v Sotion

Sotion

Sotion (Σωτίων), There appear to have been three or four philosophers of this name. The following alone are worth noticing:

1. A native of Alexandria, who flourished at the close of the third century BC (Clinton, Fasti Hellen. vol. iii. p. 526.) Nothing is known of his personal history. He is chiefly remarkable as the author of a work, entitled Diadochai (Διαδοχαί ), on the successive teachers in the different philosophical schools. It is quoted very frequently by Diogenes Laertius (ii. 12, 26. v. 86, &c.), and Athenaeus (iv. p. 162, e., &c.) It consisted of at least 23 books (Diog. Laert. prooem. 1. 7). He was also, apparently, the author of a work, Peri twn Timwonos sillwn) (Athen. viii. p. 336, d.), and of a work entitled Diokleioi eleghoi (Diog. Laert. x. 4).

2. Also a native of Alexandria, who lived in the age of Tiberius. He was the instructor of Seneca, who derived from him his admiration of Pythagoras (Seneca, Epist. 108). It was perhaps this Sotion who was the author of a treatise on anger, quoted by Stobaeus (Floril. xiv. 10, xx. 53, Ixxxiv. 6 — 8, 17, 18, cviii. 59, cxiii. 15). Plutarch also quotes him (Alex. c. 61), as the authority for certain statements respecting towns founded by Alexander the Great in India, which he had heard from his contemporary Potamon the Lesbian. Vossius conjectures that it is the same Sotion who is quoted by Tzetzes (Chiliad, vii. 144) as the authority for some other statements relating to India, which he probably drew from the same source.

3. The Peripatetic philosopher, mentioned by A. Gellius (N. A. i. 8) as the author of a miscellaneous work entitled Keras Amaltheias, is probably a different person from either of the preceding. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 233, &c. ; Scholl, Gesch. der griech. Lit. vol. ii, pp. 221, 576, 641 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 874, vol. iii. pp. 52, 505, 576.)

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