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Cleinias of Tarentum (Ancient Greek: Κλεινίας; fl. 4th-century BCE), Magna Graecia, was a Pythagorean philosopher, and a contemporary and friend of Plato, as appears from the story (perhaps otherwise worthless) which Diogenes Laërtius gives on the authority of Aristoxenus, to the effect that Plato wished to burn all the writings of Democritus which he could collect, but was prevented by Cleinias and Amyclus of Heraclea. In his practice, Cleinias was a true Pythagorean. Thus, we hear that he used to assuage his anger by playing on his harp; and, when Prorus of Cyrene had lost all his fortune through a political revolution, Cleinias, who knew nothing of him except that he was a Pythagorean, took on himself the risk of a voyage to Cyrene, and supplied him with money to the full extent of his loss.

Two fragments of Pythagorean pseudepigrapha are attributed to Cleinias, one preserved by Stobaeus, the other in the Theology of Arithmetic attributed to Iamblichus.

Notes

1. Elder, Edward (1867). "Cleinias". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 782. Archived from the original on 2008-07-06. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
2. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (ed. R.D. Hicks)ix. 40
3. comp. Thrige, Res Cyrenensium, § 48
4. Iamblichus of Chalcis, Vit. Pyth. 27, 31, 33
5. Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia xiv. 23
6. Perizon. ad loc.
7. Chamael. Pont. ap. Athenaeus xiv. 623, ff.
8. Diodorus Siculus, Fragm. lib. x.
9. Johann Albert Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. i. pp. 840, 886
10. Thesleff 1961, p. 15.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Cleinias". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
• Thesleff, Holger (1961). An Introduction to the Pythagorean Writtings of the Hellenistic Period. Retrieved 19 June 2023.

Further reading

• The Theology of Arithmetic: On the Mystical, Mathematical and Cosmological Symbolism of the First Ten Numbers. Red Wheel/Weiser. 1 January 1988. ISBN 978-0-933999-72-5.

External links

• Pseudonymous text attributed to Cleinias preserved in Stobaeus

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