Anaximander, Patrokles, oder vielleicht Eudoxos? Resümee einer Deutungsgeschichte des sogenannten Trierer Anaximander-Mosaiks vor dem Hintergrund der biographischen, doxographischen und archäologischen Zeugnisse

Abstract

A fragment of mosaic dating to the second century CE, the shard of a larger composition, discovered in 1898 on an excavation site of a Roman domus in Trier, and currently part of the collection of Rheinisches Landesmuseum, is well preserved, meticulously executed and not untouched by genius. A bald philosopher with a full grey beard rimming his face is seated holding in his lap what is very likely to be a sundial. He is turned halfway to the front, aiming his gaze up over his right shoulder. It is an easy guess, and on initial publication the then director of Landesmuseum Emil Krüger tentatively identified the figure as Anaximander. Over a hundred years on, the opinion has not changed much. Sceptical minds have been spurred by the lack of evidence on Anaximander to go on to identify the figure with a certain sculptor Patrocles, the inventor, according to Vitruvius, of a kind of sundial called pelecinum. It is unlikely that an artist would draw inspiration from such an obscure person. Better still, a philosopher a cut above Anaximander, Eudoxus, could have served as a prototype, especially since he had also built a sundial called arachne. As we know from Vitruvius, it was of a different shape, but one would not expect an artist to be true to hard fact. However long we strain our eyes to grasp the features of Eudoxus and Anaximander in the ‘mosaics of philosophers’ from Pompeii, the Roman Anaximander in an inscribed relief, or other works of similar type, any secure attribution will still be out of our reach. The reception of Anaximander in the classical culture will not have been much different: it was he who came down to late Roman art as the inventor of sundial. Had we possessed the yet lacking parts of the mosaic, we would probably have seen other inventors. A shadow of doubt is cast over the idea of K. Schefold that Anaximander gazes skywards comprehending „the coming to being and destruction of heavenly bodies”. Clearly, an inventor of sundial would rather be watching the sun.