View source for Biography:Sosigenes the Peripatetic

{{Short description|Late 2nd century Roman philosopher and astronomer}}
'''Sosigenes the Peripatetic''' ({{lang-grc-gre|Σωσιγένης}}) was a [[Biography:Philosopher|philosopher]] living at the end of the 2nd century AD. He was the tutor of [[Biography:Alexander of Aphrodisias|Alexander of Aphrodisias]] and wrote a work ''On Revolving Spheres'', from which some important extracts have been preserved in [[Biography:Simplicius of Cilicia|Simplicius]]'s commentary on [[Biography:Aristotle|Aristotle]]'s ''[[Astronomy:On the Heavens|De Caelo]]''.

==Work==
Sosigenes criticized both  [[Biography:Aristotle|Aristotle]] and [[Biography:Eudoxus of Cnidus|Eudoxus]] for their imperfect theory of [[Astronomy:Celestial spheres|celestial spheres]] and also the use of [[Astronomy:Deferent and epicycle|epicycles]], which he felt to be inconsistent with Aristotle's philosophical postulates. He pointed out that the planets varied markedly in brightness, and that [[Earth:Solar eclipse|solar eclipse]]s are sometimes total and sometimes annular, suggesting that the distances between the [[Astronomy:Sun|Sun]], [[Astronomy:Moon|Moon]] and [[Astronomy:Earth|Earth]] were not the same at different eclipses.

Sosigenes is perhaps called "the [[Philosophy:Peripatetic school|Peripatetic]]" only because of his connection with Alexander.  Some ancient evidence may be taken to suggest that he was, in fact, a [[Philosophy:Stoicism|Stoic]].  As John Patrick Lynch has written:<blockquote>The other two teachers of Alexander may actually have been the philosophers whom ancient sources called Stoics; in both cases, Herminos/Sosigenes "the Stoic" have been distinguished from Herminos/Sosigenes "the Peripatetic" only on the grounds that the two latter men were teachers of Alexander of Aphrodisias.  But it is not improbable that Alexander of Aphrodisias studied with two Stoic teachers and that these two pairs of homonymous contemporaries are actually only two Stoic philosophers.<ref>John Patrick Lynch, ''Aristotle's School: A Study of a Greek Educational Institution'', Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972, p. 215.</ref></blockquote>

He is often confused with the astronomer [[Biography:Sosigenes of Alexandria|Sosigenes of Alexandria]], who advised Julius Caesar on the reform of the Roman calendar.

==Notes==
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==References==
*Irby-Massie G., Keyser P., ''Greek Science of the Hellenistic Era: A Sourcebook'', pages 80–81. Routledge.
*Zhmud L.,  Chernoglazov A., (translator), ''The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity'', page 231. Walter de Gruyter.

{{Greek astronomy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sosigenes The Peripatetic}}
[[Category:Ancient Greek astronomers]]

{{Sourceattribution|Sosigenes the Peripatetic}}