I Symmikta Zêtêmata di Porfirio, fonte del De Statu Animae di Claudiano Mamerto

Drawing on the outcomes of Pépin’s studies, that showed the similarity of some doctrines between Claudianus Mamertus’ De statu animae and Porphyry’s zêtêma about soul’s connection with the body, I point out two further doctrines that Claudianus could have drawn from Symmikta Zêtêmata. First of all, Claudianus and Calcidius are the only two Latin authors who define the soul as potentia; since they both do it in passages certainly connected with Symmikta Zêtêmata, it’s possible to suppose that this definition was in a part (nowadays lost) of the Porphyry’s work. Claudianus’ definition of sense as corporeum invisibile too seems to be influenced by Porphyry, because it’s similar to the description of sensation that we find in Sententiae, and because it’s close to the concept of pneuma; Claudianus’ source could, in this case, be the treatise on the sensation belonging to Symmikta Zêtêmata.