Historical Relations of Sextus Empiricus. 13

Pyrrho, the founder of the school, taught in Elis, his native village; but even as early as the time of Timon, his immediate follower, his teachings were somewhat known in Alexandria, where Timon resided for a while.¹ The immediate disciples of Timon, as given by Diogenes, were not men known in Greece or mentioned in Greek writings. Then we have the well-known testimony of Aristocles the Peripatetic in regard to Aenesidemus, that he taught Pyrrhonism in Alexandria²—"Yesterday and the day before, in Alexandria in Egypt, a certain Aenesidemus began to rekindle this nonsense" original: "ἐχθὲς καὶ πρώην ἐν ᾿Αλεξανδρείᾳ τῇ κατ᾿ Αἴγυπτον Αἰνησίδημός τις ἀναζωπυρεῖν ἤρξατο τὸν ὕθλον τοῦτον.".

This was after the dogmatic tendency of the Academy under Antiochus and his followers had driven Pyrrhonism from the partial union with the Academy, which it had experienced after the breaking up of the school under the immediate successors of Timon. Aenesidemus taught in Alexandria about the time of our era and established the school there anew; his followers are spoken of in a way that presupposes their continuing in the same place. There is every reason to think that the connection of Sextus with Alexandria was an intimate one, not only because Alexandria had been for so long a time the seat of Pyrrhonism, but also from internal evidence from his writings and their subsequent historical influence. And yet the Hypotyposes could not have been delivered in Alexandria, as he often refers to that place in comparison with the place where he was then speaking. He says, furthermore, that he teaches in the same place where his master taught.³ "Seeing that where my teacher used to lecture, there I now lecture" original: "βλέπων τε ὅτι ἔνθα ὁ ὑφηγητὴς ὁ ἐμὸς διελέγετο, ἐνταῦθα ἐγὼ νῦν διαλέγομαι.".