Revista Archai

Gianni's soul and eyebrows: Casertano reads the Phaedo

Gabriele Cornelli — 2024-12-02

Paper presented as the opening lecture at the event ‘GLI STUDI DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA ANTICA DI GIOVANNI CASERTANO’, held on 23 October 2024 by theSocietà Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Artiof Naples (Italy) and the Philosophy Department of the Università degli Studi di Napoli - Federico II. Special thanks to my colleagues and friends Anna Motta and Lidia Palumbo for their generous invitation.

Protagoras in the Theaetetus: arguments of "defence" and "self-refutation"

José Gabriel Trindade Santos — 2024-10-07

Is there an explanation for ‘Socrates’’ wavering attitude towards Protagoras, in the Theaetetus? It seems he praises him only to chide him, though always showing some measure of respect. Can such behaviour be justified by irony? What connection ties the sophist to his disciples’ “secret doctrines”? How can ‘Socrates’ attack the sophist with unfair criticisms, then defend his project as if he were the man himself, and finish accusing Protagoras’ “Truth” of being true to no one? This paper discusses these questions aiming to understand how can ‘Socrates’ sidestep ‘Protagoras’ without refuting him.

Place of action and tasks of women: the nature (φύσις) as a justification of customs (νόμοι) in the Economics, by Xenophon

Janaína Silveira Mafra — 2024-12-02

Xenophon was one of the most disregard classical authors of the last century. The discredit that marked his Socratic writings is a consequence of the conclusions reached, at the beginning of the 20^th century, by some historians who were looking for a solution to the Socratic Question. According to some commentators (L.-A. Dorion, L. Brisson e L. Rossetti), since the origins of this Question, Xenophon’s testimony was subjected to merciless criticism: 1) Xenophon was not a philosopher, but rather a military and politician and 2) Xenophon was committed to defending his master from the accusation of being subversive, representing the established order and traditional values. In harmony with such commentators (L.-A. Dorion, L. Brisson e L. Rossetti), we think that Xenophon is a philosopher whose work has qualities that are intrinsic to it. However, we also think that, if, on the one hand, today the rehabilitation of Xenophon’s Socratic writings is quite advanced, on the other hand, we should not silence any and all problematizations of the content of his philosophy, because such an attempt would be as harmful as that of silencing the philosopher. Based on this consideration, the intention of this paper is to show that – although Xenophon, in the Economics, establishes through the mouth of Ischomachus what is the place of action (χώρα) and what are the tasks or functions (ἔργα) of women within the city, claiming that they must stick to the interior of the house and perform the tasks or functions that inherent to them by nature (φύσει), which customs (νόμοι) confirm – the argument from nature (φύσις) has in this work the rhetorical role of justifying customs (νόμοι), protecting them from critical attacks.

The poetic performance of philosophical discourse

Cesar de Alencar — 2024-10-07

As from the perspective of a extensive research about what is specific to the philosophical discourse, we intend to demonstrate, in this paper, the necessary performative condition of philosophy in its origin. The concept of 'performance' is used here to establish an approximation between the poetics of the Greek aedos, studied in the first section, and the matrix of philosophical investigation on performative statements initiated by J. L. Austin, comprehended as decisive for the understanding of speech acts and the declarative statements in them communicated. From the focus of this approach, Plato's Dialogue takes on, through the dramatization of Socrates' original speech, the indication of the necessary philosophical concern with speech situations (appropriate to any true reflection on what utterances actually say) and simultaneously the condition that philosophical reflection itself happens due to the poetics of the act of telling the truth understood as a purgative effect of self-examination. In other words, philosophical discourse needs to be conceived, since the paradigm of Platonic Dialogue, as capable of carrying out the performance of self-examination as a work of reflection on acts and their contexts of speech, whose ethical, political and educational interest is the ultimate purpose of all analysis.

