so fond of display that he was nicknamed Pompicus, or the Showy (unless the epithet refers to his See also:literary See also:style). Various idle stories are related about him. On one occasion, for instance, Heraclea was afflicted with See also:famine, and the Pythian priestess at See also:Delphi, bribed by Heraclides, assured his inquiring townsmen that the dearth would be stayed if they granted a See also:golden See also:crown to that philosopher. This was done; but just as Heraclides was receiving his See also:honour in a crowded See also:assembly, he was seized with See also:apoplexy, while the dishonest priestess perished at the same moment from the bite of a See also:serpent. On his See also:death-See also:bed he is said to have requested afriend to hide his See also:body as soon as life was See also:extinct, and, by putting a serpent in its See also:place, induce his townsmen to suppose that he had been carried up to See also:heaven. The See also:trick was discovered, and Heraclides received only ridicule instead of divine honours (See also:Diogenes Laertius v. 6). Whatever may be the truth about these stories, Heraclides seems to have been a versatile and prolific writer on philosophy, See also:mathematics, See also:music, See also:grammar, physics, See also:history and See also:rhetoric.

Many of the See also:

works attributed to him, however, are probably by one or more persons of the same name. The extant fragment of a See also:treatise On Constitutions (C.W. See also:Muller, F.H.G. ii. 197—207) is probably a compilation from the Politics of Aristotle by Heraclides Lembos, who lived in the See also:time of See also:Ptolemy VI. Philometor (181—146). See See also:Otto See also:Voss, De Heraclidis Pontici vita et scriptis (1896).

End of Article: HERACLIDES PONTICUS

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HERACLITES (`Hpaoharos; c. 540–475 B.C.)

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