Favorinus of Arelate | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Hellenistic philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Skepticism |
| Main interests | Epistemology |
| Notable works |
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Favorinus (c. 80 – c. 160 AD) was a Romansophist andskepticphilosopher who flourished during the reign ofHadrian and theSecond Sophistic.
He was ofGaulish ancestry, born in Arelate (Arles). He received a refined education, first inGallia Narbonensis and then inRome, and at an early age began his lifelong travels through Greece, Italy and the East.[1]
Favorinus had extensive knowledge, combined with greatoratorical powers, that raised him to eminence both in Athens and in Rome. He lived on close terms withPlutarch, withHerodes Atticus, to whom he bequeathed his library in Rome, withDemetrius the Cynic,Cornelius Fronto,Aulus Gellius, and with the emperorHadrian. His great rival wasPolemon of Smyrna, whom he vigorously attacked in his later years.[1] He knew Greek very well.[2]
After being silenced by Hadrian in an argument in which the sophist might easily have refuted his adversary, Favorinus subsequently explained that it was foolish to criticize the logic of the master of thirty legions.[3] When the Athenians, feigning to share the emperor's displeasure with the sophist, pulled down a statue which they had erected to him, Favorinus remarked that if onlySocrates also had had a statue at Athens, he might have been spared thehemlock.[1]
Hadrian banished Favorinus at some point in the 130s, to the island ofChios. Rehabilitated at the ascension ofAntoninus Pius in 138, Favorinus returned to Rome, where he resumed his activities as an author and teacher of upper-class pupils. Among his students wereAlexander Peloplaton, who would later teach and serve underMarcus Aurelius, andHerodes Atticus, who also taught Marcus Aurelius and to whom Favorinus bequeathed his library.[4] His year of death is unknown, but he appears to have survived into his eighties, and died perhaps around 160 AD.
Favorinus was a friend and mentor ofAulus Gellius, who greatly admired him.[5] He appears multiple times in Gellius'Noctes Atticae, to the point of having been described as the "star" of the work.[6]
Lucian'sthe Eunuch[7] was probably modeled on Favorinus. Hofeneder and Amato also suggest that Favorinus is identical with the "Celtic philosopher" who explains the image ofOgmios in Lucian'sHercules.[8][9] Favorinus and Lucian have been grouped together by modern scholars as part of a "group of intellectuals who were of ethnically disparate origins but were endowed with a Hellenistic education and outlook."[10]
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Only one work by Favorinus survives, theCorinthian Oration, in which Favorinus complains to the Corinthians for having removed a statue that they had previously erected in his honour, presumably delivered in the aftermath of his disgrace by Hadrian. The oration is preserved in the corpus ofDio Chrysostom as Oration 37, but is nearly universally attributed to Favorinus by modern scholars.[11]
Of the very numerous other works of Favorinus, we possess only a few fragments, preserved byAulus Gellius,Diogenes Laërtius,Philostratus,Galen, and in theSuda,Pantodape Historia (miscellaneous history) andApomnemoneumata (memoirs, things remembered). As a philosopher, Favorinus considered himself to be a Skeptic;[12] his most important work in this connection appears to have been thePyrrhonean Tropes in ten books, in which he endeavours to show that thePyrrhonist Ten Modes ofAenesidemus were useful to those who intended to practise in the law courts.[1]
Galen devoted to a polemic against Favorinus inDe optima doctrina, opposing Favorinus’ thesis that the best instruction consists in the argument in which one speaks, in each particular question, in favour of opposite sides. Galen's treatise says that Favorinus wrote a workOn the Academic Disposition also called "Plutarch" and a work against Epictetus namedAgainst Epictetus staging one ofPlutarch’s slaves, Onesimus, arguing with Epictetus. Favorinus wroteOn the Kataleptic Fantasy in which he is said to have denied the possibility ofkatalepsis, the key notion of Stoic epistemology.[13]
One of the speeches of Favorinus contains the oldest example ofpsychomachia, suggesting that he may have invented the allegorical technique, which the Latin poetPrudentius later applied with so much success to the Christian soul resisting various kinds of temptation.[14]
Favorinus is described as aeunuch (εὐνοῦχος) by birth.[15][16]Polemon of Laodicea, writer of a treatise on physiognomy, described Favorinus as "a eunuch born without testicles", beardless and with a high-pitched, thin voice, while Philostratos described him as a hermaphrodite.[17] Mason and others thus describe Favorinus as having anintersex trait.[18][19][20] Retief and Cilliers suggest that the descriptions available are consistent with Reifenstein's syndrome (androgen insensitivity syndrome).[17]
Favorinus owned an Indian slave[21] named Autolekythos.[22]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Favorinus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 214.