Abstract
The Didaskalikos of Alcinous is the most systematic, coherent and comprehensive account of Platonism. This chapter argues that the Didaskalikos represents a quite different phase of the Platonic tradition from Antiochus of Ascalon. Antiochus was already pursuing broadly the same agenda as Alcinous, recommending a life which would somehow combine both contemplative and practical components, and tracing its origins back to Plato and Aristotle. But his work predates the great era of philosophical commentary, which started only in the late first century BC. Antiochus' account of the best forms of life, as recorded in Cicero, De finibus 5, shows virtually no direct engagement with the text of either Plato or Aristotle. Alcinous' version is in effect stitched together out of carefully selected and closely scrutinized key passages of the two authorities. The distinction between the theoretikos bios and the praktikos bios is altogether fundamental to Alcinous' version of Platonism. Keywords:Alcinous; Antiochus; Aristotle; De finibus ; Didaskalikos ; Plato; Platonism; praktikos bios ; Theoretikos Bios
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