Crantor

<h2 id="life">Life</h2>
Crantor was probably born around the middle of the 4th century BC, at <a href="/facts/Soli,_Cilicia/JnClbkhc">Soli</a> in <a href="/facts/Cilicia/2pgAF15D">Cilicia</a> (modern-day <a href="/facts/Turkey/KIYAWAs0">Turkey</a>). He moved from <a href="/facts/Cilicia/2pgAF15D">Cilicia</a> to Athens in order to study philosophy,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a> where he became a pupil of <a href="/facts/Xenocrates/2EgUr09F">Xenocrates</a> and a friend of <a href="/facts/Polemon_(scholarch)/ttxkybqo">Polemon</a>, and one of the most distinguished supporters of the philosophy of the older Academy. As Xenocrates died 314/3 BC, Crantor must have come to Athens prior to that year, although the date of his birth is not known. He died before both Polemon and <a href="/facts/Crates_of_Athens/gjJzVRta">Crates</a>, who succeeded Polemon as <a href="/facts/Scholarch/tbK91BFr">scholarch</a>. <a href="/facts/Dropsy/Q6MI3KdH">Dropsy</a> was the cause of his death.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> He left his fortune, which amounted to twelve <a href="/facts/Attic_talent/9lPHoA7J">talents</a>, to <a href="/facts/Arcesilaus/IfEnvQxa">Arcesilaus</a>, who had been his pupil and who later succeeded Crates as scholarch of the Academy.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a>

<h2 id="writings">Writings</h2>
His works were very numerous; but of these, only fragments have been preserved. They appear to have related principally to moral subjects, and, accordingly, <a href="/facts/Horace/8NQn78B9">Horace</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a> classes him with <a href="/facts/Chrysippus/y92CPwt2">Chrysippus</a> as a moral philosopher, and speaks of him in a manner which proves that the writings of Crantor were much read and generally known in <a href="/facts/Rome/bh1Ttx3T">Rome</a> at that time.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> 
He also made some attempts at poetry; and <a href="/facts/Diogenes_La%C3%ABrtius/u99P8c1J">Diogenes Laërtius</a> relates, that, after sealing up a collection of his poems, he deposited them in the temple of <a href="/facts/Athena/bBX7jSvu">Athena</a> in his native city, Soli. He is accordingly called by the poet <a href="/facts/Theaetetus_of_Cyrene/xWbFDcbA">Theaetetus</a>, in an epitaph which he composed upon him,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a> the friend of the <a href="/facts/Muses/bAWcDPFw">Muses</a>; and that his chief favorites among the poets were <a href="/facts/Homer/Xw8Ur53U">Homer</a> and <a href="/facts/Euripides/L2G3RyGY">Euripides</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a>

<h3>On Grief</h3>
The most popular of Crantor's works in Rome seems to have been that "On Grief" (<a href="/facts/Latin_language/pM3Kge85">Latin</a>: De Luctu, <a href="/facts/Greek_language/pzDd6eIz">Greek</a>: Περὶ Πένθους), which was addressed to his friend Hippocles on the death of his son, and from which <a href="/facts/Cicero/A37U7jaN">Cicero</a> seems to have heavily relied upon in his <a href="/facts/Tusculan_Disputations/67IyF7aB">Tusculan Disputations</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a> According to Cicero, the <a href="/facts/Stoicism/hQu81X5x">Stoic</a> philosopher <a href="/facts/Panaetius/oxwHYo69">Panaetius</a> called it a "golden" work, which deserved to be learnt by heart word for word.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a> Cicero also made great use of it while writing his celebrated <a href="/facts/Consolatio_Literary_Genre/38wxel2X">Consolatio</a> on the death of his daughter, <a href="/facts/Tullia_(daughter_of_Cicero)/URPpBv6F">Tullia</a>. Several extracts from it are preserved in <a href="/facts/Pseudo-Plutarch/2DYTPK0z">Pseudo-Plutarch</a>'s treatise on Consolation addressed to Apollonius, which has come down to us. Crantor paid special attention to <a href="/facts/Ethics/wNVNgL5q">ethics</a>, and arranged "good" things in the following order - virtue, health, pleasure, riches.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a>

