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Talk:Timocrates of Lampsacus

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Why are the references in this article so poorly done? Which version of Diogenes is being used? Which translation? With whom was it published? When? There are what looks like page references here which are entirely useless without knowing which version is used... Whoever started this article clearly was using a source document to refer to it, yet never mentions the source version...

Secondly, what did this person do? Why are they famous, other than being someone's brother? Were they a philosopher, surfer, unknown? Stevenmitchell (talk) 03:38, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think the references are poorly done. Although references to modern scholars might be added, I find it extremely useful to have references to the original texts on which every modern theory must needs be based. The references to Diogenes Laërtius are, obviously, by the page numbers of Meibom's 1692 edition which is the standard way of referring to this text in any modern edition (just as Plato is referred to by the pages of Stephanus' edition and Aristotle by Bekker's). The use of standard references has the great advantage of making us independent of a particular edition. The other references are also traditional. By the way, "whoever started this article" has a name: Singinglemon (as you could have found in the page's history), and he did a very good job.
As to your second point. Timocrates was a renegade Epicurean, who is believed to have been largely responsible for the malicious stories told about Epicurus in antiquity and consequently for Epicurus' bad reputation. He is referred to as Metrodorus' brother for two reasons: he needs to be distinguished from another Timocrates, and it is a salient piece of information that Epicurus' biggest enemy was the brother of E.'s best friend. --Fabullus (talk) 14:47, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]