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Eunapius
Eunapius (; c. 347 - c. 420) was a Greek sophist, rhetorician, and historian from Sardis in the region of Lydia in Asia Minor. His principal surviving work is the ''Lives of Philosophers and Sophists'' (; ), a collection of the biographies of 24 philosophers and sophists. Life He was born at Sardis, around the year 347 AD. While still a youth, he went to Athens, where he became a pupil of Prohaeresius the rhetorician. Back in his native city he studied under his relative, the sophist Chrysanthius. He as well possessed considerable knowledge of medicine. In his later years, he seems to have lived at Athens, teaching rhetoric. He was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries by the last Hierophant, Nestorius.Eunapius, ''Vit. Soph.'' 7.3.1; K. Clinton, ''Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries'' (1974) p. 42ff. There is evidence that he was still living in the reign of Theodosius II as he mentions an event that happened in 414 AD. The exact date of his death is unknown but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eunapios Von Sardes
Eunapius (; c. 347 - c. 420) was a Greek sophist, rhetorician, and historian from Sardis in the region of Lydia in Asia Minor. His principal surviving work is the ''Lives of Philosophers and Sophists'' (; ), a collection of the biographies of 24 philosophers and sophists. Life He was born at Sardis, around the year 347 AD. While still a youth, he went to Athens, where he became a pupil of Prohaeresius the rhetorician. Back in his native city he studied under his relative, the Sophism, sophist Chrysanthius. He as well possessed considerable knowledge of medicine. In his later years, he seems to have lived at Athens, teaching rhetoric. He was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries by the last Hierophant, Nestorius (hierophant), Nestorius.Eunapius, ''Vit. Soph.'' 7.3.1; K. Clinton, ''Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries'' (1974) p. 42ff. There is evidence that he was still living in the reign of Theodosius II as he mentions an event that happened in 414 AD. The exact date ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maximus Of Ephesus
Maximus of Ephesus (; c. 310 – 372 AD) was a Neoplatonist philosopher. He is said to have come from a rich family, and exercised great influence over the emperor Julian, who was commended to him by Aedesius. Maximus pandered to the emperor's love of magic and theurgy and won a high position at court, where his overbearing manner made him numerous enemies. He spent an interval in prison after the death of Julian, and eventually was executed by Valens. Life The most detailed source for the life of Maximus is Eunapius in his ''Lives of the Sophists'', but he is also referred to by Ammianus Marcellinus, the emperor Julian, and Libanius. Christian writers also discuss him, albeit in very negative terms. Maximus was born around the beginning of the 4th century. Ammianus Marcellinus calls Ephesus the hometown of Maximus. This is doubted by some scholars, but it is certain that he originated from the west of Asia Minor. His parents were wealthy. Maximus had a brother named Claud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porphyry (philosopher)
Porphyry (; ; – ) was a Neoplatonic philosopher born in Tyre, Roman Phoenicia during Roman rule. He edited and published the '' Enneads'', the only collection of the work of Plotinus, his teacher. He wrote original works in the Greek language on a wide variety of topics, ranging from music theory to Homer to vegetarianism. His '' Isagoge'' or ''Introduction'', an introduction to logic and philosophy, was the standard textbook on logic throughout the Middle Ages in its Latin and Arabic translations. Porphyry was, and still is, also well-known for his anti-Christian polemics. Through works such as ''Philosophy from Oracles'' and '' Against the Christians'' (which was banned by Constantine the Great), he was involved in a controversy with early Christians. Life The ''Suda'' (a 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia based on many sources now lost) reports that Porphyry was born in Tyre, however, other sources report that he was born in Batanaea, present-day Syria . His par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prohaeresius
Prohaeresius (, ''Prohairesios''; c. 276 – c. 368) was a fourth-century Armenian Christian teacher and rhetorician originally from Caesarea who taught in Athens. He was one of the leading sophists of the era along with Diophantus the Arab and Epiphanius of Syria. Early life Prior to moving to Athens, Prohaeresius studied under the rhetor Ulpianus of Ascalon in Antioch. In Prohaeresius' student days, he was so poor that he and his friend Hephaestion, having only one decent garment between them, wore it on alternate days. He also studied under Julianus of Cappadocia, who taught a large number of students. Among Prohaeresius' disciples was also Eunapius. One time the students of Prohaeresius got into a fight with the students of the Spartan Apsines. The matter was taken to Julianus, then an old man who pleaded to Prohaeresius to settle the matter peacefully. No textbooks written by Prohaeresius survive today, but his influence as a teacher is described by famous sophists and rhe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diophantus The Arab
Diophantus the Arab () was an Arab teacher and sophist at Athens during the 4th century AD. His most famous student was Libanius (336–340). He was active during the reign of Julian the Apostate (361–363).John R. Martindale, A. H. M. Jones and John Morris (eds.), ''The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume I, AD 260–395'' (Cambridge University Press, 1971), pp. 260–261.Ad Meskens, ''Travelling Mathematics: The Fate of Diophantos' Arithmetic'' (Springer, 2010), p. 48 n28.Samuel N. C. Lieu, "Scholars and Students in the Roman East", in R. MacLeod (ed.), ''The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning in the Ancient World'' (I. B. Tauris, 2004), pp. 129–130. Diophantus' place of birth within Arabia is unknown. It may have been Petra, also the birthplace of the 5th-century iatrosophist Gessius of Petra and a place associated with Diophantus' contemporary and fellow sophist, Epiphanius of Petra. He is not listed among the rhetors and sophists of Gerasa by Stephanu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epiphanius Of Syria
