"David the Philosopher" redirects here; not to be confused withDavid (commentator).
David the Invincible depicted in medieval manuscript ofDefinition of Philosophy (Matenadaran, Ms. 1746, c. 1280)The 1985 statue of David the Invincible in Yerevan
David the Invincible orDavid the Philosopher was aneoplatonist philosopher of the 6th century.[1]
David was a pupil ofOlympiodorus inAlexandria. His works, originally written inGreek, survive in medievalArmenian translation, and he was given the byname of "invincible" (Old Armenian:Անյաղթ,romanized: Anyałt’)[a] in the Armenian tradition, which considers David himself an Armenian. Historian Tara Andrews states that his ethnicity is uncertain.[2]
Due to confusion with other authors called David and due to an abundant body of medieval legend, almost nothing is known with certainty about the historical David. Armenian tradition makes him a native ofTaron,[3] but this is not substantiated in contemporary sources and may be due to conflation with another person.[4][5][6] He was active inAlexandria inByzantine Egypt, known as an expert in Aristotle'sPhysics.[7]He supposedly received the byname "invincible" for his exceptional oratory and argumentative skills.[3] David is said to have returned to his native Armenia later in life, where he was active as a teacher, but he came into conflict with the Armenian church and ultimately died in exile inHaghbat.[3]
Of the number of works attributed to him, many arepseudepigraphic or doubtful. The works which can be attributed to him with certainty or at least with some plausibility are not scholarly treatises but propaedeutic (introductory) handbooks for use in teaching beginners. They were composed in Greek but survive only in Armenian translation. Philologically, these translations are important representatives of the "Hellenizing" tradition (Yunaban dprots’) in Armenian literature of the 6th to 8th centuries.[8][9]
^Westerink, Leendert Gerrit; Trouillard, Jean; Segonds, A. Ph, eds. (1990).Prolégomènes à la philosophie de Platon.Collection Budé (in French and Greek). Paris: Les Belles Lettres. p. XXXVII.ISBN978-2-251-00412-9.OCLC26404365.
^Valentina Calzolari: Aux origines de la formation du corpus philosophique en Arménie: quelques remarques sur les versions arméniennes des commentaires grecs de David. In: Cristina D’Ancona (ed.): The Libraries of the Neoplatonists, Leiden 2007, 259–278, here: 261–264
Andrews, Tara L. (2013). "Identity, Philosophy, and the Problem of Armenian History in the Sixth Century". In Wood, Philip (ed.).History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East. Oxford University Press. pp. 27–42.ISBN978-0-19-991540-8.
%2c_Yerevan%2c_Armenia.jpg)
