Polyaenus of Lampsacus
Polyaenus of Lampsacus (in
Greek Πoλύαινoς Λαμψακηνός; c.
340–
278 BC), son of Athenodorus, was an ancient Greek
mathematician and a friend of
Epicurus.His friendship with Epicurus started after the latter's escape from
Mytilene in
307 or
306 BC when he opened a philosophical school at
Lampsacus associating himself with other citzens of the town, like
Pytocles,
Colotes,
Idomeneus. With the other fellow citzen previously cited he moved to
Athens, where they founded a school of philosophy with Epicurus as head, or
hegemon, while Polyaenus,
Hermarchus and
Metrodorus were
kathegemones. A man of mild and friendly manners, as
Philodemus refers, he adopted fully the philosophical system of his friend, and, although he had previously acquired great reputation as a mathematician, he now maintained with Epicurus the worthlessness of
geometry. But the statement may be at least doubted, since it is certain Polyaenus wrote a mathematical work called Aπoριαι in which the validity of geometry is maintained. It was against this treatise that another Epicurean,
Demetrius Lacon, wrote
Unsolved questions of Polyaenus (in Greek Πρὸς τὰς Πoλυαίνoυ ἀπoρίας) in the
2nd century BC. Like Epicurus, a considerable number of spurious works seem to have been assigned to him; one of these was
Against the Rhetors, whose authenticity was attacked both by
Zeno of Sidon and his pupil Philodemus. Polyaenus has been one of the authors found in the library in the
Villa of the Papyri near
Herculaneum, openig the road to the discovery of fragments of his works believed lost forever.
*Polyaenus,
Polieno. Frammenti, A. Tepedino Guerra (Italian translation),
Napoli, (1991)
*
Smith, William;
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,
"Polyaenus (2)",
Boston, (1867)
Cicero,
De finibus,
i. 6; ibid.,
Academica, ii. 33; Diogenes Laertius,
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers,
ii.105,
x. 12 
