ΠOTAMIΛΛA? Empedocle, Eraclide Pontico e una congettura di Santo Mazzarino a Diog. Laert. VIII 63

The main purpose of this article is to make known a (neglected) conjecture by Santo Mazzarino (1916-1987) about the text of Diogenes Laertius VIII 63 (Life of Empedocles). To my knowledge, this textual conjecture has been ignored by scholars. Mazzarino proposed it in his posthumous volume (Bonn 2007) on Pirandello: Die neuere und die alte Geschichte Italiens (Italian translation: Rome 2022). The scholar suggests reading ποταμὸν κάτα instead of the corrupt ποταμίλλα. In the article, it is also considered plausible that the subject of φησί of the very beginning of Diog. Laert. VIII 63 is Heraclides of Pontus and not Timaeus of Tauromenium (as suggested by Hermann Diels).