Philonides of Laodicea

Philonides (Ancient Greek: Φιλωνίδης, c. 200 – c. 130 BCE) of Laodicea in Syria, was an Epicurean philosopher and mathematician who lived in the Seleucid court during the reigns of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Demetrius I Soter.

He is known principally from a Life of Philonides, which was discovered among the charred papyrus scrolls at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum.^[1] Philonides was born into a family with good connections with the Seleucid court.^[2] He is said to have been taught by Eudemus and Dionysodorus the mathematician.^[3] Philonides attempted to convert Antiochus IV Epiphanes to Epicureanism, and later instructed his nephew, Demetrius I Soter, in philosophy.^[2] Philonides was highly honoured in the court, and he is also known from various stone inscriptions.^[4]

He was renowned as a mathematician, and is mentioned by Apollonius of Perga in the preface to the second book of his Conics.^[3][5]

Philonides was a zealous collector of the works of Epicurus and his colleagues, and is said to have published over 100 treatises, probably compilations of the works he collected.^[6]