Calcidius

Calcidius (IVth century AD) was a Christian philosopher who was noted during the Middle Ages for his annotated translation of Plato's Timaeus, dedicated to Osius, Bishop of Cordova, Spain.

Calcidius's Latin translation of Timaeus was mostly used by European western intellectuals during the Medieval Age and partd of the Modern Age as the most useful tool for the understanding of the doctrines of Plato communicated in this dialogue. His work seems not to have been much recognized in his own day, yet eventually it became one of the most admired and studied,

to which he contributed little knowledge of the classic Greek on the part of Occident during the centuries later to his epoch; something similar to what has been stated by other works of the classic Latin literature, which turned in important regarding after the original Greeks did not survive.

Debates about his origin

As for his origin and personal biography, several hypotheses exist, and yet up to this date no one hypothesis, on either his origin, nationality, or residence, has been confirmed as fact. Tradition has it that Calcidius appears as archideacon of Osius (supposedly the same Bishop of Cordova that along with the Roman priests Vito and Vicente represented the Pope in the first famous "Concilium Ecumenicum" of Nicea). There have been suggestions that he was of Jewish origin, or a deacon in the church of Carthage, but no firm arguments or unimpeachable information on these points have yet surfaced. The only documents that exist regarding his private person and life are a few doubtful private letters attributed to Calcidius. There is, however, in his famous annotated translation of the first part of Plato's Timaeus, his personal dedication to Osius.

One of the most important elements used to identify the time and location of Calcidius's life is this introductory letter dedicated to Osius. The letter suggests that Osius gave Calcidius the arduous task of not only translating the Timaeus from the Classic Greek to the Latin, but also adding annotations to the text. [According to Calcidius, this was "something not tried till then" (operis intemptati ad hoc tempus).] In some manuscripts there has been a subscriptio which adds light to this question: "Osius episcopo Calcidius archidiaconus". This suggests that Osius is a Bishop, of whom Calcidius is his archideacon. In fact, in this epoch there was an Osius, Bishop of Cordova (257-357 approximately) which was an important figure in western Christianity. Osius played a consequential role in the defense of the orthodoxy, in the Councils of Nicea (325) and Sardica (344), and was dedicated to fighting the arrianismo. If it is this particular Osius whom Calcidius addresses in his dedication, then Calcidius would have written his annotated translation of the Timaeus around the years 325-350 AD. This hypothesis of Calcidius's dates has always been the traditional one.

However, Waszink, the last publisher - up to the present day - of Calcidius was opposed to this hypothesis, believing that it is necessary to place Calcidius at the end of the IVh century or even at the beginning of the Vth century. According to Waszink, the intellectual attitude in which this agreement would have arisen (the mix of the neoplatonical and the Christian) would be that of Milan of the end of the IVth century, an epoch in which the Italian city was a center of neoplatonism both pagan and Christian, and where Osius might have been an active imperial official around 395. There is, though, no evidence of this supposed Osius of Milan. Moreover, Klibansky observed that San Isidorus Hispalensis, who usually highlighted the Hispanic origin of the writers of the past, does not mention Calcidius. But this argument has been refuted by Dillon, who return to the ancient, traditional hypothesis sustained in the subscriptio, and for whom:

• First: that San Isidoro did not mention all the Hispanic authors who existed before his epoch.
• Second: that the work of Calcidius scarcely had an influence in late antiquity, and was only consulted again after the XIIth century; i.e., many centuries after the epoch of San Isidoro.
• Third: the pronounced Platonic character of Calcidius's work would be a more than sufficient reason for San Isidoro (a fervent and devout Christian) not to include it among the famous authors of the first centuries of the Hispanic Christianity.

The debate continues. According to Dillon, it is not possible that," around the year 350, "a real Christian could have written a commentary to a pagan text such as the Timaeus (and in a way clearly more partisan of the Platonic ideas that of the proper Christian faith). On the other hand, Moreschini refutes both the traditional and the Waszink hypotheses. For Moreschini, the "subscriptio" might be an invention of someone who lived in the epoch in which Calcidius was re-discovered, the XIIth century. Nevertheless, for Díaz-Montexano, everything seems to indicate that the traditional hypothesis - in other words, the most ancient, and the one defended by Dillon - would be the correct one: that Calcidius was a disciple of Osius in the 4th century. Supporting this hypothesis is a lexical study of Calcidius's language which suggests a possible Andalusian or Hispanic origin.