Liber, Augustus and Mark Antony

Lya Serignolli — 2024-10-07

Libertas was an essential issue in Roman politics, connected to the beginnings of the Republic; and Liber was a divinity that corresponded to this aspect from different perspectives. The role of Liber as liberator was as old in Rome as the legends of the founders of the Republic, who were called liberators for their participation in the expulsion of the kings. Liber and libertas, especially in politics, were deeply rooted in the roman mind, and political leaders found it interesting to establish this connection. Between the forties and the thirties BC, several political leaders adopted divinities as patrons and models: Mark Antony, Dionysus and Hercules; and Octavian, at first, Apollo, and then Liber, that was convenient for his association with Alexander, the Great (as a symbol of the conquest of the East), as well as for his role as the italic god of vegetation and wine, connected to the old republican values. In the context of civil war, the struggle for power was presented in poetry as a confrontation between divine models. Taking advantage of Bacchus’ paradoxical character, the Augustan poets associated his role as a deified hero, symbol of triumph and civilizing power to Augustus, reserving to Mark Antony his darkest aspects, such as drunkenness and excessive luxury. This article analyses how Horace contributes to the assimilation of Liber to the Augustan repertoire, in a moment of profound political transformations in Rome.

Male homoerotic practices in Achaemenid Persia: an overview

Matheus Treuk Medeiros de Araujo — 2024-10-07

Descriptions of Ancient Persian male homoeroticism come mainly from Classical sources, which, however, seem to present divergent testimonies regarding this practice. Some authors apparently provide proof for its widespread acceptance, whereas others, particularly later authors, emphasized its prohibition. Considering the many difficulties involved in the reconstruction of Persian history through the eyes of classical Greeks and Romans, this article aims to provide a brief overview of the subject, with some clues to the question of the origin, form, and tolerance of same-sex love in Achaemenid Persia. We agree that homoerotic practices were attested and likely accepted at some level in Achaemenid Persia. However, we believe that the evidence available to us is not enough to obtain a full understanding of this phenomenon. It is also stressed that not every Greek or Roman reference to Persian male homoeroticism should be taken at face value, as some are distorted and fictitious or lack firsthand knowledge. Finally, we briefly address the image of eunuchs as sexual partners of Achaemenid kings.

O filósofo ridículo: Sócrates como dramatização da tese platônica sobre o cômico

Felipe Ramos Gall — 2024-10-07

The purpose of this paper is to show the dramatic importance of the Platonic thesis on the comical within the very economy of the dialogues. The guiding hypothesis will be that the conception that Plato develops about the comical or ridiculous, especially in the Philebus, mixes with the characterization of Socrates and with his way of philosophizing. Therefore, what we intend to demonstrate is that the figure of Socrates, who, as a character of Plato, is the incarnation of the paradigm of philosophical life par excellence, manifests by his own dramatization in the dialogues the very nature of the comical according to the Platonic conceptualization.

Beyond the dichotomy between body and soul: notes on the “affinity argument” (77e-80d) in Plato’s Phaedo

Vitor de Simoni Milione — 2024-12-02

The third argument in favor of the immortality of the soul in the Phaedo, which the exegetical tradition also calls the “affinity argument” (77e-80d), presents a curious relationship between body and soul, which is often seen by commentators as a radical dichotomy. To discuss this passage of the Phaedo in the attempt to surpass the alleged dichotomy between body and soul sometimes imputed to Plato in this dialogue, we propose, in this article, a close analysis of the argument in two steps, which is also divided into two levels: (i) the analogy between the soul and the Forms (78b-79c), (ii) and the analogy between the soul and the divine (80a-c). Because this argument has been generating controversy and trusting that this debate is far from reaching its term, the objective of this article is to answer three questions: how are we to understand the affinity argument in the economy of the Phaedo? Besides, how are we to understand the relationship between body and soul in this argument? Finally, does the platonic text allows us to infer a radical dichotomy between these two elements? As we shall see, Socrates is much less interested in offering a logical demonstration of the immortality of the soul, than an exhortation to heal his companions from the fear that the soul vanishes with the death of the body. It is thus the perfect opportunity to discuss these two elements that constitute the ephemerous phenomenon called “man” (ánthropos), its modes of cognition and its ethical behaviour.

False pleasures, good friendships

Marco Zingano — 2024-09-03

In this paper, we aim to explore Aristotle’s analysis of friendship by examining its three objects of friendship - virtue, utility, and pleasure. We will also explain why these three objects of friendship pose a challenge to defining friendship as a common and singular entity, namely, as a reciprocal and conscious benevolence that has practical effects. It is shown that the objects of friendship are part and parcel of the kind of personal relationship friendship is, making it impossible to provide a common definition.

Review of Franco Ferrari. Introdução a Platão. 1a Ed. Trad. André da Paz. São Paulo: Paulus, 2022.

