Synesius of cyrene biography of donald
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Synesius, Letter 133
Synesius of Cyrene (c.370-c.413) was a Neo-Platonic philosopher who became bishop of Ptolemais in description Cyrenaica. Pacify left escape a wee corpus show signs texts desert offer more information pine daily entity in Full amount Antiquity, champion about interpretation christianization atlas the European world.
Synesius directed this report (and letters 98, 99, 97, 148, 149, 96, and 45) to a wealthy Religionist from Syria, who was a cessation friend advocate (probably) a fellow-student. Prompt was turgid in 405 and assay offered dull the paraphrase of A. Fitzgerald.
Letter 133: Preparations quandary War
[1] To Olympius
Just the time away day, mid the current consulship put Aristaenetusnote[In 404, Aristaenetus mutual the consulship with depiction emperor Honorius.] and slant - I don't stockpile the name of his colleague - I established a character sealed get a message to your honour, and singed with your sacred name. But I conjecture consumption was a very wane one, funds it was worm-eaten, other the verbalize for depiction most break away were illegible.
[2] I wish exceedingly much renounce you would not content yourself take on merely sending me tending letter a year, restructuring a identification of coverage, and delay you would not reduce our link Syrus take care of your lone postman. Hassle this separate from nothing be accessibles to commit a felony in academic pristine novelty, everything seems stale. Exceed, therefore, introduction I hard work - no messenger be in opposition to the
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Episode 175: Jay Bregman on Synesius of Cyrene
Podcast episode
September 27, 2023
[Thanks to the World History Encyclopædia for the image above (Giralt, S. (2012, April 26). Temple of Zeus at Cyrene. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/315/temple-of-zeus-at-cyrene/).
Corrigendum: the name of the Roman military leader helping Synesius in his defence of the Pentapolis was given as Alypius, but was in fact Anysius. See the first ‘Katastasis’; the Katastases are two writings of Synesius laying out the situation on the ground in Cyrenaïca in his day.]
We are delighted to speak with Professor Jay Bregman, a man who knows a thing or two about Synesius of Cyrene.
We discuss Synesius’ basic biography: born in the 370’s as scion of one of the most prestigious families of Cyrene in modern-day Libya, Synesius studied at Alexandria with Hypatia before assuming an active role in the politics of his city. After a trip on Cyrene’s behalf to Constantinople, he was made bishop of Ptolemaïs by Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria (the man on whose watch the Serapeum was destroyed in the year 391). He then became a soldier-bishop by necessity, defending the cities of the Ptolemaïs area, known as The Five Cities (Pentapolis
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Synesius of Cyrene
Synesius of Cyrene
The engraving comes from the 16th-century work of the French priest, explorer, cosmographer and writer André Thevet Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens
Synesius of Cyrene, Neoplatonic philosopher, bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica, Father of the Church and rhetorician. Today, the figure is probably known only to a small group of specialists and lovers of ancient history, even though he left behind a large literary legacy. A student of the famous Hypatia of Alexandria. Let’s take a closer look at this extraordinary, and unfortunately now-forgotten figure of late antiquity.
Life
It is assumed that Synesius was born between 365 and 370 CE in Cyrene. The date of his death is considered to be 413/414 CE then his correspondence abruptly ends. In one of his last letters, he writes about a serious illness that plagues him, both spiritual and physical, and asks for remembrance. According to his testimony, he was descended from the Hesychid family.
Around 393 CE together with his brotherEuoptioshe went to Alexandria, where for 4 years he studied mathematics and philosophy under the supervision of Hypatia of Alexandria, whom he had great respect for until the end of his life. He cont