The fact of entrusting a translation into Latin of the Greek Timaios is indicative that this Osius had a direct interest in the literary work. Calcidius did not do a finished translation of the Timaeus but only of the first part, which suggests that only in this first part would there be matters and topics that Osius might be interested in and which might be useful in his own studies and doctrines. Although it might be thought that Osius might not have been interested in Atlantis but only the rest, nevertheless, the history of Atlantis is included in this first part translated by Calcidius.

Exactly the lexical analysis realized on this part of the Timaeus has allowed to discover some details that might reinforce - of certain way - the ancient hypothesis of Calcidius as disciple of Osius, the same famous Bishop of Cordova. These tracks are in several passages of the Timaeus related to the history of Atlantis. For example: Calcidius realizes a precision (like intercalation) exactly when he translates the Greek fragment of the Timaios 24e: ΝΗΣΟΝ ΓΑΡ ΠΡΟ ΤΟΥ ΣΤΟΜΑΤΟΣ ΕΙΧΕΝ Ο ΚΑΛΕΙΤΕ ΩΣ ΠΗΑΤΕ ΗΥΜΕΙΣ ΗΡΑΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΣΤΗΕΛΑΣ, whose lexicographical and grammatical translation would be: "since it had a 'insular land' (ΝΗΣΟΣ) before of the mouth that you name, as you announce, the Pillars of Hercules”, but that Calcidius translates (in reallity he interprets): "HABENS IN ORE [AC VESTIBULO SINUS] INSULAM, QUOD OS A VOBIS HERCULIS CENSETUR COLUMNAE", "it had in the mouth [and vestibule, in the gulf] an island, which is the one that you consider to be the Columns of Hercules.".

The part between square brackets does not exist in the Greek text of the Timaios, in none of the codices and well-known MS; nevertheless, Calcidius inserts it in his translation. This precision that does Calcidius [AC VESTIBULO SINUS], corresponds with a species of clarification or explanation, which he does for Osius, as if Calcidius believed to be necessary to specify - even more - the exact place where he understanding that Plato was locating "ATLANTIS INSULA", ie, before of the mouth of the strait of Hercules, but “in the same vestibule or entry (VESTIBULO), in the gulf (SINUS), ie, in the current Gulf of Cadiz (also known as Atlantic Gulf or Atlantic Pelagus), which is the only Gulf that exists, joust in the Atlantic mouth, before of de Pillars of Hercules, ie, the Gibraltar Strait. This precision of Calcidius only can be understood when it is accepted that he was then a philosopher who knew well the region, or who had more precise information on the location of legendary "ATLANTIS INSULA", presented by Plato as a "true history" (ΑΛΗΘΙΝΟΝ ΛΟΓΟΝ), already be because Calcidius could know local traditions, or because he could have access to other sources, foreign to Plato himself, which unfortunately today we do not know. In any case, this Clacidius's precision that he adds or inserts [AC VESTIBULO SINUS], shows a clear intention to offer to the person who commissioned the translation, namely, his religious superior, Bishop Osius, a greater precision on the exact spot where or closest was Atlantis, and this reinforces the idea that Osius have a special interest in this part of the Timaeus Plato.

Other evidences exist in the same commented translation of Calcidius that support these facts, for example, in the Timaios 25a:

"...ΤΑΔΕ ΜΕΝ ΓΑΡ ΟΣΑ ΕΝΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΣΤΟΜΑΤΟΣ ΟΥ ΛΕΓΟΜΕΝ ΦΑΙΝΕΤΑΙ ΛΙΜΗΝ ΣΤΕΝΟΝ ΤΙΝΑ ΕΧΩΝ ΕΙΣΠΛΟΥΝ..." (Timaios. Platon; 25a).

"…On the other hand, which is inside the mouth that we mention, appears like a narrow port for anyone that sails inwards..."

Calcidius translates to Latin as:

"...quippe hoc intra os sive Herculeas columnas fretum angusto quodam litore, [in quo etiam nunc portus veteris apparent vestigia, dividitur a continente]..."

"...what is here inside the mouth or of your Columns of Hercules, which is like a coast with a narrow strait [in it also now is the apparent vestige, of an ancient port, which divides the continent]..."

