Clitomachus was born in Carthage in 187/6 BC as Hasdrubal (Ancient Greek: Ἀσδρούβας, Hasdroúbas; Punic: 𐤏𐤆𐤓𐤁𐤏𐤋,[5] ʿAzrubaʿal, "Help of Baal").
[3] There he became connected with the founder of the New Academy, the philosopher Carneades, under whose guidance he rose to be one of the most distinguished disciples of this school; but he also studied at the same time the philosophy of the Stoics and Peripatetics.
[6] He continued to teach at Athens till as late as 111 BC, as Crassus heard him in that year.
[6] This work, which Cicero says he had read, was taken from a discourse of Carneades, and was intended to exhibit the consolation which philosophy supplies even under the greatest calamities.
[11] Clitomachus probably treated the history of philosophy in his work on the philosophical sects: On the Schools of Thought (Greek: περί αἱρέσεων).