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Plato, Timaeus
the Timaeus
also: Timaeus, Timaeo, the Timaeus, Plato's Timaeus
Plato's cosmological dialogue, in which Timaeus of Locri expounds the creation and structure of the universe. Cicero cites it in De Finibus 2.15 as an example of writing whose obscurity arises from the difficulty of its subject matter rather than from any fault in the words, in contrast to Heraclitus.
Reading notes
- On the Ends of Good and Evil §2.15 Plato's \textit{Timaeus}
Plato's cosmological dialogue on the creation of the universe, notoriously difficult. Cicero offers it as an example of obscurity that arises from the hardness of the subject matter, not from any fault in the writing.
- Tusculan Disputations §1.63 that god of Plato who in the \textit{Timaeus} built the world
The Demiurge of Plato's Timaeus, the divine craftsman who fashioned the ordered cosmos. Cicero himself translated parts of the Timaeus; he invokes it as the model of intelligent design behind Archimedes's sphere.