This new intercalation of Calcidius, undoubtedly, directed once again to his principal reader, Osius, adds a more descriptive explanation (and quite exact from the geographical point of view) on the strait of Hercules; description that turns out to be difficult to admit, could have been realized by someone who did not have geographical sufficient knowledge of the area of the strait of the Pillars of Hercules. In this sense, developer is much the hypothesis or speculation that Calcidius adds in this seción, about which the strait of Hercules is like a "apparent vestige, of an ancient port, which divides the continent", because only in the modern times it is when we have known that actually both continents, Europe and Africa, were joined someone time by the strait of Hercules; although also it is true that an intelligent mind could have come to this conclusion. In any case, the description of Calcidius of the strait of Hercules, it is quite faithful to the aspect of the current Strait of Gibraltar, which without doubts, is like a "apparent vestige, of an ancient port, which divides the continent" European from the African.

Be as it will be, other reasonable arguments exist, as for example, the stated fact of which his influence is middleplatonical and not neoplatonical, that it is what would be waited for a Christian author of his epoch (IVth AD). Still for solving, this fact considered an authentic quandary has been an object of a lot of polemics between diverse authors, since of it it is deduced that Calcidius did not know the neoplatonical doctrine of Plotino (when this one was used exactly by all the Christian authors of his epoch), or perhaps that he was not interested in the absolute in this issue, preferring the ancient middleplatonism, which would keep on being something very little probable; nevertheless, actually, this fact offers another track in favor of the Andalusian or Hispanic origin of Calcidius, since exactly the neoplatonical doctrine of Plotino developed exclusively in the italic peninsula, and there do not exist firm evidences of which it has been introduced between the Hispanic authors not even in epochs later to Calcidius.

These evidences drive to think that it is highly probable that Calcidius was an Andalusian philosopher, or, Spanish, with all probability a disciple of Bishop of Cordova, Osius. Calcidius should have been a big connoisseur of the classic languages, especially of the Greek, and of course of the geography of Hispania, especially of the geography of the environment of the Strait of Gibraltar, and it would explain also why it was chosen by Osius for the translation of the Timeo; what in turn opens the possibility that it was a natural author of Gadeira, or Gades, or of Cádiz, a land that offered to the history also other important philosophers and scholars; the same place in which the Pillars of Hercules have always been, the same Pillars that all the classic sources, from the most ancient, previous up to the contemporaries to Plato, locate Solon in the same strait, which as an "apparent vestige, of an ancient port, which divides the continent" of Europe on the African continent, ie, the Strait of Gibraltar.

References and notes

Bibliography

Translation

• Commentario al Timeo di Platone, Milano, 2003 ISBN 88-452-9232-0

Studies

• BOEFT, J. DEN, Calcidius on fate. His doctrine and sources, Leiden, 1970.
• BOEFT, J. DEN, Calcidius on demons (Commentarius ch. 127-136), Leiden, 1977.
• CALCIDIO, Commentario al «Timeo» di Platone (testo latino a fronte), a cura di Claudio Moreschini, con la collaborazione di Marco Bertolini, Lara Nicolini, Ilaria Ramelli, Bompiani, Il Pensiero Occidentale, Milán, 2003.
• CICERÓN, Sobre la adivinación, Sobre el destino, Timeo, introd., trad. y notas de Ángel Escobar, Biblioteca Clásica Gredos, nº 271, Madrid, 1999.
• EASTERLING, P. E & KNOX, B. M. W. (eds.), Historia de la literatura clásica (Cambridge University). I. Literatura griega, vers. esp. Federico Zaragoza Alberich, Madrid, 1990.
• GERSH, Stephen, Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism: The Latin Tradition, Publications in Medieval Studies, vol. 23. University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.
• PLATON, Oeuvres Complètes. Tomo X. Timée, Critias, texte établi et traduit par Albert Rivaud, Les Belles Lettres, París, 1970 (5ª reimpr.).
• WASZINK, J. H., Studien zum Timaioskommentar des Calcidius, I. Die erste Hälfte des Kommentars (mit Ausnahme der Kapitel über die Weltseele), Leiden, Brill, 1964.
• WINDEN, VAN J. M. C., Calcidius on matter. His doctrine and sources. A chapter in the history of platonism, Leiden, Brill, 1959.

External linkage

• Plato's Timaeus by Calcidius, in a Manuscript of the XIIth century found in Osney Abbey. Bodleian Library Collection.
• Was Calcidius Spanish? The Timaeus and Atlantis in Gibraltar. Georgeos Díaz-Montexano. Madrid, February, 2007 (original article in Spanish).

The Calcidius name in other languages

• es:Calcidio
• de:Chalcidius
• en:Calcidius
• fi:Kalkidios
• fr:Chalcidius
• it:Calcidio
• ja:カルキディウス