From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordPliny explains empiricen through experimenta, experiences or trials.
- In this workPliny says that an Empiric school named for experience began in Sicily, with Acron of Acragas commended by Empedocles’ authority.
- In this editionThe apparatus records a manuscript difference in the verb introducing the school’s name.
- A place to readNames the Empiric party and associates its Sicilian beginning with Acron and Empedocles.
Meaning
Pliny explains empiricen through experimenta, experiences or trials. Factio means a faction, party, or school in this context. The notice gives a Latin historical classification rather than an Empedoclean technical term.
Use in the book
Pliny says that an Empiric school named for experience began in Sicily, with Acron of Acragas commended by Empedocles’ authority. The formulation establishes a claimed foundation narrative and a relationship of endorsement. It does not say that Empedocles authored an Empiric manifesto or rejected physical explanation on behalf of an organized sect. Indeed, the broader collection contains medical and philosophical witnesses with quite different agendas. The value of the notice is that a later encyclopedist could place Empedocles near the ancestry of experience-based medicine. Its chronological and institutional construction must remain Pliny’s claim, rather than be converted into an uncontested history of the Empiric school. Acron’s practical plague reputation belongs in the comparison, but a reported intervention with fire is not sufficient to reconstruct a complete methodological program.
Places to read
- A 3 (testimony)Pliny, Natural History. Names the Empiric party and associates its Sicilian beginning with Acron and Empedocles.
- A 3 (testimony)Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris. Supplies a separate report of Acron’s treatment-by-fire reputation.
Translation in this edition
The apparatus records a manuscript difference in the verb introducing the school’s name. More importantly, empiricen is a later school-label here, not proof of the exact self-description of fifth-century physicians.