Abstract

In late antiquity the work On the Nature of the Cosmos and of the Soul attributed to Timaeus of Locri was thought to be a Pythagorean text used by Plato when he wrote the Timaeus. The attribution, archaizing language, and similarity of contents of the work suggest this. However, the linguistic and philosophical anachronisms to be found in it show it to be a post-Platonic forgery. It summarizes the Timaeus, simplifying and "demythologizing" the dialogue in a didactic way. It also on occasion departs enough from its source to constitute an interpretation of the dialogue. Baltes in his introduction notes that this is all done along lines characteristic of Middle Platonic treatments of Plato, and he suggests that the work may have been written by a pupil of Eudorus of Alexandria since it seems to depend on Eudorus’s interpretation of the Timaeus. Having introduced the work, Baltes then provides a line-by-line commentary in which he deals with philological questions, analyzes the sequence of thought, and attempts to determine for each passage the extent to which the work echoes the Timaeus or departs from it. In the latter case, he provides helpful references to parallel and possible source texts in Hellenistic philosophy. An index of terms would have made this valuable commentary more accessible. For the original Greek text we must turn to the edition published by W. Marg in the same series. Baltes’s commentary can be recommended to anyone interested in Plato’s Academy, in Middle Platonism, and in the subjects discussed in the Timaeus as understood and developed in Hellenistic philosophy.—D.O.