Heraclides of Pontus.

Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980. X,178p. Cloth wrps. With errata leaflet. 'Dr Gottschalk has written a study which provides the basis for a properly balanced assessment of Heraclides' historical significance. The result, except perhaps for astronomy, will disappoint anyone by whom Heraclides was cherished as an unsung genius. (...) Heraclides' philosophy was 'a popular form of Platonism' (p.140). (...) But it is difficult to know what we are talking about when reference is made to 'Heraclides' philosophy'. One of his most distinctive contributions was 'to make propaganda for the contempaltive life' (p.32). (...) Heraclides was also interested in collecting 'factual' material on oracles, and laws, in tracing the origins of the musical modes, in doing many of the things we associate with Peripatetic research. (...) Gottschalk is inclined to see Heraclides as an isolated figure of limited influence on his successors. (...) Dr Gottschalk has cleared the ground admirably. I hope it is not grudging to wish he had done more to create an imaginative and social context for identifying the aims and methods of Heraclides and his like.' (A.A. LONG in The Classical Review (New Series), 1982, pp.200-01). From the library of the late Prof. W. Geoffrey Arnott.