CLITOMACHUS

Son of Theognitos. In his homeland he dealt with philosophy. At the age of 40 he came to Athens, where he learned Greek and Hellenized his name, which in his language was Hasdrubal. He became a student of Carneades for 19 years. In fact, as one of his most distinguished students dropped out, he assumed the office of schoolmaster at the Academy (127 BC), after previously directing his own school that he founded in the Palladium, as Apollodorus mentions. His studies familiarized him with the teaching of the Peripatic and Stoic philosophers, but without ever becoming an apprentice in the respective schools. He even knew Stoic teaching in detail, as it was the main goal of his teacher Carneades' polemics. He was prolific (400 books according to Diogenes Laertius), unlike his teacher,

Cleitomachus insisted that Carneades never expressed a preference for any epistemological principle. Stobaius cites his quote: "Nothing of human nature is certain, but it is always brought about by reason." Regarding epistemological problems, he remained faithful to the teaching of Carneades, but, as he himself confessed, he could not understand his teacher's opinion on ethics. Cleitomachus likened dialectic to the moon, which sometimes waxes and sometimes wanes. He died in the year 110 BC.