Crates of Mallus
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Crates, of Mallus in Cilicia, a Greek grammarian and Stoic philosopher of the 2nd century BC, leader of the literary school and head of the library of Pergamum.
His principles were opposed to those of Aristarchus of Samothrace, the leader of the Alexandrian school. He was the chief representative of the allegorical theory of exegesis, and maintained that Homer intended to express scientific or philosophical truths in the form of poetry.
About 170 BC he visited Rome as ambassador of Attalus II, king of Pergamum; and having broken his leg and been compelled to stay there for some time, he delivered lectures which gave the first impulse to the study of grammar and criticism among the Romans (Suetonius, De grammaticis, 2). His chief work was a critical and exegetical commentary on Homer.
See C Wachsmuth, De Cratete Mallota (1860), containing an account of the life, pupils and writings of Crates; JE Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol. i. 156 (ed. 2, 1906).
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
according to Scientific American, issue September 2005, page 18, Crates of Mallus devised a globe representing the Earth. This implies that the greeks already knew that the Earth was round.
