Ricerc@Sapienza

This article mainly focuses on Sextus Empiricus’ only evidence (M. 7,201 =
Antioc. Ascal. 66 Luck = F2 Mette = F2 Sedley) for Antiochus’ of Ascalon Kanonika.
David Sedley maintains that Antiochus wrote his Kanonika before the ‘publication’
in 87 BC of the so-called Roman Books by his master Philo of Larissa.
Accordingly, the Kanonika do not include any criticism against the Sceptics of the
Academy. The close examination of Sextus’ testimony shows that in all likelihood
behind Antiochus’ quotation lies a precise philosophical strategy against the Sceptics
of the Academy who accused Antiochus’ epistemological criterion of self-evidence
(enargeia / perspicuitas / evidentia) of being an Epicurean one. From this point of
view, the (likely) mention of the physician Asclepiades of Bithynia by Antiochus in
the same passage of Sextus Empiricus could be plausibly interpreted as Antiochus’
defense against the charge of Epicureanism. Therefore, the possibility that the
Kanonika were written after Philo’s Roman Books cannot be ruled out.