GRICE E FILIPPO

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘Grice e Filippo: la ragione conversazionale e Roma antica  Filippo: la ragione conversazionale e Roma antica -- Roma – filosofia italiana (Medma). Filosofo italiano. Medma was the Italian colony of Opus. Filippo was a pupil of Platone, and achieved fame mainly as an astronomer. He is widely thought to have edited Plato’s Laws and written the appendix to it knon as the Epinomis. He is sometimes known as Filippo di Mende. His birthplace was Medma, an Italian colony of Opo. The Epinomis is notable for his treatment of the subject of daemons. See: Dillon, “The Heirs of Plato: a study of the Old Accademy, Oxford, Clarendon. GRICEVS: O PHILIPPE, cum e Medma venias et Plato te docuerit, num sidera te docuerunt quomodo Romae taceas? PHILIPPVS: Minime, sed sidera saltem non clamant “Roma! Roma!”, et hoc ipsum est doctrina utilissima. GRICEVS: Audio te leges Platonis emendasse atque Epinomidem addidisse—quasi Plato sine appendice velut toga sine fibula esset. PHILIPPVS: Ita est, et de daemonibus scripsi, quia inter philosophos semper aliquis daemon murmurat “hoc notula indiget.” It's not clear to either Speranza or Greek where, in modern terms, this Filippo was born, comune, regione? We don't suppose he spoke Latin. The safest modern answer is this. If the Philip in question is the one usually called Philip of Opus, and if one accepts the identification with Philip of Medma, then his birthplace is best given in modern terms as the area of Rosarno, in Calabria, in today’s Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. Ancient Medma is located at or near modern Rosarno in Calabria. Medma is explicitly placed at Rosarno, Province or Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, Calabria. [en.wikipedia.org], [pleiades.stoa.org], [treccani.it] So if you want the comune and regione in present terms, the neat form is: comune: Rosarno regione: Calabria That said, there is one important caution. The identification itself is not absolutely beyond dispute. The standard philosophical figure is Philip of Opus, but ancient and later tradition often identify him with Philip of Medma. So when one says he was born at Medma, one is relying on that common identification. [en.wikipedia.org], [ancientgre...loaded.com], [hellenicaworld.com] As for language, no, we should not suppose he spoke Latin as his primary language. If he was from Medma in Magna Graecia in the fourth century BCE, the natural presumption is Greek, not Latin. Medma was a Greek colony founded by the Locrians, and the whole cultural setting is Greek. Medma is described as a Greek colony of Magna Graecia, and Philip of Opus is listed as writing and speaking Ancient Greek. [treccani.it], [en.wikipedia.org], [wikidata.org] So the dry answer is: modern location: Rosarno, Calabria more exactly: area of Rosarno, Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria language: almost certainly Greek rather than Latin caution: this depends on accepting the usual identification of Philip of Opus with Philip of Medma And one small correction to the wording in your note. Medma was not an Italian colony of Opus. The ancient relation is rather that Medma was a Greek city in Magna Graecia, while Philip is also associated by tradition with Opus; those are two different locational labels tied together by later identification of the person, not by colonial dependency of Medma on Opus. [en.wikipedia.org], [en.wikipedia.org], [ancientgre...loaded.com] If you like, I can next sort out the Opus and Medma problem itself, that is, why the same man is called Philip of Opus and Philip of Medma, and which label is safer in a philosophical catalogue.