Xenophilus (philosopher)

Xenophilus (Greek: Ξενόφιλος; 4th century BC), of Chalcidice,^[2] was a Pythagorean philosopher and music theorist who lived in the first half of the 4th century BC.^[3] Aulus Gellius relates that Xenophilus was the intimate friend and teacher of Aristoxenus and implies that Xenophilus taught him Pythagorean doctrine.^[4] He was said to have belonged to the last generation of Pythagoreans, and he is the only Pythagorean known to have lived in Athens in the 4th century BC.^[5]

Xenophilus, depicted as a medieval scholar in the Nuremberg Chronicle.^[1]

According to Diogenes Laërtius, Aristoxenus wrote that when Xenophilus was once asked by someone how he could best educate his son, Xenophilus replied, "By making him the citizen of a well-governed state."^[6] In the Macrobii of Pseudo-Lucian, Aristoxenus is supposed to have said that Xenophilus lived 105 years.^[7] Xenophilus enjoyed considerable fame in the Renaissance, apparently because of Pliny's claim that he lived 105 years without ever being sick.^[8]