Calcidius

Calcidius (4th 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 Córdoba, Spain.

Calcidius's Latin translation of Timaeus was used by European western intellectuals during the Medieval Age and part of the Modern Age as the most useful tool for the understanding of the doctrines of Plato outlined in this dialogue. Calcidius's work seems not to have been much recognized in his own day, yet eventually it became one of the most admired and studied. This was because of the scanty knowledge of Greek in the West during the later centuries of its existence - and also of Latin, the literature of which was an important reference source in cases where the original Greek did not survive.

Debates about his origin

As for his origin, several hypotheses exist, yet so far no one hypothesis, on either his origin, nationality, or residence, has been confirmed as fact. Tradition has it that Calcidius served 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 served as a deacon in the church of Carthage, but no firm arguments or indisputable information on these points have yet surfaced. The only documents that exist regarding his personality and private life are a few private letters doubtfully attributed to him. 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' 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 Ancient Greek to Latin, but also to add annotations to the text. (According to Calcidius, this was "something not tried till then", operis intemptati ad hoc tempus.) In some manuscripts there are inscriptions which shed light on this: "Osius episcopo Calcidius archidiaconus". This suggests that Osius is a Bishop, of whom Calcidius is his archideacon. In fact, in this epoch there was indeed an Osius, Bishop of Cordova (257-357 approximately) who 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' 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 4th century or even at the beginning of the 5th. According to Waszink, the prevailing intellectual attitude reflected in Calcidius' work (the mix of neoplatonic and Christian) would be that of Milan of the end of the 4th 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. Also, Klibansky observed that San Isidorus Hispalensis, who usually highlighted the Hispanic origin of writers of the past, does not mention Calcidius. But this argument, that Calcidius is related to Milan around 395, has been refuted by Dillon, who returns to the ancient, traditional hypothesis sustained in the inscription, and points out:

• 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' 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 early centuries of Hispanic Christianity.

Calcidius as a disciple of Osius

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 manner that is 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 inscription might be an invention of someone who lived in the epoch in which Calcidius was re-discovered, namely, 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 - is the correct one: that Calcidius was a disciple of Osius, Bishop of Cordova, in the first half of 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 Osius's own studies and doctrines. Although it might be thought that Osius may not have been interested in Atlantis but only the rest, nevertheless, the history of Atlantis is included in this first part translated by Calcidius.

The lexical analysis on Calcidius' translation of the Timaeus has led to the discovery of some details that might reinforce the ancient hypothesis of Calcidius as a disciple of Osius. These details are in several passages of the Timaeus that are related to the history of Atlantis.

For example, Timaios 24e: ΝΗΣΟΝ ΓΑΡ ΠΡΟ ΤΟΥ ΣΤΟΜΑΤΟΣ ΕΙΧΕΝ Ο ΚΑΛΕΙΤΕ ΩΣ ΠΗΑΤΕ ΗΥΜΕΙΣ ΗΡΑΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΣΤΗΕΛΑΣ. The lexicographical and grammatical translation of this passage would be: "since it had an 'insular land' (ΝΗΣΟΣ) before of the mouth that you name, as you announce, the Pillars of Hercules". However, Calcidius translates (in reality he interprets) the Greek fragment into: "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, nor in any of the codices and well-known MS; nevertheless, Calcidius inserts it in his translation. In short, Calcidius has made an addition to the text.

This addition [AC VESTIBULO SINUS], corresponds with a species of clarification or explanation, which is intended specifically for Osius, as if Calcidius believed it was necessary to specify the exact place where 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, just in the Atlantic mouth, before the Pillars of Hercules, i.e., the Strait of Gibraltar.

This precision of Calcidius -- his precise information on the location of the legendary "ATLANTIS INSULA" (as presented by Plato as a "true history" [ΑΛΗΘΙΝΟΝ ΛΟΓΟΝ]) -- suggests that (1) Calcidius knew the region well; (2) and/or knew of the local traditions of the region; (3) or perhaps he had had access to other sources foreign to Plato himself, which unfortunately today we do not know. In any case, this precision that Calcidius 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 closer understanding of Atlantis, and this reinforces the idea that Osius may have had a special interest in this part of the Timaeus of Plato.

Other evidences exist in the same annotated 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 this 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 visible vestige of an ancient port, which divides the continent]..."

This interpolation by 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. It is a description that is arguably difficult to ascribe to someone who would not have had sufficient geographical knowledge of the area of the strait of the Pillars of Hercules.

fixes needed from here

In this sense, developer is much the hypothesis or speculation that Calcidius adds in this section, in which the strait of Hercules is like a "visible vestige of an ancient port, which divides the continent", because only in modern times have we known that actually both continents, Europe and Africa, were once joined by the isthmus (or divided 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 is quite faithful to the appearance of the current Strait of Gibraltar, which without doubt is like the "visible vestige of an ancient port, which divides the [European] continent" from the African.

There are other arguments regarding the life of Calcidius. One open question is whether his work more reflects Middle Platonism orNeoplatonism. This question has been an object of polemics between diverse authors. It has been suggested that Calcidius did not know the neoplatonic doctrine of Plotinus, even though Plotinus was used by all the Christian authors of his epoch). However, perhaps Calcidius was not interested in Plotinus, preferring the earlier Middle Platonism. The simple fact of this open question actually offers another point in favor of the Andalusian or Hispanic origin of Calcidius, since the neoplatonic doctrine of Plotinus developed exclusively in the Italian peninsula.

This evidence suggests that it is highly probable that Calcidius was a philospher of Andalusian or Spanish origin, and in all probability he was a disciple of Osius, Bishop of Córdoba. Calcidius must have been a connoisseur of the classics, especially of Greek, and would have of course known of the geography of Hispania, particularly of the Strait of Gibraltar. All this would explain why he was chosen by Osius to translate the Timeo.

this paragraph requires an opening

which in turn opens up the possibility that he was a native of Gadeira, or Gades, or of Cádiz, a place that had given us other important philosophers and scholars; the same place in which the Pillars of Hercules have always been located, the same Pillars that all classical sources, from the most ancient, from Solon to the contemporaries of Plato, put it in the same strait, which as a "visible vestige of an ancient port, which divides the [Europe and African] continent" - in other words, 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).

'Calcidius' in other languages

• Spanish: Calcidio
• German: Chalcidius
• Finnish: Kalkidios
• French: Chalcidius
• Italian: Calcidio
• Japanese: カルキディウス