Posidonius

Posidonius (Greek: Ποσειδώνιος, Poseidonios, meaning "of Poseidon") "of Apameia" (ὁ Ἀπαμεύς) or "of Rhodes" (ὁ Ῥόδιος) (c. 135 BCE – c. 51 BCE), was a GreekStoicphilosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher native to Apamea, Syria.

He was acclaimed as the greatest polymath of his age. His vast body of work exists today only in fragments.

Writers such as Strabo and Seneca provide most of the information, from history, about his life.

Early life

Posidonius, nicknamed "the Athlete", was born to a Greek family in Apamea, a Hellenistic city on the river Orontes in northern Syria.

Posidonius completed his higher education in Athens, where he was a student of the aged Panaetius, the head of the Stoic school. But soon he came in conflict with the Stoic doctrines and was involved in heated debates with many other Stoic philosophers of the school. The incidents concerning Posidonius's conflict and final break up with the Stoics are mentioned by Galen in his book On the Doctrines of Plato and Hippocrates. Eventually Posidonius gave up Stoicism and turned to a different philosophical direction, this of Plato but mainly of Aristotle, remaining a faithful follower of Aristotelian doctrines until his death.

Poseidonius (disambiguation)

Poseidonius or Posidonius may refer to:

Posidonius (crater)

Posidonius is a lunar impact crater that is located on the north-eastern edge of Mare Serenitatis, to the south of Lacus Somniorum. The crater Chacornac is attached to the southeast rim, and to the north is Daniell.

The rim of Posidonius is shallow and obscured, especially on the western edge, and the interior has been overlain by a lava flow in the past. The crater ramparts can still be observed to the south and east of the crater rim, and to a lesser degree to the north.

There is a smaller, semi-circular rim of a concentric, flooded crater within the main rim, offset towards the eastern edge. There is no central peak, but the floor is hilly and laced with a rille system named the Rimae Posidonius. The floor is also slightly bulged due to the past lava uplift, which also likely produced the complex of rilles. The northeast rim is interrupted by the smaller crater Posidonius B. Within the crater rim, offset just to the west of center is another smaller crater Posidonius A.