Socraticorum Reliquae (review)

Book Reviews Gabriele Giannantoni, editor. Socraticorum Reliquae. 4 vols. Vol. l: pp. 1-314; Vol. 2: pp. 316-778; Vol. 3: PP. 1-523; Vol. 4: PP- ~-~64. Naples: Bibliopolis, 1985. Paper, L 2oo.ooo. It is a remarkable tribute to the freedom of spirit Socrates fostered in his closest followers that they could belong to his inner circle while disagreeing sharply both with him and with one another. Thus, among his most devoted companions were Aristippus and Antisthenes, founders respectively of the Cyrenaic and Cynic traditions, representing polar opposites on the relation of the good to pleasure. So too was Euclid, founder of the Megarian school, whose Eleaticizing logic is foreign to Socrates's own elenctic practice. To trace the subsequent course of the diverse currents of thought that thus began with Socrates must stand high on the agenda of historians of ancient thought. For this purpose the indispensable tool is a collection of the many hundreds of testimonia spread over scores of treatises and compilations that were to be produced in the millenium that followed Socrates's death. This has never been needed more urgently than at the present time, when the interest in Hellenistic and Greco-Roman philosophy has reached a highwater mark. It has now been provided in this truly magisterial work which it is my privilege to review (regrettably, in utmost brevity, because of space limitations). To do this work the editor of the present work is admirably qualified. Professor Giannantoni's credentials as a master of classical historiography have long been established through numerous books and articles. First of all two important collections whose titles are self-explanatory: (1) I Cyrenaici: raccolta deUefonte antiche. Traduzione e studio introduttivo (Florence, 1958); (2) Socrate: tutte le testimonianze da Aristofane e Senofonte ai padri cristiani (Bari, 1971 ), translations by the editor and his collaborators of everything in this mammoth compilation (595 closely printed pages). Moreover he has edited a two-volume collection of high-quality studies by diverse authors, Lo Scetticismo antico (Rome, 198o; Naples 1981); Diogene Laerzio, storico del pensiero antico (Naples, 1986). Throughout this thirty-year period he has also produced many outstanding journal articles and has founded and edited a new journal, Elenchos, which is not only, in its own self-description, "a review of studies on ancient thought," but also the sponsor of book-length studies of high distinction. To return to the work under review. The historical erudition it displays is impressive . Giannantoni has under good control the vast body of ancient texts which need to be scanned for reliquae of Socratics down to the end of the Greco-Roman era and even beyond it. And he has done his work of selection with exemplary diligence and helpful- [6o51 606 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 27:4 OCTOBER i989 ness to students. Volumes 1 and 2 print critical texts of the ancient sources of information on the following: Euclid and the Megarians; Phaedo of Ells and Menedemus of Eretria and their followers; Aristippus and the Cyrenaics (Vol. 1); Antisthenes, Diogenes, Crates and the ancient Cynics (Vol. 2). Vol. 3 is a 523-page commentary on the texts in the first two volumes: a critical study of immense learning and seasoned historicaljudgment : scholars aspiring to do original research in this area may neglect it at their peril. Vol. 4 of the work includes an Index Fontium and also an Index Nominum. Though the brevity of this notice precludes critical discussion, I may nonetheless voice regret that Vol. 4 has no index of leading Greek words (as in the Diels-Kranz Vorsokratiker and von Arnim's Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta); and that the selection of ancient authors omits the dialogues of Aeschines of Sphettus, whose representations of Socrates commanded respect in antiquity (see the testimonies about him in H. Dittmar, Aischines yon Sphettos [Berlin, 1912]) but who founded no school of followers, and, therefore, fails to meet the editor's criterion for inclusion. But these are minor points, hardly worth mentioning in view of the debt under which Giannantoni has placed all students of ancient philosophy in producing this magnificent work. Despite its high cost, no research library of Greek philosophy can afford to...