Severus on Tim. 30a: New Approaches and Perspectives. Porphyry, PM 87–95; Eusebius, PE 13.17

Abstract

Abstract This paper aims at re-evaluating the significance of Peripatetic features in Severus’ exegesis of the Timaeus through a comparison between Severus’ doxography in the PM and the fragment of his treatise on the soul quoted by Eusebius. Indeed, until now, the scholarly literature has been inclined to consider Severus as a plain anti-Aristotelian and pro-Stoic Platonist. However the recent edition of the Porphyrian lost treatise On Principles and Matter allows us to grasp more clearly to what extant Severus’ view on the nature of the soul and on the bodily motion is grounded on an in-depth knowledge of the Peripatetic debates of his time.