Philip of Opus


Philip of Opus, was a philosopher and a member of the Academy during Plato's lifetime. Philip was the editor of Plato's Laws. Philip of Opus is probably identical with the Philip of Medma, the astronomer, who is also described as a disciple of Plato.

Plato's ''Laws'' and ''Epinomis''

According to Diogenes Laërtius, Philip of Opus was a disciple of Plato, who was responsible for transcribing Plato's Laws into twelve books, and writing the thirteenth book himself:
Some say that Philip the Opuntian transcribed his work, Laws, which was written in wax . They also say that the Epinomis , is his.

In the Suda, Philip is listed anonymously under the heading of philosophos, his name being lost from the beginning of the entry:
Philosopher who divided the Laws of Plato into 12 books; for he himself is said to have added the 13th. And he was a pupil of Socrates and of Plato himself, occupied with the study of the heavens. Living in the time of Philip of Macedon, he wrote the following: On the distance of the sun and moon; On gods; On time; On myths; On freedom; On anger; On reciprocation; On the Opuntian Lokrians; On pleasure; On passion; On friends and friendship; On writing; On Plato; On eclipse of the moon; On the size of the sun and moon and earth; On lightning; On the planets; Arithmetic; On prolific numbers; Optics; Enoptics; Kykliaka; Means; etc.

Since the entry is located under the heading philosophos, the defect presumably existed in the source from which the Suda borrowed. It was not until the 18th century when Ludolf Küster, the editor of the Suda, identified this anonymous entry with the Philip of Opus mentioned by Diogenes Laërtius.

Philip the astronomer

Because he is identified in the Suda as an astronomer, it is generally assumed that Philip of Opus is the same person as Philip of Medma, who was an astronomer and mathematician and a disciple of Plato.
Philip of Medma is mentioned by several ancient writers, such as Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch,, Proclus, and Alexander of Aphrodisias. His astronomical observations were made in the Peloponnese and in Locris, and were used by the astronomers Hipparchus, Geminus of Rhodes, and Ptolemy. He is said by Stephanus of Byzantium to have written a treatise on the winds.