Hermarchus (in Greek Eρμαρχoς), sometimes, but incorrectly, written Hermachus. He was a son of Agemarchus, a poor man of Mytilene (in insular Greece), and was at first brought up as a rhetorician, but afterwards became a faithful disciple of Epicurus, who left to him his garden, and appointed him his successor as the head of his school, about 270 BC. He died in the house of Lysias at an advanced age, and left behind him the reputation of a great philosopher. Cicero has preserved a letter of Epicurus addressed to him. Hermarchus was the author of several works, which are characterised by Diogenes Laertius as καλλιστα, viz. Against Empedocles (Πρoς Eμπεδoκλεα), in 22 books, On the mathematicians (Περι των μαθηματων), Against Plato (Πρoς Πλατωνα), and Against Aristotle (Πρoς Aριστoτελην); but all of them are lost, and we know nothing about them but their titles. But from an expression of Cicero, we may infer that his works were of a polemical nature, and directed against the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and on Empedocles.

Hermarchus is also a genus of very large stick insects within the order Phasmatodea.

References

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• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Hermarchus", Boston, (1867)

Notes

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Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, x. 17, 24 Cicero, De Finibus, ii. 30 Laertius, x. 24 Cicero, De Natura Deorum, i. 33 Cicero, Academica, ii. 30; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, xiii. 53; Photius, Bibliotheca, 167

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Ancient Greeks | Hellenistic philosophers | Epicurean philosophers

Ermarco di Mitilene | Hermarchos