person
Aristoxenus of Tarentum
Aristoxenus
also: Aristoxenus
Aristoxenus of Tarentum (fl. later 4th c. BC), pupil of Aristotle and the most important ancient theorist of music, who held that the soul was a kind of harmony or attunement of the body. Cicero pairs him with Dicaearchus as a byword for genuine learning at Att. 8.4.
Reading notes
- On the Ends of Good and Evil §5.50 How much of Aristoxenus' genius
Aristoxenus of Tarentum, a pupil of Aristotle, was the foremost ancient theorist of music. He heads Cicero's list of minds consumed by pure intellectual pursuits.
- Tusculan Disputations §1.19 Aristoxenus, a musician and likewise a philosopher
Aristoxenus of Tarentum, pupil of Aristotle and the great ancient music theorist, who held the soul to be a 'harmony' or attunement of the body. Cicero treats this as a professional bias and refutes it: a soulless body's arrangement cannot itself be a harmony.