Albinus (philosopher)

Albinus ( _el. Ἀλϐίνος), lived c. 150 AD), was a Platonist philosopher, who lived at Smyrna, and was a contemporary of Galen. [Galen, vol. iv.] A short tract by him, entitled "Introduction to Plato's dialogues", has come down to us. After explaining the nature of the Dialogue, which he compares to a Drama, the writer goes on to divide the Dialogues of Plato into four classes, logical, critical, physical, ethical, and mentions another division of them into Tetralogies, according to their subjects. He advises that the Alcibiades, Phaedo, Republic, and Timaeus, should be read in a series. He is said to have written a work on the arrangement of the writings of Plato. Another Albinus is mentioned by Boethius and Cassiodorus, who wrote in Latin some works on music and geometry.

Some of Albinus's fame is attributed to the fact that a 19th century German scholar, J. Freudenthal, attributed Alcinous's "Handbook of Platonism" to Albinus. This attribution has since been discredited by the work of John Wittaker in 1990. [ [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1994/94.10.14.html Bryn Mawr Classical Review 94.10.14] ]

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