Antiochus and the Epicureans on the doctrinal agreement between Plato and Aristotle

The main goal of this paper is to show that before the ‘syncretistic’ philosophical position of the Academic philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon, a very similar view (mutatis mutandis) was already to be found in the Epicurean thinker Colotes of Lampsacus but obviously with very different goals. It is commonly assumed that the ‘doctrinal harmony’ between Plato and Aristotle began with Antiochus at the end of Hellenistic age. A deeper study of the sources, more in particular of Plutarch’s Adversus Colotem, clearly shows that already Colotes, one of the early pupils of Epicurus, believed that Plato (and the Academics) and Aristotle (and the Peripatetics) shared the same philosophical doctrine. By way of hypothesis, it could be argued that Colotes was one of the most important sources for Antiochus’ opinion (outside the Academy), but unfortunately we have very little evidence to prove this conjecture, which nonetheless cannot be ruled out.