Crantor of Soli: the last of the Old Academics

• Applicant: Pia De Simone, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 443512272

Crantor of Soli (ca. 335–275 BC) was a prominent figure in the early history of Plato’s Academy, concerned with both literature and poetry, and philosophy. He was author of the first commentary on Plato's Timaeus and of an immensely popular early example of the genre of consolation letters: his On Grief. Of his writings only fragments have been preserved from references to him in the works of various ancient Greek and Roman writers, such as Cicero, Plutarch, Sextus Empiricus, Plinius, Proclus, Horace, Numenius, Lactantius. Notwithstanding their historical and philosophical value, Crantor’s fragments and testimonia have never been translated into English as a whole, and the only complete critical edition dates from almost forty years ago. This project aims to fill this unfortunate gap in Classical scholarship, making accessible to readers and scholars the sources on Crantor, and thereby shed new light on the interaction between Roman and Greek culture, since Crantor’s work affected both the Old Academy and Roman literature and philosophy. The first part of the research will require a critical reconstruction of Crantor’s fragments and testimonia, with an English translation and a commentary, in order to ascribe these pieces to specific works and to better contextualize their philosophical content. After this preliminary inquiry on the collection of sources on Crantor, the research will focus on the role of Crantor within the Old Academy. This detailed historical-philosophical investigation will deal first of all with his commentary on Plato’s Timaeus to bring out Crantor’s role in determining the Academy’s reading of Plato during Polemo’s years as head of the Academy and the beginning of the commentary tradition. In the second part, a specific study will be devoted on the role of Crantor’s On Grief in the Greco-Roman Consolatory Tradition. In particular, I will focus on Cicero’s Tusculanae III. The initial stages of Project will involve also a workshop dedicated to exploring the key issues on Crantor, gathering international scholars with expertise on Crantor and aim to tackle the challenges discussed in the research project.The outcome of the Fellowship will be the final publication of the monograph on the sources on Crantor, with an English translation and commentary; and an edited volume on Crantor and his context.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Italy
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Benedikt Strobel
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Christian Vassallo