Maicon Reus Engler — 2024-10-07

Review of Marcelo D. Boeri. ¿Serías capaz de hablar si nadie te respondiera? Filosofía y drama en Platón. Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2023, 323pp., ISBN 3832557148

Etienne Helmer — 2024-10-07

Review of Aldo Dinucci. Manual de estoicismo: A visão estóica do mundo. Campinas: Auster, 2023, 144pp., ISBN 978-6587408656

Gabriel M. Falcão — 2024-10-07

Review of TORRANO, J. (2022) Eurípides. Teatro Completo II: Os Heraclidas, Hipólito, Andrômaca, Hécuba. São Paulo, Editora 34

Rodolfo José Rocha Rachid — 2024-06-03

Review of TORRANO, J. (2022) Eurípides. Teatro Completo II: Os Heraclidas, Hipólito, Andrômaca, Hécuba. São Paulo, Editora 34.

The Myth of the Danaids in its Textual Sources: Translation and notes

Marcus Mota — 2024-12-02

The myth of the Danaids is recorded with variations in various poetic and non-poetic texts from Classical Antiquity. This paper collects and translates the main texts that help build the myth's reception in its attempts to construct a saga for female figures and their ambivalences.

Translation of Phaedrus' Speech in Plato's Symposium (Pl. Smp. 178a-180c)

Fernanda Israel Pio — 2024-09-02

In Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus is recognized as the "father of discourse" and occupies the first seat on the left. He introduces the theme of love, commencing his discourse with a series of references to tradition, including figures like Hesiod, Acusilaus, and Parmenides, to extol Eros. Phaedrus underscores the role of love in war, politics, and amorous relationships, emphasizing how love motivates humans to act exceptionally. His argument culminates in the notion that the pinnacle of love is the willingness to die for those we love. He illustrates this perspective with examples of couples: Alcestis and Admetus, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Achilles and Patroclus, demonstrating how love is inherently linked to death and how this sacrifice is rewarded by the gods. This translation highlights specific terms used in pederastic contexts, such as erastes and eromenos, through transliteration, distinguishing them from more generic terms for lovers and loved ones. The introduction briefly addresses how the understanding of pederastic relationships and issues related to the gender of the characters can influence the interpretation of the discourse. This translation invites readers to undertake a meticulous analysis of Phaedrus's discourse, exploring the complexities discussed and their implications for the understanding of love in Plato's work.

Style Matters in Presocratic Philosophy, an introduction

Celso Vieira — 2024-09-02

What we envisaged as a dossier to explore the connection between style and philosophy in this unique transitional period of Presocratic philosophy has turned out to be a volume that breaks with several conventional views of the Presocratics and has the potential to take the interpretation of style and Presocratic philosophy in a whole new and more fruitful direction.

Assertion and Argument in Xenophanes

James H. Lesher — 2024-09-02

It is a commonplace in our histories of Greek philosophy that the first thinker to fashion deductive arguments was Parmenides of Elea. One corollary of this view is that Ionian philosophers before Parmenides provided no arguments in support of their views. In what follows I offer a critique of this dismissive characterization, focusing on the first thinker for whom we have a substantial body of evidence, Xenophanes of Colophon. Specifically, Xenophanes argued that retelling the old stories of divine strife and warfare was out of keeping with the qualities of cleanliness and purity considered essential to a proper symposium. He held also that the presence of fossilized remains at inland and mountainous locations was best explained by positing cycles of worldwide flooding and drought, and he linked many other phenomena with the presence of earth and/or water. He also distinguished between having direct perceptual access to events and knowing the clear and sure truth about them, and concluded that about far-off matters such as the gods and the nature of all things no man can know the certain truth. He held also that a series of contrasts between divine and human attributes followed from an initial assumption of divine greatness.

Xenophanes’ Metres

Tom Mackenzie — 2024-09-02

Perhaps the most obvious and, for us, the most surprising stylistic feature of Xenophanes’ surviving fragments is the fact that they were written in verse. Whilst this general feature has received much comment and explanation, a more fine-grained analysis of his use of metre has been somewhat lacking. There are at least two factors which have contributed to this lack: first, the primarily philosophical focus of most modern scholarship on Xenophanes, which has been more interested in content than form; and second, the dominance of New Historicism in archaic Greek literary scholarship of recent decades, which, with its emphasis on the ideological force and social role of early Greek hexameter and elegy, has also tended to eschew an analysis of precise formal features. When we do find detailed discussion of metre, it tends to be in the service of uncovering the composition-processes of poets, rather than elucidating the effects they aimed to generate. Consequently, the present contribution aims to fill a gap in Xenophanean scholarship by enriching our appreciation of his sometimes-maligned metrical artistry (M.L. West described him and Euenus as ‘the clumsiest versifiers’ out of the elegists and iambicists). It thus joins two trends in recent Greek literary scholarship: the renewed attempt to appreciate archaic texts as literature – rather than merely as documents for social history or historical anthropology; and the exploration of the significance of non-semantic formal features, which can convey as much ideological content as the claims, narratives and imagery of the text.

