How to kill a philosopher. The narrating of ancient greek philosophers' deaths in relation to their way of living

There is a general interest in ancient biographies about death scenes, particularly about unusual, terrible, and strange deaths. Indeed, in the mind of ancient biographers the death scene is the last chance to confirm and glorify a character definitively, or to punish him for his way of life, and, i...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Grau Guijarro, Sergi
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/167374
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/167374
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Biografies clàssiques
Filòsofs antics
Classical biographies
Ancient philosophers
Descripción
Sumario:There is a general interest in ancient biographies about death scenes, particularly about unusual, terrible, and strange deaths. Indeed, in the mind of ancient biographers the death scene is the last chance to confirm and glorify a character definitively, or to punish him for his way of life, and, if he is an intellectual, to reject the ideas expressed in his work. The topic of a philosopher's death might have been of great interest to antiquarians and biographers: indeed works about this topic were not rare, as the book presumably composed by Hermippus shows. 1 According to Riginos 1976, 194 this book was the origin of this traditional biographical rubric, which is almost always present in philosophers' biographies. Also Titinius Capito composed an Exitus illustrium uirorum, according to Pliny (Ep. viii 12). Furthermore, it seems evident that collections of examples of death were circulated and used by rhetoricians: Cicero