Hermagoras et la doctrine des asystata (questions sans consistance)
Résumé
Following Thiele, Matthes attributed the doctrine of ἀσύστατα ('unresolvable ques- tions') to Hermagoras of Temnos (2nd century BCE). Precise analysis and evalua- tion of the four pertinent testimonies that Matthes assigns to Hermagoras in his edition shed doubt on that attribution. Based on a new argument I propose that only two of these four testimonies should be retained in a forthcoming edition of the fragments of Hermagoras. I also argue that the doctrine of ἀσύστατα is most likely later than the second century BCE. Either that doctrine should be assigned to the younger Hermagoras (2nd century CE), whose theories reached later Latin rhetoricians by a route that is no longer traceable, or the ἀσύστατα doctrine was assigned to a rhetorician of the name Hermagoras by a false supposition or simple error of the common source of the two retained testimonies.