Socrates (AP 14.1[-64])

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the identity of Socrates, the compiler of AP 14.1-64 (arithmetic problems and riddles). Leaving aside the traditional, but very uncertain, identification with Socrates the epigrammatist (D.L. 2.47), it is shown that the chronological conjecture by Carcopino 1926 (late 1st century BC-2nd century AD) no longer holds. A wider time frame is established (1st-4th centuries AD), although evidence from the (fairly) securely attributable poem (AP 14.1) seems to point to the mid-2nd century AD as the most plausible period of the poet’s activity. It is suggested that Socrates was a Pythagorising Middle Platonist associated with the philosopher Calvenus Taurus, even if his relationship with the Neo-Pythagorean and Middle Platonic traditions remains difficult to define precisely. The article also considers some of the relationships that have been shown to exist between diverging directions in Pythagoreanism (Delatte 1922), offering corrections for future attempts at Quellenforschung.