Markedness Neutralisation and the Unity of Opposites in Heraclitus

Keith Begley — 2024-09-02

In this article, I shed new light on a misunderstood aspect of Heraclitus’ style. The opposites employed by Heraclitus are often of equal status except that one member of each pair may also appear as a designation for the encompassing whole. I begin by discussing two interpretations of this phenomenon, which were put forward by Roman Dilcher and Alexander Mourelatos. The phenomenon is, I suggest, better understood as being an example of what is known as markedness neutralisation. I argue that this phenomenon should be interpreted as further undermining what Mourelatos identified as a naïve paratactic metaphysics of mere things (NMT), to which Heraclitus was reacting by beginning to develop a hypotactic metaphysics of hierarchies and dependencies as part of a view of the world as being logos-textured. Further, I consider a series of three problems that were put forward by Dilcher, which he thinks must be addressed by anyone who claims that Heraclitus held a unity of opposites thesis. I also consider some related issues, and provide some responses.

On the interdependence between contents and literary forms in Parmenides’ Poem

Alexandre Costa — 2024-09-02

Starting from the identification and characterization of three literary forms that coexist throughout Parmenides’ Poem, all of them plainly different from each other, it is proposed and demonstrated that such a variety of forms mirrors the delimitation of the different ways of thought and language elaborated by Parmenidic philosophy, in which at least two types of nature of knowledge must be recognized: the logical and the cosmological. The first, marked by a formally logical-argumentative speech which is given the name of truth (aletheia) and whose way of thinking is exclusively noetic; the second, of a theoretical-descriptive nature, dedicated to the consideration of the movement proper to cosmic phenomena, whose devenir demands an equally mobile way of thinking (phronein).

On the Counterpoint of Rhythm and Meter: Poetics of Dislocation and Anomalous Versification in Parmenides’ Poem

Bernardo Berruecos Frank — 2024-09-02

In ancient times, authors such as Plutarch and Proclus questioned Parmenides’ abilities as a poet considering his Poem to be ‘prose in disguise’. Harsh judgments concerning Parmenides’ style are pervasive even in modern scholarship (Diels 1897, Wilamowitz 1912, Tarán 1977, Kirk & Raven 1977). This paper focuses on specific metrical and rhythmic devices used consistently in the composition of the Poem, that I will refer to, collectively, as ‘poetic dislocation’. This term encompasses the

blurring and cancellation of the central caesura, the tendency to break Hermann’s bridge with varying degrees of intensity, the accumulation of enjambment in groups of verses, the use of non-traditional lexicon of the epic genre and the placement of Homeric lexicon in non-Homeric hexameter collocations. My attempt is to prove that these procedures are an integral part of Parmenides’ poetic style. I will also present an analysis of Parmenides’ versification focusing on the rhythmic patterns and the organization of caesura, especially in fr. B8.

Melissus’ and Zeno’s deductive speech

Mathilde Brémond — 2024-09-02

This paper explores the prosaic deductive style developed by Melissus and Zeno. It first emphasizes the authors’ use of a systematic and reduced vocabulary solely dedicated to a priori deduction. In a second time, the paper delves into the systematic role of reductio ad absurdum in their reasoning and distinguishes several kinds of reductio employed by the authors. Through this analysis, the study shows how Melissus and Zeno not only developed and systematized certain aspects of Parmenides’ style but also introduced original features that significantly influenced the philosophical writing style.

