Cleombrotus of Ambracia

Interpretations of a suicide from Callimachus to Agathias

Bibliographic Data

ID9664508
AuthorsG D Williams (0009-0003-0533-0383), Gareth Williams (0000-0002-2805-7426, Columbia University, corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume45
Issue1
Pages154-169
Publication date1995-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0009838800041768
OpenAlexW2034547213
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited13

At Phaedo 59b Echecrates asks Phaedo who was present on the day when Socrates drank the hemlock in prison. Various Athenians are named (59b 6–10), then various foreigners (59c 1–2), but when Echecrates subsequently asks if two other foreigners, Aristippus and Cleombrotus, were present, Phaedo replies that they were said to be in Aegina (59c 4). After this fleeting reference to Cleombrotus, Plato does not mention him again in the Phaedo or any other dialogue; and yet in later antiquity a certain Cleombrotus of Ambracia rose to fame in connection with the Phaedo. Callimachus is our earliest source for the anecdote which immortalized the Ambracian ( A.P. 7.471): Εἴπας ‘Ἥλιε καῖρε’ Κλεμβρτος ὡμβρακιώτης ἅλατ' φ' ὑΨηλο τεκεος εἰς Ἀδην, ἴζιον οὐδν ἰδὼν θαντου κακν, λλ Πλτωνος ἕν τ περ Ψυκς γρμμ' ναλεζμενος

Anecdote · Archaeology · Art · Literature · Prison · SOCRATES · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Studies and Philology · History · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods · Philosophy

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