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Timaeus of Locri: Testimonia

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These Testimonia are the ancient notices about Timaeus of Locri, the Pythagorean statesman and astronomer who gives the long cosmological speech in Plato's Timaeus. They begin with Plato's own introduction of him as a leading citizen of well-governed Locri in Italy, distinguished in wealth, birth, office and philosophy. No genuine writings of his survive, and many scholars doubt that he was a historical person rather than a figure created by Plato.

Whether real or invented, Timaeus became an important name in the Pythagorean tradition, and a later treatise was forged in his name. These brief testimonia show how that figure was understood and are the starting point for questions about Plato's use of Pythagorean characters.

About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: DK 49 A 1–3). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).

Ancient Greek · Philosophy
Testimonia
Timaeus of Locri · every word parsed
1
PLATO Tim. p. 19E καταλέλειπται δὴ τὸ τῆς ὑμετέρας ἕξεως γένος ἅμα ἀμφοτέρων [φιλοσόφων ἀνδρῶν καὶ πολιτικῶν] φύσει καὶ τροφῆι μετέχον. Τίμαιός τε γὰρ ὅδε εὐνομωτάτης ὢν πόλεως τῆς ἐν Ἰταλίαι Λοκρίδος, οὐσίαι καὶ γένει οὐδενὸς ὕστερος ὢν τῶν ἐκεῖ τὰς μεγίστας μὲν ἀρχάς τε καὶ τιμὰς τῶν ἐν τῆι πόλει μετακεχείρισται, φιλοσοφίας δʼ αὖ κατʼ ἐμὴν δόξαν ἐπʼ ἄκρον ἁπάσης ἐλήλυθε.
1a
SUID. Τ. Λοκρός, φιλόσοφος Πυθαγόρειος. Μαθηματικά, Περὶ φύσεως, Περὶ τοῦ Πυθαγόρου βίου.
ARISTOT. Schriftenkatalog des Diog. V 25 [Rose Frag. S. 6] n. 94 Τὰ ἐκ τοῦ Τιμαίου καὶ τῶν Ἀρχυτείων α ; des Hesych. [Rose S. 14] n. 85 Ἐκ τῶν Τιμαίου καὶ Ἀρχύτου α . SIMPL. de caelo p. 296, 16 τοιγαροῦν τὸν τοῦ Πλάτωνος Τίμαιον ἐπιτεμνόμενος γράφει· ‘ φησὶ δὲ ‘ κτλ. [Arist. fr. 206 Rose].
PROCL. in Tim. II 38, 1 Diehl οἱ περὶ Ὄκκελον [c. 48] τὸν τοῦ Τιμαίου πρόοδον.
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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Liddell, Scott & Jones (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: odyCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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