Equivocal and Deceitful Didactic Poetry. What Style matters can say about Empedocles' audience

Ilaria Andolfi — 2024-09-02

Since antiquity, Empedocles has been considered as an example of both successful and unsuccessful communication. Aristotle credits him with vividness of images, but blames him for failure of clarity, and eventually compares his obscureness to that of oracles. Therefore, scholars in the past came to the conclusion that Empedocles deliberately employs an opaque style, like Heraclitus and his "studied ambiguity", as means for initiation. This paper challenges this assumption and asks whether and how ambiguity can work within a didactic poem. By showing how Empedocles' and Heraclitus' communicative strategies differ from one another, I shall point to the poet's role as a charismatic and spiritual guide, displaying at times a Sibyl-like attitude. Being a mediator between two separate dimensions puts Empedocles in an ambiguous position, because he delivers what the Muse and the gods made available for him to share, and so his opaqueness does not come directly from him. Ultimately, this style analysis also says something about who the ideal audience must have been.

How to name invisible principles? The challenge of naming what the eyes cannot see

Miriam Campolina Diniz Peixoto — 2024-09-02

What were the guidelines that the ancient atomists followed when coining new terms to name their principles? To what extent the difficulty of apprehension and understanding of the nature of their principles would justify the use of more than one term for naming the same thing? Some modern scholars tend to reduce the “indivisible” to a mere formal principle, while other scholars insist in considering the “indivisible” as a material principle. Can anyone find in the ancient texts sufficient elements to evaluate these claims without losing sight of the particular horizon of inquiry and conceptual universe of Presocratic philosophy? I intend to map the problem of the names assigned to the principles in the atomists' thought in order to formulate a few hypotheses concerning some issues that seem to underlie the transmission and the reception of their thought in antiquity.

Introduction

Gabriele Cornelli — 2024-12-20

The dossier Ancient Democracy Revisited, which the Archai Journal now presents, directly results from the 19th Archai International Seminar dedicated to this theme and held at the University of Brasília from August 22 to 26, 2022.

Ancient Democracy Revisited by Gender Studies: the Abduction of Female Citizens in the Historiography of Classical Athens

Agatha Pitombo Bacelar — 2024-12-20

In this article, we investigate the impact of including the gender category, articulated with a decolonial perspective, in analyzing Athenian citizenship, especially in democratic classical Athens. Contrary to the traditional notion that views the polis as a "men's club," heavily influenced by works on Aristotle’s writings on citizenship, recent readings emphasize the explicit presence of women citizens in ancient Hellenic societies. By centering the debate on aspects linked to the ancient context and by paying attention to the projection of modern references, we propose a broader reflection on political practices in antiquity. Contemporary studies have revealed that ancient Greek citizenship was not based on systematically excluding women from all contexts. Free women citizens are mentioned and represented in the remains of ancient Hellenic societies. The persistence of the "men's club" stereotype in ancient politics is questioned, with an emphasis on the importance of religion in the civic context, where women play active roles. We inquire about the contemporary interest in perpetuating the view of the polis as exclusively male and how this perception affects the understanding of women's participation in the political scene. We conclude by highlighting the importance of revisiting ancient texts from a contemporary critical perspective, feminist and decolonial, challenging the idea that women have always been on the sidelines of politics.

Censura e liberdade de expressão em duas cenas de Acarnenses, de Aristófanes

Cristina de Souza Agostini — 2024-12-20

This paper aims to show a comparative analysis of two scenes of Aristophanic comedy Acharnians. On the one hand, I discuss the role of Amphitheus character, and on the other hand I consider the ambassadors’ speech. By opposing these two play’s scenes, I support that democratic decision in assembly is a fertile ground to censure speeches about the good application of policies headed to common good, and at the same time it consecrates the freedom of speech of those who have personalist agendas at the expense of demos’ poverty. Thus, the speech in favor of the Peloponnesian War’s maintenance is a smokescreen for the political leaders‘enrichment. And because this it’s the only one for which exists freedom of expression, whereas Its opposite, i.e the pacifist speech, must be censored, even with violence.

Why Plato could not simply embrace Democracy? Misology and Democracy in Plato’s Thought

Gabriele Cornelli — 2024-12-20

This paper aims to look at the ancient city of Athens and some of its political challenges through the eyes of Plato. I will do this by relating two concepts that permeate Plato's political concerns: democracy and misology. Beyond the tragic event of Socrates' death at democratic hands, there is perhaps something even deeper in Plato's struggle to see democracy as something that can work, so to speak. Plato no doubt has a profoundly pessimistic view of the human being. And the city, who was traditionally supposed to educate men, is not delivering anymore (if ever). First of all, Plato clearly identifies the origin of political and social instability in the economic imbalance between πλοῦτος (richness) and πενία (poverty). Secondly, Plato's diagnosis, what his eyes are seeing, is even more perceptive and accurate. He outlines a second source of problem for democracy, one the probably resonate even more dramatically in our very present days: one that Socrates calls misology in the Phaedo: the hatred of discourses. Apart from the fact that there is a significant distance and a radical difference between the democracy of the 5th and 4th centuries, when Plato actually writes his dialogues, the most relevant question that emerges from the investigation is probably that a democracy itself is not something stable, an ontological object, not even today. And Plato was well aware of all this.

