Onesicritus

Onesicritus ( ancient Greek Ὀνησίκριτος Onesicritus, Latinized Onesicritus; * in the 4th century BC, † in the 4th or 3rd century BC) was a Greek historian Astypalia. He wrote a surviving only in fragments biography of Alexander the Great. Within the history of philosophy, he is sometimes attributed to the flow of Cynicism.

Life

Onesicritus was a pupil of Diogenes of Sinope and took an advanced age in the wake of Alexander the Great on Alexander's part. Alexander is said to have chosen him 326 BC in India to hold a meeting with the gymnosophists. When built on the river Hydaspes fleet took the return trip, served Onesicritus ( who possessed probably about seafaring experience ) first as a tax man, then as a navigator under the command of Nearchus, where there was some tension between the two. How long he lived after Alexander campaign is unknown.

Work

Onesicritus wrote a biography of Alexander ( πως Άλεξανδρος ήχθή, as Alexander grew up ), which contained, in addition to the historical details and descriptions of the countries visited, especially about India. After the death of Alexander Onesicritus completed his work at the court of Lysimachus, king of Thrace. The reliability of the plant, which is preserved only in fragments, is considered low. Especially Strabo Onesicritus blamed for his Lobhymnen, exaggerations, and because of his tendency to fantastic. By Kleitarchos we know that Onesicritus has also established the myth of a meeting of Alexander with the Queen of the Amazons. The work is to be regarded in the strict sense probably not as a work of history, but rather as a kind of historical novel. His Periplus (description of the coasts of India ) was probably part of his work and was also used by Pliny the Elder.

Onesicritus was a pupil of the Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope and is counted by the historian Diogenes Laertius ancient philosophy of the Cynics. The surviving fragments of his biography of Alexander show his influence by kynisches ideas. So contributes about the lifestyle of gymnosophists and the people in the country of Musikanos at the lower Indus - Onesicritus as she describes - significant features of the propagated by the Cynics life. Approximately they should have waived luxury and lived in asceticism.