Aristocles of Messene
Aristocles of Messene, in Sicily, was a Peripatetic philosopher, who probably lived in the 1st century AD. He may have been the teacher of Alexander of Aphrodisias.
According to the Suda and Eudokia, he wrote several works:
- Πότερον σπουδαιότερος Ὅμηρος ἢ Πλάτων – Whether Homer or Plato is more Worthy.
- Τέχναι ῥητορικαί – Arts of Rhetoric.
- A work on the god Serapis.
- A work on Ethics, in nine books.
- A work on Philosophy, in ten books.
The last of these works appears to have been a history of philosophy in which he wrote about the philosophers, their schools, and doctrines. Several fragments of it are preserved in Eusebius' work Praeparatio Evangelica. One particularly important fragment is known as the Aristocles Passage in which Pyrrho summarizes his philosophy of Pyrrhonism. This summary includes a translation of the Buddhist three marks of existence into Greek.