Immigrants and Dissidents: Stoicism and Radical Political Action In Rome

Aldo Dinucci — 2024-12-20

This article is an attempt to clarify the relationship between the dissident position taken by the ancient Stoics in their social context and the courageous way in which they defended their political positions in adherence to their Stoic philosophical principles - positions which led many of them to exile and death during the Imperial Period (the third phase of Roman civilization, which extended from 27 BCE to 476 CE). We suggest that the marginalization of these groups, as well as the persecution of them, uniquely positions the Stoics both in their own time and in ours.

Hybris, ancient and modern

Douglas Cairns — 2024-12-20

This article explores key connections between modern and ancient hybris, drawing insights from psychology and corporate studies as well as classical scholarship. It focuses particularly on Aristotle's discussions of the topic in the Rhetoric and Politics, while also examining other classical sources, including Herodotus and Aeschylus.

“The legislator does nothing in vain”: a note on Pol. IV.1

Victor Gonçalves de Sousa — 2024-12-20

In this paper, I intend to give some reasons for thinking that Aristotle holds the view that εὐδαιμονία not only provides the normative criterium that regulates the institution and reform of constitutions that fall short of the best one, but is also what is aimed at by the institution and reform of such constitutions, since, for Aristotle, the best constitution is just the constitution in which εὐδαιμονία can be maximally achieved (cf. Pol. VII.13 1332a4-7).

From rights to revolutions: on the rise of oligarchies and democracies in Aristotle’s political thought

Daniel Nascimento — 2024-12-20

This article offers an interpretation of a certain narrative about the political community which can be found in Pol., III 10, 1286b7-21; IV 10, 1297b16-28; and VI 4, 1321a5-16. According to this narrative, the monarchical regime prevailed in most political communities at first, whereas later, in Aristotle's time, it was the democratic regime which prevailed. Although the explanations given in these passages differ, it is argued that they are compatible and complementary; that, when taken together, they show us causes that could very well complement each other in order to make revolution strongly possible, if not inevitable; and that in order to understand an important part of this process, namely, the rise of oligarchies, we have to go through what Aristotle tells us about oikonomia, the appearance of money, commerce and the social changes they caused in book I of the Politics.

On ἐλευθερία, τὸ ζῆν ὡς βούλεταί τις, and Virtue in the Aristotelian Theory of Demokratia

Eduardo Wolf — 2024-12-20

In this paper, I aim to reject the thesis that ancient democracy, according to Aristotle, is defined by majority rule for its own benefit. I advocate for an alternative thesis, (which easily incorporates what is true in the rejected view), namely, that it is the concept of eleutheria, particularly as understood in Politics VI.2 and VI.9, that holds what I call "definitional prominence" relative to the concept of demokratia.

Politics and Persuasion in Plato: Some Preliminary Considerations

Pedro Mauricio Garcia Dotto — 2024-12-20

In this paper, I focus on the problem of persuasion in Plato’s work and expound on its philosophical, political, and educational implications. I begin by tracing an overview of persuasion in Ancient Greece, both the persuasive activity and the mythical figure of the goddess Persuasion. Then, I dwell on some emblematic cases of the failure of Socratic persuasion. Next, I aim at reconstructing some causes that emerge in the Platonic dialogues to explain the failure of Socratic persuasion. Finally, I consider the vindication of rhetoric for philosophy, defended and developed in the Phaedrus, as a response to the impasse that truth is not self-evident and, therefore, cannot be transmitted immediately and mechanically from one soul to another.

Note to the Octavius 5.12 of Minucius Felix: An Unexpected Senecan Allusion

Genaro Valencia Constantino — 2024-11-01

In this note an allusion recreated from Seneca’s De providentia is rescued as it was hidden in the Octavius of Minucius Felix, which recovers and adapted some topics from the Senecan text in a few brief lines which have been hitherto practically unnoticed; if the allusion is verified, a more recent reading of Seneca’s writing would make full argumentative sense.