Leonid Zhmud The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity

Catalogue of geometers about mathematicians of Plato’s time
89
to the Academy, since nobody but a member of the Academy could ascribe to
Plato so important a role in the development of mathematics.
35
It is revealing,
for example, that the fragments of Eudemus’
History of Geometry and History
of Astronomy do not mention Plato’s name at all. The few places it does occur
are later interpolations, as in fr. 148 of the
History of Astronomy that we have al-
ready considered, or in the well-known
Catalogue of geometers (fr. 133), an ex-
cerpt from the
History of Geometry found in Proclus.
In this case, we have at our disposal a fragment from an Academic treatise
discussing, among the other themes, the flourishing state of mathematics due to
Plato. Many ideas of this passage can be found in Eudemus’ works on the his-
tory of science.
36
But even if this is a fragment of the history of mathematics
(which we have good reasons to doubt), it is a history
sub specie Academiae –
its main protagonist is Plato. So we will put aside for a while the analysis of the
historical evidence contained in this fragment and try to find out its source as
well as the grounds substantiating its main thesis – that of Plato as ‘architect of
science’. To verify this thesis, we will consider the
Catalogue of geometers,
whose picture of the development of mathematics in Plato’s time resembles
that of the papyrus passage but goes into much greater detail.
2. The
Catalogue of geometers
about mathematicians of Plato’s time
First, it should be noted that Lasserre failed to give any convincing arguments
either that Philip was the author of the papyrus passage or that it was taken from
his book
On Plato, of which not a word has survived. Philip was not the only
one among the first generation of the Academics who took an interest in both
Plato’s biography and his mathematics. Hermodorus of Syracuse, another stu-
dent of Plato, may well have been its author: he also wrote a book titled Perì
Plátwno~.
37
Philodemus mentions this book (col. VI), so it is likely to have
35
It would be quite unnatural if Dicaearchus, a partisan of bío~ praktikó~, and hav-
ing never been seriously interested in theoretical mathematics had so enthusiasti-
cally praised Plato’s leading role in its progress. Dicaearchus’ preserved fragments
reveal his very critical opinion of Plato (fr. 42, 43, 44, 71), which is supplemented
and strengthened by the new evidence in Philodemus: Plato “more than all people
elevated philosophy and ruined it at the same time” (col. I, 10f.).
36
More details about this see below, 114f.
37
Fr. 4–5, 7–8 Isnardi Parente =
FGrHist 1008 T3, F 1–2. Though Lasserre also related
this passage back to Hermodorus’ book, he believed that the latter had drawn it from
Philip (
Léodamas, 20F 15a, 220, 433f., 611f.). Lasserre’s unconfirmed view of Her-
modorus as an intermediary between Philip and Philodemus was based
inter alia on
a wrong interpretation of the columns III–IV, in which an unknown author retells
Philip’s oral story about Plato’s last night. Despite Lasserre’s opinion, the author of
this story was not Hermodorus, but Neanthes of Cyzicus, whose name is also at-

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Chapter 3: Science in the Platonic Academy
90
been available to him. Hermodorus’ work Perì maqhmátwn seems to attest to
his interest in methodology and, possibly, in the history of mathematics as
well.
38
Another possible author of this passage is Speusippus, the author of
Plátwno~ perídeipnon whom Philodemus refers to,
39
as well as of several
treatises on mathematics.
40
And, finally, we have to consider Xenocrates, who,
apart from many works on mathematics,
41
wrote the book entitled Perì toñ
Plátwno~ bíou.
42
Since Philodemus apparently had no problems in using the
works of Academics and their contemporaries, it is difficult to decide from
whom our passage derives. The text itself contains nothing that could allow us
to identify one of the aforementioned Academics.
One of the main reasons adduced by Lasserre in favor of Philip is that the
ending phrase of the