Cratippus ofPergamon (Ancient Greek:Κράτιππος), was a leadingPeripatetic philosopher of the 1st century BC who taught atMytilene andAthens. The only aspects of his teachings which are known to us are whatCicero records concerningdivination.
Cratippus was a contemporary and friend ofCicero who had a very high opinion of him, for he declared Cratippus to be the most distinguished of the Peripatetics that he had known,[1] and thought him at least equal to the greatest of his school.[2] Cratippus lived for a time at Mytilene, and accompaniedPompey in his flight after theBattle of Pharsalia, endeavouring to comfort and rouse him by philosophical arguments.[3] Several eminent Romans, such asM. Marcellus and Cicero himself, were taught by him, and in 44 BCCicero's son was his pupil atAthens, and was tenderly attached to him.[4] Young Cicero seems also to have visited Asia in his company.[5] WhenJulius Caesar was at the head of the Roman republic, Cicero obtained from himRoman citizenship for Cratippus, and also induced the council of theAreopagus at Athens to invite the philosopher to remain in the city and to continue his instructions in philosophy.[6] Although Cicero speaks of him as the leading philosopher of thePeripatetic school,[7] it is not certain if he was thescholarch.[8] After the murder of Caesar,Brutus, while staying at Athens, also attended the lectures of Cratippus.[9]
Although Cicero had a high opinion of the knowledge and talent of Cratippus, his philosophical opinions are unknown, apart from allusions to his opinions ondivination, on which he seems to have written a work. Cicero states that Cratippus believed indreams and supernatural inspiration (Latin:furor) but that he rejected all other kinds of divination.[10] He seems to have held that, while motion, sense and appetite cannot exist apart from the body, thought reaches its greatest power when most free from bodily influence, and that divination is due to the direct action of the divine mind on that part of the human soul which is not dependent on the body.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870)."Cratippus (2)".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.