Epiphanius of Petra (), also called Epiphanius of Syria, was an Arab sophist and rhetorician at Athens in the first half of the fourth century AD. He is described as coming from Petra in Arabia Petraea, Arabia by the ''Suda'', a ninth-century Byzantine literature, Byzantine encyclopaedia, but as coming from Roman Syria, Syria by Eunapius. This is not necessarily a contradiction, since urban Arabs frequently identified as Syrian. The ''Suda'' calls another sophist, Callinicus of Petra, both a Syrian and an Arabian. Epiphanius was the son of a certain Ulpian, probably not the same person as the sophist Ulpian of Antioch.''Suda Online''ε2741.The ''Suda'' entry was copied in the ''Ionia'' of Eudokia Makrembolitissa. He was a pupil of Julian of Cappadocia. That Epiphanius was a Paganism#Late Antiquity and Christianization, pagan is known from an incident in Laodicea in Syria, Laodicea, where he was on close terms with two prominent local Christians, Apollinaris (the Elder), Apollinarius ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries () were initiations held every year for the Cult (religious practice), cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece. They are considered the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". Their basis was a Bronze Age Agrarianism, agrarian cult, and there is some evidence that they were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenean Greece, Mycenean period.Dietrich (1975) ''The origins of Greek Religion''. Bristol Phoenix Press pp. 166, 167Walter Burkert. (1985)''Greek Religion''. Harvard University Press. p. 285 The Mysteries represented the myth of the Persephone#Abduction myth, abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the ''descent'' (loss), the ''search'', and the ''ascent'', with the main theme being the ''ascent'' () of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zosimus (historian)
Zosimus ( ; 490s–510s) was a Greek historian who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius I (491–518). According to Photius, he was a ''comes'', and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury. Zosimus was also known for condemning Constantine’s rejection of the traditional polytheistic religion. Little more is known about the life of Zosimus except that he was Greek and a pagan. He was not a contemporary of the events of his books. ''Historia Nova'' Zosimus' ''Historia Nova'' (Ἱστορία Νέα, "New History") is written in Greek in six books and covers the period from 238 to 410 A.D. It was written at the end of the fifth century. For the period from 238 to 270, he apparently uses Dexippus; for the period from 270 to 404, Eunapius; and after 407, Olympiodorus. His dependence on his sources is made clear by the change in tone and style between the Eunapian and Olympiodoran sections, and by the gap left in b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priscus Of Epirus
Priscus of Epirus (; c. 305 – c. 395 AD), also known as Priscus the Thesprotian () and Priscus the Molossian (), was a Neoplatonist philosopher and theurgist, a colleague of Maximus of Ephesus, and a friend of the Emperor Julian. Priscus was a pupil of Aedesius in Pergamon, and later went to teach in Athens, where he taught Julian. When Julian was in Gaul, he wrote to Priscus in the hope of acquiring the writings of Iamblichus on the Chaldean Oracles. When Julian was proclaimed Caesar he summoned Priscus to Gaul, and he accompanied him to Constantinople when he became Augustus in 361. Priscus and Maximus travelled with Julian on campaign in Persia, and they were with him when he died in 363. Sometime after the death of Julian, Priscus was arrested but eventually freed, avoiding the fate of Maximus who was executed in 371. Priscus returned to Athens where he continued to teach for more than thirty years.M. V. Sakellariou, (1997), ''Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aedesius
Aedesius (, died shortly before 355 AD) was a Neoplatonist philosopher and mystic. He was born into a wealthy Cappadocian family, but he moved to Syria, where he was apprenticed to Iamblichos. None of his writings have survived, but there is an extant biography by Eunapius, a Greek sophist and historian of the 4th century who wrote a collection of biographies titled ''Lives of the Sophists''. Aedesius's philosophical doctrine was a mixture between Platonism and eclecticism and, according to Eunapius, he differed from Iamblichus on certain points connected with theurgy and magic. This cites: Ritter and Preller, p. 552 (presumably of ''Historia philosophiae Graeco-Romanae''); Ritter's ''Geschichte der Philosophie''; T. Whittaker, ''The Neoplatonists'' (Cambridge, 1901). The school of Syria was dispersed after Iamblichus' death, and Aedesius seems to have modified his doctrines out of fear of Constantine II, and took refuge in divination. An oracle in a dream represented ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iamblichus
Iamblichus ( ; ; ; ) was a Neoplatonist philosopher who determined a direction later taken by Neoplatonism. Iamblichus was also the biographer of the Greek mystic, philosopher, and mathematician Pythagoras. In addition to his philosophical contributions, his is important for the study of the sophists because it preserved about ten pages of an otherwise unknown sophist known as the Anonymus Iamblichi. Life According to the and Iamblichus' biographer, Eunapius, Iamblichus was born in Chalcis (later called Qinnašrīn) in Coele, now in northwest Syria. Iamblichus was descended from the Emesene dynasty. He initially studied under Anatolius of Laodicea and later studied under Porphyry, a pupil of Plotinus (the founder of Neoplatonism). Iamblichus disagreed with Porphyry about theurgy, reportedly responding to Porphyry's criticism of the practice in '' On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians''. He returned to Coele Syria around 304 to found a school i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chrysanthius
Chrysanthius of Sardis () was a Greek philosopher of the 4th century AD who studied at the school of Iamblichus. He was one of the favorite pupils of Aedesius, and devoted himself mainly to the mystical side of Neoplatonism. The Roman emperor Julian went to him by the advice of Aedesius, and subsequently invited him to come to the court and assist in the projected resuscitation of Hellenism. But Chrysanthius declined, citing the strength of unfavorable omens, though he probably realized the revival was unlikely to bear fruit. For the same reason he abstained from drastic religious reforms in his capacity as high-priest of Lydia. As a result of his moderation, he remained high-priest until his death, venerated alike by Pagans and Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
