Olympiodorus
- a Greek proper name. So the instructor of Epaminondas on the flute, Nep. Ep. 2, 1.
(Ὀλυμπιόδωρος), historical.
1. An Athenian, the son of Lampon. He commanded a body of 300 picked Athenian troops at the battle of Plataeae. When the Megarians were being hard pressed by the Persian cavalry before the general engagement, this body of Athenians undertook to relieve them, a service from which all the other Greeks shrank. (Hdt. 9.21; Plut. Aristid. p. 327a.).
2. An Athenian, against whom a law-suit was brought by his brother-in-law, Callistratus, respecting an inheritance left by a man named Conon. Denosthenes wrote the speech κατα Ὀλυμπιοδώρου for Callistratus on this occasion. The particulars of the dispute are detailed in the speech, to which the reader is referred.
3. An Athenian general and statesman of considerable ability. VWhen Cassander made his attempt upon Athens in B. C. 298, Olympiodorus sailed to Aetolia, and induced the Aetolians to send assistance to Athens; and Cassander was compelled to withdraw his forces. Shortly afterwards, when Elatea, which had been conquered by Cassander, revolted from him, it was mainly through Olympiodorus that it was enabled to hold olt against his troops. Subsequently, in B. C. 2883, when Demetrius was stripped of his kingdom by Lysimachus and Pyrrhus, a small number of the Athenians, with Olympiodorus at their head, resolved to rid the city of the Macedonian garrison which Demetrius had posted in Athens in the foxtress of the Museum after his conquest of the city, and which still remained faithful to him. The Athenians readily joined Olympiodorus and his confederates, and the Museum was carried by storm. Peiraeus and Munychia were also recovered, and Olympiodorus, at the head of a small body of troops which he raised at Eleusis, put to flight a body of troops in the service of Demetrius, who were ravaging the plain. Demetrius invested Athens, but was compelled by the approach of Pyrrhus to raise the siege, and shortly afterwards crossed over into Asia Minor. It was probably this Olympiodorus who was archon eponymus in B. C. 294. There was a statue of him on the Acropolis. (Paus. 1.25.2, 1.29.13, 10.18.7, 10.34.3.) [C.P.M]
(Ὀλυμπιόδωρος), literary.
1. A writer mentioned by Pliny amongst those from whom he drew materials for the 12th book of his Natural History.
2. A disciple of Theophrastus, with whom was deposited one of the copies of his will. (D. L. 5.57.)
3. An historical writer, a native of Thebes in Egypt, who lived in the fifth century after Christ.
Olympiodorus seems to have had better qualifications as a statesman than as a writer; and in various missions and embassies amongst barbarian states he rendered important services to the empire, for which the highest honours were conferred upon him by the Roman senate (Photius, Phot. Bibl. 214. p. 171, ed. Bekker.) He was sent by Honorius on an embassy to the Huns, probably to Hungary. After the death of Honorius Olympiodorus removed to Byzantium, to the court of the emperor Theodosius. Hierocles dedicated to this Olympiodorus his work on providence and fate [Hierocles], the groundwork or idea of which he professes to have derived from him. Photius states that Olympiodorus was a ποιητής, that is, an alchymist. It has been supposed that this statement has arisen from a confusion between this and some other man of the same name. But Photius distinctly makes the statement on the authority of Olympiodorus himself (ὡς αὐτός φησι). It appears, from what Photius has preserved of his writings, that he was a heathen. Works History Inquiries
He wrote a work in 22 books, entitled Ἰστορικοὶ λόγοι, which comprised the history of the Western empire under the reign of Honorius, from A. D. 407 to October, A. D. 425 (Clinton, Fast. Rom. anno 425). Olympiodorus took up the history from about the point at which Eunapius had ended. [Eunapius.]
