DOMNINUS OF LARISSA

DOMNINUS OF LARISSA (Laodicea in Syria; c. 415–485), philosopher and mathematician. He was a pupil of Syrian and a contemporary of Proclus Diadochus whose pupil Marinus mentions him frequently in his biography of Proclus. A neo-platonist of the Athenian school, he turned at times to the teachings of the Alexandrian school. Thus he criticized the metaphysical speculations of Syrian and Proclus, for which Damascius accused him of superficiality and of corrupting Platonic philosophy. Proclus is said to have directed against Domninus a work entitled "Restitution of Plato's Teaching." Damascius takes Domninus to task for having transgressed the prohibition against eating the meat of pigs when he visited the temple of Asclepius in order to effect the cure of a malady. On the other hand, Damascius praises Domninus as a mathematician. Domninus was also interested in problems of physical astronomy, such as the nature of comets, which he attempted to explain. Two of Domninus' mathematical works have been preserved: a mathematical handbook entitled ὲνχειρίδιον ἁριθμητικῆς εὶσαγωγῆς (in J. Boissonade (ed.), Anecdota Graeca, 4 (Paris, c. 1832), 413–29), and a treatise (ed. by C.E. Ruelle in Revue de Philologie (1883), 82ff., with French translation and a short commentary). In the Encheiridion Domninus mentions his intention to write a Principle of Arithmetic, but nothing further is known about this work. Domninus had a pupil Gesius, identical with Jasius, often cited by Arabic writers. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Krauss, in: JQR, 7 (1894/95), 270; Pauly-Wissowa, 9 (1903), 1521; Der kleine Pauly, 2 (1967), 135ff.