Clitomăchus
(
Κλειτόμαχος). A native of Carthage. In his early years he
acquired a fondness for learning, which induced him to visit Greece for the purpose of
attending the schools of the philosophers. From the time of his first arrival in Athens he
attached himself to
Carneades (q.v.), and
continued his disciple until his death, when he became his successor in the academic chair. He
studied with great industry and made himself master of the systems of the other schools, but
professed the doctrine of suspension of assent, as it had been taught by his master. Cicero
relates that he wrote four hundred books upon philosophical subjects. At an advanced age he
was seized with a lethargy. Recovering in some measure the use of his faculties, he said,
“The love of life shall deceive me no longer,” and laid violent hands upon
himself. He entered, as we have said, upon the office of preceptor in the Academy immediately
after the death of Carneades, and held it thirty years. According to Cicero, he taught that
there is no certain criterion by which to judge of the truth of those reports which we receive
from the senses, and that, therefore, a wise man will either wholly suspend his assent, or
decline giving a peremptory opinion; but that, nevertheless, men are strongly impelled by
nature to follow probability. His moral doctrine established a natural alliance between
pleasure and virtue. He was a professed enemy to rhetoric, and thought that no place should be
allowed in society to so dangerous an art.