CRATES

Form: Krates.

Crates of Mallos in Cilicia. A Greek scholar, and adherent of the Stoic philosophy. He founded a school of interpretation at Pergamon. His principles were in direct opposition to those of Aristarchus; not only d id he take an essentially different view of the Homeric text, but he favoured the allegorical method of exposition, to which the Stoics were so partial, and which was so disliked by the school of Aristarchus. His chief work was a comprehensive commentary, critical and exegetical, on Homer. In 167 B.C. he was sent by king Attalus on an embassy to Rome. Here he broke his leg, and was thus forced to make a long stay. He used his enforced leisure in giving lectures, which gave the first impulse to the study of philology and literary criticism among the Romans. Only a few fragments of his works have survived.