Note 118 — Chapter XXIII · THE NEW ACADEMY.

Among these pupils the tendency to lay stress on the doctrine of probabilities in relation to Scepticism was already strong. Proof may be found not only in the accounts already given us of Clitomachus and Æschines, but also in the circumstance that many of the older writers made the fourth Academy date from Philo and Charmadas, the fifth from Antiochus (Sext. Pyrrh. i. 220; Eus. Pr. Ev. xiv. 4, 16). At a still earlier date, Metrodorus is said to have departed from the platform of Carneades. Augustin. c. Acad. iii. 18, 41, after speaking of Antiochus and his renunciation of Scepticism, says: Quamquam et Metrodorus id antea facere tentaverat, qui primus dicitur esse confessus, non decreto placuisse Academicis, nihil posse comprehendi, sed necessario contra Stoicos hujus modi eos arma sumsisse. Probably Augustin borrowed this passage from a lost treatise of Cicero; hence it may be relied upon. The Metrodorus referred to is probably Metrodorus of Stratonice (see p. 564, 5), mentioned by Cic. Acad. ii. 6, 16. Metrodorus of Skepsis might also be suggested (Strabo, xiii. 155, p. 609; xvi. 4, 16, p. 775; Plut. Lucull. 22; Diog. v. 84; Cic. De Orat. ii. 88, 360; 90, 365; iii. 20, 75; Tusc. i. 24, 59; Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 24, 89; Quintil. x. 6, 1; xi. 2, 22; Müller, Hist. Gr. iii. 203), who first learned rhetoric at Chalcedon, afterwards entered the service of Mithridates, and was put to death by his orders, B.C. 70, at an advanced age. Cic. De Orat. iii. 20, 75, calls him an Academician; and he is mentioned, Ibid. i. 11, 45, as a pupil of Charmadas. The language quoted by Augustin may have come from the treatise περὶ συνηθείας (Strabo, p. 775). He is otherwise only known as a rhetorician and politician. The same uncertainty prevails as to the Metrodorus referred to in Cic. Acad. ii. 24, 78 (see p. 554, 3). We do not know who he is, but it may be inferred that it is the same Metrodorus who is mentioned by Augustin. ↑