Diogene di Enoanda e il Medioplatonismo: una questione di metodo (storico)

This article deals with a fragment (NF 155 = YF 200) of the Epicurean inscription of Diogenes of Oinoanda (in ancient Lycia) found in the 2008 excavation survey. The text of the fragment includes a very historically interesting criticism of the demiurge of Plato’s Timaeus. Some scholars have interpreted this text in the light of a likely Middle Platonic influence on Diogenes himself. Although this exegesis is plausible, it is not the only possible one. It cannot be ruled out, indeed, that Diogenes depends on Epicurus (or another Epicurean source) who already polemicized with Plato. Moreover, the fact that Epicurus criticized the Timaeus is well known from the Herculaneum Papyri, and specifically from Epicurus’ On Nature Book 14. In a recent review written by Nicola Pace (2020) of the volume Diogenes of Oinoanda : Epicureanism and Philosophical Debates / Diogène d’Œnoanda: Épicurisme et controverses edited by J. Hammerstaedt, P.-M. Morel, and R. Güremen (Leuven 2017), the Middle Platonic exegesis of the Diogenes fragment is very firmly reiterated. This exegesis is considered certain and indubitable. According to me, the Middle Platonic interpretation of the fragment may be well-founded, but it can be neither certain nor the only possible one.