The original work of Olympiodorus is lost, but an abridgment of it has been preserved by Photius (Phot. Bibl. 80), who describes the style of the work as being clear, but without force or vigour, loose, and descending to vulgarity, so as not to merit being called a history. Of this Photius thinks that the author himself was aware, and that for this reason he spoke of his work as being not a history, but a collection of materials for a history (ὕλη συγγραφῆς). It was dedicated to the emperor Theodositis II. Editions
The abridgment by Photius has been several times published : by Phil. Labbeus, in his Eclogue Histor. de Rebus Byzunt.; by Sylburg, in his Collectio Scriptorum Hist. Rom. Minorum ; by Andreas Schottus, in his Eclogae Historicorum de Reblus Byzantinis ; and, in conjunction with Dexippus, Eunapius, and other historical fragments, by Niebuhr, Bonn, 1829. Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. pp. 632, 703.
4. A peripatetic philosopher, who' taught at Alexandria, where Proclus was one of his pupils and speedily attracted theattention of Olympiodorus, who was so much attached to him that he wished to betroth his daughter to him. Owing to the rapidity of his utterance and the difficulty of the subjects on which he treated, he was understood by very few. When his lectures were concluded, Proclus used to repeat the topics treated of in them for the benefit of those pupils who were slower in catching the meaning of their master. Olympiodorus had the reputation of being an eloquent man and a profound thinker. Nothing of his has come down to us in a written form. (Marinus, Vita Procli, 100.9 Suidas, s.v. Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 628.)
5. A philosopher of the Platonic school, a contemporary of Isidorus of Pelusium, who in one of his letters (2.256) reproaches him for neglecting the precepts of Plato, and spending an indolent life. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 180.)
6. The last philosopher of any celebrity in the Neo-Platonic school of Alexandria. He lived in the first half of the sixth century after Christ, in the reign of the emperor Justinian. He was a younger contemporary, and possibly a pupil, of Damnascius; the partiality which he uniformly shows for him, and the preference which he gives him even above Proclus, seem to indicate this. Our knowledge of Olympiodorus is derived from those works of his which have come down to us. From a passage in his scholia to the Alcibiades Prior of Plato, Creutzer has acutely inferred that he taught before the Athenian school was finally suppressed by Justinian, that is, before A. D. 529 ; though the confiscations to which the philosophers were being subjected are alluded to. And in various other passages the philosophy of Proclus and Damascius is spoken of as still in existence. Assessment
From what we have of the productions of Olympiodorus he appears to have been an acute and clear thinker, and, if not strikingly original, far from being a mere copyist, though he follows Damasciuts pretty closely. He was a man of extensive reading, and a great deal of valuable matter from the lost writings of other philosophers, as Iamblichus, Syriamnus, Damascius, and others, with historical and mythological notices, have come down to us through him at second hand. In his sketches of the general plan and object of the dialogues of Plato, and of their dramatic construction and the characters introduced, he exhibited great ability. A great deal that is valuable is also to be found in his analyses of the philosophical expressions of Plato.
His style, as might have been expected, is marked by several of the solecistms of his age, but exhibits in the main a constant endeavour after purity and accuracy. His scholia, as we have them, were put into a written form by his pupils, from notes which they took of his lectures, and are distributed into πράξεις, or lessons. The inscriptions which precede the scholia state that they were written ἀπὸ φωνῆς Ὀλυμπιοδώρου τοῦ μεγάλου φιλοσόφου. This will probably account for many of the defects of style observable in Olympiodorus. Works
Of his compositions there have come down to us a life of Plato; a polemical work against Strato (inl MS. at Munich) ; anid scholia on the Gorgias, Philebus, Phaedo, and Alcibiades I. of Plato. Whether these were all the works of Plato on which he commented, or not, we do not know. Editions Life of Plato
The life of Plato was published in Wetstein's edition of Diogenes Laertius, in 1692, from the posthumous papers of Is. Casaubon. It was again published by Etwall, in his edition of three of Plato's dialogues, Lond. 1771 ; and by Fischer, in his edition of some dialogues of Plato, Leipzig, 1783. Scholia on the Phaedo
Some of the more important scholia on the Phaedo were published by Nathan Forster, Oxford, 1752; by Fischer (l. c,); and im a more complete form, by Mystoxides and Schinas, in their Συλλογὴ Ἑλληνικῶν ἀνεκδότων, Venice, 1816. Scholia on other works of Plato
The scholia to the Gorgias were published by Routh, in his edition of the Euthydemus and Gorgias, Oxford, 1784; those to the Philebus by Stallbaum, in his edition of Plato, Leipzig, 1826; those on the Alcibiades by Creuzer, Frankfort, 1821. Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 631.
