yrrho,
Timon, called by Sextus the "prophet of Pyrrho,"[1] was a
contemporary of Arcesilaus. That he did not consider the
Scepticism of the Academy identical with Pyrrhonism is proved
from the fact that he did not himself join the Academy, but was,
on the contrary, far from doing so. That he regarded Arcesilaus
as a Dogmatic is evident from his writings.[2] One day, on
seeing the chief of the Academy approaching, he cried out, "What
are you doing here among us who are free?"[3] After the death of
Timon, the Pyrrhonean School had no representative till the time
of Ptolemy of Cyrene,[4] and Greek Scepticism was represented by
the Academy. That Pyrrho had a strong influence over Arcesilaus,
the founder of the Middle Academy, is evident[5]; but there was
also never a time when the Academy entirely broke away from all
the teachings of Plato, even in their deepest doubt.[6] It is
true that Arcesilaus removed, nominally as well as in spirit,
some of the dialogues of Plato from the Academy, but only those
that bore a dogmatic character, while those that presented a
more decided Socratic mode of questioning without reaching any
decided result, men regarded as authority for Scepticism.

[1] _Adv. Math._ I. 53.

[2] Diog. IV. 6, 33, 34.

[3] Diog. IX. 12, 114.

[4] Diog. IX. 12, 115.

[5] Diog. IV. 6, 33.

[6] Diog. IV. 6, 32.

Sextus does not deny that Arcesilaus was almost a Pyrrhonean,
but he claims that his Pyrrhonism was only apparent, and not
real, and was used as a cloak to hide his loyalty to the
teachings of Plato.[1] As Ariston said of him,[2] "Plato before,
Pyrrho behind, Diodorus in the middle." Sextus also
characterises the method of Arcesilaus as dialectic,[3] and we
know from Cicero that it was his pride to pretend to return to
the dialectic of Socrates.

It is interesting to note that Sextus, in his refutation of the
position that the Academy is the same as Pyrrhonism, takes up
the entire development of Academic thought from the time of
Plato till that of Antiochus, and does not limit the argument to
Scepticism under Arcesilaus. The claim made by some that the two
schools were the same, is stated by him,[4] and the word 'some'
probably refers to members of both schools at different periods
of their history. Sextus recognises three Academies, although he
remarks that some make even a further division, calling that of
Philo and Charmides, the fourth, and that of Antiochus and his