<h3>Commentaries on Plato</h3>
<a href="/facts/Diogenes_La%C3%ABrtius/u99P8c1J">Diogenes Laërtius</a> says that Crantor left behind 30,000 lines of Commentaries (ύπομνήματα),<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a> but of these only fragments have been preserved.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a> Crantor seems to have been the first member of the <a href="/facts/Platonic_academy/toUTGq3Y">Platonic academy</a> to write <a href="/facts/Commentaries_on_Plato/BfV4TmfW">commentaries on the works of Plato</a>;<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15">15</a> <a href="/facts/Proclus/DRh6TKdX">Proclus</a> credits Crantor with the first commentary on the <a href="/facts/Timaeus_(dialogue)/5HQDToh9">Timaeus</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16">16</a> and <a href="/facts/Eudorus_of_Alexandria/Dv9KQrSf">Eudorus of Alexandria</a> makes use of Crantor's work in his own commentary, which is in turn preserved by <a href="/facts/Plutarch/p3bywktN">Plutarch</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17">17</a>

<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>

<h3>Ancient testimony</h3>
<ul><li> <a href="/facts/Diogenes_La%C3%ABrtius/u99P8c1J">Laërtius, Diogenes</a> (1925). <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor">"The Academics: Crantor" </a>. <a href="/facts/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/loz5JI5p">Lives of the Eminent Philosophers</a>. Vol. 1:4. Translated by <a href="/facts/Robert_Drew_Hicks/zrlQGnHY">Hicks, Robert Drew</a> (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 24-27.</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Cicero/A37U7jaN">Cicero</a>, <a href="/facts/Academica_(Cicero)/YImVTCQM">Academica</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Plutarch/p3bywktN">Plutarch</a>. <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0386%3Asection%3D1">"On the Generation of Soul in Timaeus"</a>. www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 26 June 2023.</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Pseudo-Plutarch/2DYTPK0z">Pseudo-Plutarch</a>, Consolation to Apollonius</li></ul>
<h3>Modern scholarship</h3>
<ul><li>Dillon, John M. (1996). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aJQ9dvgh6BwC">The Middle Platonists, 80 B.C. to A.D. 220</a>. Cornell University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-8014-8316-5. Retrieved 26 June 2023.</li>
<li>Dorandi, Tiziano (1999). "Chapter 2: Chronology". In Algra, Keimpe; et al. (eds.). <a href="https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory00algr">The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy</a>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. <a href="https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory00algr/page/n67">48</a>. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780521250283.</li>
<li> <a href="/facts/William_Smith_(lexicographer)/FMSstmWB">Smith, William</a>, ed. (1870). <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dcrantor-bio-1">"Crantor"</a>. <a href="/facts/Dictionary_of_Greek_and_Roman_Biography_and_Mythology/GGY10Pdg">Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology</a>.</li>
<li>Vassallo, Christian, De Simone, Pia, and Fleischer, Kilian (2025). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004708785">Brill's Companion to Crantor of Soli</a>. Leiden-Boston, Brill. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1163%2F9789004708785">10.1163/9789004708785</a>. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-90-04-70878-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Dorandi 1999, p. 48. - Dorandi, Tiziano (1999). "Chapter 2: Chronology". In Algra, Keimpe; et al. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780521250283. <a href="https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory00algr" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory00algr</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Laërtius 1925, § 24. - Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "The Academics: Crantor" . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 1:4. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 24-27. <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Laërtius 1925, § 27. - Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "The Academics: Crantor" . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 1:4. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 24-27. <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Laërtius 1925, § 25. - Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "The Academics: Crantor" . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 1:4. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 24-27. <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Smith 1870. - Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Crantor". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dcrantor-bio-1" target="_blank">https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dcrantor-bio-1</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Horace, Ep. i. 2. 4 <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Smith 1870. - Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Crantor". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dcrantor-bio-1" target="_blank">https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dcrantor-bio-1</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Anth. Plan. ii. 28. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Laërtius 1925. - Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "The Academics: Crantor" . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 1:4. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 24-27. <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Marcus Tullius Cicero and Margaret Graver Cicero on the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4 2009 ISBN 0226305783 p188 <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Cicero, Acad, ii. 44. <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Crantor". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 378–379. <a href="/wiki/Public_domain" target="_blank">/wiki/Public_domain</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">Laërtius 1925, § 24. - Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "The Academics: Crantor" . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 1:4. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 24-27. <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_IV#Crantor</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">Smith 1870. - Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Crantor". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dcrantor-bio-1" target="_blank">https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dcrantor-bio-1</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:15">Dillon 1996, p. 42-43. - Dillon, John M. (1996). The Middle Platonists, 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8316-5. Retrieved 26 June 2023. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aJQ9dvgh6BwC" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=aJQ9dvgh6BwC</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:16">In Tim, I 76,2 <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:17">Plutarch, Proc. An. 1020B <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Crantor open-in-new

Crantor