7. An Aristotelic philosopher.
He himself (p. 37, 6) speaks of Alexandria as his residence, and (p. 12, 6) mentions the comet which appeared in the 281st year of the Diocletian era (A. D. 565), so that the period when he lived is fixed to the latter half of the sixth century after Christ. Works Commentary on the Meteorologica of Aristotle
He is the author of a commentary on the Meteorologica of Aristotle, which is still extant.
His work, like the scholia of the Neo-Platonic philosopher of the same name, is divided into πράξεις; from which it would seem that the Aristotelic philosophy was taught at Alexandria even after the Neo-Platonic school had become extinct. Like Simplicius, to whom, however, he is inferior, he endeavours to reconcile Plato and Aristotle. Of Proclus he speaks with great admiration, styling him ὁ Θεῖος ; but his great authority is Ammionius. Editions
His commentary was published by the sons of Aldus, at Venice, 1551. Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 628, &c., who gives; list of the authors quoted by him.
8. Surnamed Diacolnus or Montachus, an ecclesiastic who lived in the sixth century. He sustained the office of diaconus in Alexandria. he is mentioned with commendation by Anastasius Sinaita, who flourished not later than A. D. 680-700. Works Commentaries on the books of Job, Ezra, Jeremiah, and Ecclesiastes
He wrote commentaries on the books of Job, Ezra, Jeremiah, and Ecclesiastes. Editions
The notes on Job, entitled Hypotheses in Librum Jobi, were published in a Latin translation, by Paulus Comitolus, Venice, 1587 and, with those on Jeremiah, in the Catenae Patrum Graecorum. The commentary on Ecclesiastes was published in Greek in the Auctarium Ducaeanum Bibiothecae Patrum, Paris, 1624. Latin translations of it have been several times published. Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 627 ; Hoffmatis, Lex. Bibl. vol. ii. p. 158. [C.P.M]
(Ὀλυμπιόδωρος). A name common to many individuals. The most deserving of notice are the following: (1) A native of Thebes, in Egypt, who flourished in the beginning of the fifth century of our era. He continued the history of Eunapius from A.D. 407 to 425. His work, entitled Ὕλη Ἱστορίας (“Materials for History”), or Ἱστορικοὶ Λόγοι (“Historical Narratives”), consisted of twenty-two books. Only a fragment of it has been preserved by Photius. The work began with the seventh consulship of the emperor Honorius, and was brought down to the accession of Valentinian. It was dedicated to the younger Theodosius.
(2) An Alexandrian philosopher, who flourished about the year B.C. 430. He is celebrated for his knowledge of the Aristotelian doctrines, and was the master of Proclus, who attended upon his school before he was twenty years of age.
(3) A Platonic philosopher, who flourished towards the close of the sixth century. He was the author of commentaries on four of Plato's dialogues—the First Alcibiades, the Phaedon, Gorgias, and Philebus. The first of these contains a life of Plato, in which we meet with certain particulars relative to the philosopher not to be found elsewhere. This Olympiodorus was a native of Alexandria. The title which his commentaries bear appears to indicate by the words ἀπὸ φωνῆς (“from the mouth” of Olympiodorus) that they were copied down by the hearers of the philosopher.
(4) A native of Alexandria, a Peripatetic, who flourished during the latter half of the sixth century A.D. He was the author of a commentary on the meteorology of Aristotle, still extant.
- Hdt. 9.21
- expels Macedonian garrison from Athens: Paus. 1.26.1-3, Paus. 1.29.13
- defeats Macedonians at Eleusis: Paus. 1.26.3
- stirs up Aetolians: Paus. 1.26.3
- helps Elateans against Cassander: Paus. 1.26.3, Paus. 10.18.7, Paus. 10.34.3
- statue of O. on Acropolis at Athens: Paus. 1.25.2
- statue at Delphi: Paus. 1.26.3
- painting at Eleusis:Paus. 1.26.3
- honoured in Prytaneum: Paus. 1.26.3