ld as a Sceptic, and not as a
physician. He was classed in later times with Pyrrho, and his
philosophical works survived, while his medical writings did
not, but are chiefly known from his own mention of them.
Moreover, the passage which we have quoted from the
_Hypotyposes_ is too strong to allow us easily to believe that
Sextus remained all his life a member of the Empirical School.
He could hardly have said, "Nor would it suit the Sceptic to
take that sect upon himself," if he at the same time belonged to
it. His other references to the Empirical School, of a more
favorable character, can be easily explained on the ground of
the long continued connection which had existed between the two
schools. It is quite possible to suppose that Sextus was an
Empiricist a part of his life, and afterwards found the
Methodical School more to his liking, and such a change would
not in any way have affected his stand as a physician.

[1] Pappenheim _Leb. Ver. Sex. Em_. 6.

In regard to the exact time when Sextus Empiricus lived, we gain
very little knowledge from internal evidence, and outside
sources of information are equally uncertain. Diogenes Laertius
must have been a generation younger than Sextus, as he mentions
the disciple of Sextus, Saturninus, as an Empirical
physician.[1] The time of Diogenes is usually estimated as the
first half of the third century A.D.,[2] therefore Sextus cannot
be brought forward later than the beginning of the century.
Sextus, however, directs his writings entirely against the
Dogmatics, by whom he distinctly states that he means the
Stoics,[3] and the influence of the Stoics began to decline in
the beginning of the third century A.D. A fact often used as a
help in fixing the date of Sextus is his mention of Basilides
the Stoic,[4] [Greek: alla kai oi stoikoi, os oi peri ton
Basileiden]. This Basilides was supposed to be identical with
one of the teachers of Marcus Aurelius.[5] This is accepted by
Zeller in the second edition of his _History of Philosophy_, but
not in the third for the reason that Sextus, in all the work
from which this reference is taken, _i.e. Math_. VII.-XI.,
mentions no one besides Aenesidemus, who lived later than the
middle of the last century B.C.[6] The Basilides referred to by
Sextus may be one mentioned in a list of twenty Stoics, in a
fragment of Diogenes Laertius, recently published in Berlin by
Val Rose.[7] Too much importance has, however, been given to the