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Philip of Opus

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Suidas (s.v. Φιλόσοφος ) has this remarkable passage: "——, a philosopher who divided the Leges (s. De Legibus) of Plato into twelve books (for he is said to have added the thirteenth himself), and was a hearer of Socrates and of Plato himself; devoting himself to the contemplation of the heavens (σχολάσας τοῖς μετεώροις '). He lived in the days of Philip of Macedon." Suidas then gives a long list of works written by Philip. It is evident that the passage as it stands in Suidas is imperfect, and that the name of the author of the numerous works which he mentions has been lost from the commencement of the passage. It appears, however, from the extract occupying its proper place in the Lexicon according to its present heading, that the defect existed in the source from which Suidas borrowed. Kuster, the editor of Suidas (not. in loc.), after long investigation, was enabled to supply the omission by comparing a passage in Diogenes Laertius (3:37), and to identify "the philosopher" of Suidas with Philip of the Locrian town of Opus, near the channel which separates Euboea from the mainland. The passage in Laertius is as follows: "Some say that Philip the Opuntian transcribed his (Plato's) work, De Legibus, which was written in wax (i.e., on wooden tablets covered with a coat of wax). They say also that the Ε᾿πινόμις (the thirteenth book of the De Legibus) is his," i.e., Philip's. The Epinomiis, whether written by Philip or by Plato, is usually included among the works of the latter. Diogenes Laertius elsewhere (3:46) enumerates Philip among the disciplesof Plato. See Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. 3:104.