Brontinus of

Metapontum Metapontum or Metapontium () was an ancient city of Magna Graecia, situated on the gulf of Taranto, Tarentum, between the river Bradanus and the Casuentus (modern Basento). It was distant about 20 km from Heraclea (Lucania), Heraclea and 40 ...

(, also Brotinus, ; fl. 6th century BCE),

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

, was a Pythagorean philosopher and a friend and disciple of

Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos (; BC) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher, polymath, and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of P ...

. Alcmaeon dedicated his works to Brontinus as well as to Leon and Bathyllus. Accounts vary as to whether he was the father or the husband of Theano. Some Orphic poems were ascribed to Brontinus. One was a poem ''On Nature'' (''Physika''),

Clement of Alexandria Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria (; – ), was a Christian theology, Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A ...

, ''Stromata'', i. 131; Suda, ''Orpheus'' another was a poem called ''The Robe and the Net'' that was also ascribed to Zopyrus of Heraclea. His fame was sufficient for a spurious work to be ascribed to him in the Neopythagorean literature.

Syrianus Syrianus (, ''Syrianos''; died c. 437 A.D.) was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, and head of Plato's Academy in Athens, succeeding his teacher Plutarch of Athens in 431/432 A.D. He is important as the teacher of Proclus, and, like Plutarch an ...

(5th century CE) refers to "Brotinus" as an author of the view that the monad, or

first cause The unmoved mover () or prime mover () is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary Causality (physics), cause (or first uncaused cause) or "Motion (physics), mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the moves oth ...

, "transcends all kinds of reason and essence in power and dignity," whereby an attempt was made to insert an element of

Platonism Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary Platonists do not necessarily accept all doctrines of Plato. Platonism has had a profound effect on Western thought. At the most fundam ...

into

Pythagoreanism Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek co ...

,Elisabeth Gellert, Jelena O. Krstovic, (2001), ''Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of World Authors from Classical Antiquity Through the Fourteenth Century'', page 236. Gale/Cengage Learning. which probably refers to

Neoplatonism Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common id ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brontinus 6th-century BC Greek philosophers Presocratic philosophers Ancient Metapontines Ancient Crotonians Pythagoreans of Magna Graecia

See also

References