Xenophilus, depicted as a medieval scholar in the Nuremberg Chronicle.[1]

Xenophilus (Greek: Ξενόφιλος; 4th century BC), of Chalcidice,[2] was a Pythagorean philosopher and musician who lived in the first half of the 4th century BC.[3] Aulus Gellius relates that Xenophilus was the intimate friend and teacher of Aristoxenus and implies that Xenophilus taught him Pythagorean doctrine.[4] He was said to have belonged to the last generation of Pythagoreans, and he is the only Pythagorean known to have lived in Athens in the 4th century BC.[5]

According to Diogenes Laërtius, Aristoxenus wrote that when Xenophilus was once asked by someone how he could best educate his son, Xenophilus replied, "By making him the citizen of a well-governed state."[6] In the Macrobii of Pseudo-Lucian, Aristoxenus is supposed to have said that Xenophilus lived 105 years.[7] Xenophilus enjoyed considerable fame in the Renaissance, apparently because of Pliny's claim that he lived 105 years without ever being sick.[8]

References

  1. ^ Die Schedelsche Weltchronik, 079.
  2. ^ Huffman, Carl. "Pythagoreanism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  3. ^ Freeman 1983, p. 81.
  4. ^ Aulus Gellius. Noctes Atticae. IV, 11.
  5. ^ Hahm 1977, p. 225.
  6. ^ Diogenes Laërtius. Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. VIII, 15–16.
  7. ^ Pseudo-Lucian. Macrobii, 18; cf. Valerius Maximus. Facta et dicta memorabilia. VIII, c. 13; Pliny. Naturalis Historia. VII, 50.
  8. ^ Hayton 2005, p. 95 (including footnote 50).

Sources

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