Colotes
Κολώτης
(Κολώτης), of Lampsacus, a hearer of Epicurus, and one of the most famous of his disciples.
It may be collected from Plutarch, that Colotes was clever, but vain, dogmatical, and intolerant. He made violent attacks upon Socrates, and other great philosophers. He was a great favourite with Epicurus, who used, by way of endearment, to call him Κολωτάρας and Κολωτάριος. It is also related by Plutarch, that Colotes, after hearing Epicurus discourse on the nature of things, fell on his knees before him, and besought him to give him instruction. He held, that it is unworthy of the truthfulness of a philosopher to use fables in his teaching, a notion which Cicero opposes. (De Repub. 6.7, ed. Orelli, ap. Macrob. in Somn. Scip. 1.2.)
Works
That it was impossible even to live according to the doctrines of the other philosophers
He wrote a work to prove, That it was impossible even to live according to the doctrines of the other philosophers (ὅτι κατὰ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων φιλοσόφων δόγματα οὐδὲ ζῆν ἐστιν). It was dedicated to king Ptolemy, probably Philopator. In refutation of it Plutarch wrote two works, a dialogue, to prove, "That it is impossible even to live pleasantly according to Epicurus," and a work entitled "Against Colotes." (Plut. Opera. pp. 1086-1127.) The two works stand in the editions in this order, which should be reversed.
Against Platos Lysis
Some fragments of another work of Colotes, against the Lysis of Plato, have been recently discovered at Herculaneum.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.