Themistius | |
|---|---|
Θεμίστιος | |
| Born | 317 |
| Died | c. 388 |
| Office | Prefect of Constantinople |
Themistius (Ancient Greek:ΘεμίστιοςThemistios; 317 – c. 388 AD), nicknamedEuphrades (Εὐφραδής, "eloquent"),[1] was astatesman,rhetorician andphilosopher. He flourished in the reigns ofConstantius II,Julian,Jovian,Valens,Gratian andTheodosius I, and he enjoyed the favour of all those emperors, notwithstanding their many differences and the fact that he himself was not aChristian. He was admitted to the senate by Constantius in 355, and he was prefect ofConstantinople in 384 on the nomination of Theodosius.[2] Of his many works, thirty-three orations of his have come down to us, as well as various commentaries and epitomes of the works ofAristotle.
Themistius was born inPaphlagonia and taught at theColchian Academy inPhasis.[3] Several of his orations mention his fatherEugenius, a distinguished philosopher from whom he received supplemental training. Themistius devoted himself chiefly toAristotle, though he also studiedPythagoreanism andPlatonism. His earlycommentaries on Aristotle were published without his consent and won him a high reputation. After passing his youth inAsia Minor andSyria, Themistius metConstantius II during the emperor's visit toAncyra inGalatia in 347. On this occasion Themistius delivered his first extant oration,Peri Philanthropias.
It was not long after that he moved toConstantinople, where, apart from a short sojourn inRome, he resided for the rest of his life.[2] Themistius taught philosophy in the eastern capital for twenty years. In 355 he was inducted into theSenate of Constantinople, on the basis of a letter of recommendation from Constantius. The letter is still extant, and contains high praise both of Themistius and of his father Eugenius. Also preserved is Themistius' response, an oration of thanks delivered in the senate early in 356.[4] In 357 he gave two further speeches honouring Constantius, although a state visit to Rome made the emperor unavailable to hear them in person.[5] The orator was nonetheless rewarded with a bronze portrait statue. In 361 he was appointed topraetorian rank by a decree still extant.[6] Themistius may have served asproconsul of Constantinople in 358; if so, he was the last to hold that office, before the position was elevated to the status ofurban prefect.[7]
Constantius died in 361; but Themistius, as a philosopher and pagan, naturally retained the favour ofJulian, who spoke of him as the worthy senator of the whole world, and as the first philosopher of his age.[8] TheSuda states that Julian made Themistius prefect of Constantinople; but this is disproved by the speech delivered by Themistius, when he was really appointed to that office under Theodosius. Shortly before the death of Julian in 363, Themistius delivered an oration in honour of him, which is no longer extant, but which is referred to at some length byLibanius, in a letter to Themistius.[9] In 364 he went, as one of the deputies from the senate, to meetJovian atDadastana, on the border ofGalatia andBithynia, and to confer the consulate upon him; and on this occasion he delivered an oration, which he afterwards repeated at Constantinople, in which he claims full liberty of conscience to practice any religion.[10] In the same year he delivered an oration at Constantinople, in honour of the accession ofValentinian I andValens, in the presence of the latter. His next oration is addressed to Valens, congratulating him on his victory overProcopius in June 366, and interceding for some of the rebels; it was delivered in 367.[11] In the next year he accompanied Valens to theDanube in the second campaign of the Gothic war, and delivered before the emperor, atMarcianopolis, a congratulatory oration upon hisQuinquennalia, 368.[12] His next orations are to the young Valentinian II upon his consulship, 369,[13] and to the senate of Constantinople, in the presence of Valens, in honour of the peace granted to theGoths, 370.[14] On March 28, 373, he addressed to Valens, who was then in Syria, a congratulatory address upon the emperor's entrance on the tenth year of his reign.[15] It was also while Valens was in Syria, that Themistius addressed to him an oration by which he persuaded him to cease from his persecution of the Catholic party.[16] In addition to these orations, which prove that the orator was in high favour with the emperor, we have the testimony of Themistius himself to his influence with Valens.[17]
In 377 he was in Rome, apparently on an embassy toGratian, to whom he delivered an oration entitledErotikos.[18] On the association ofTheodosius I in the empire by Gratian, atSirmium, in 379, Themistius delivered an elegant oration, congratulating the new emperor on his elevation.[19] Of his remaining orations some are public and some private; but few of them demand special notice as connected with the events of his life. In 384, (about the first of September), he was made prefect of Constantinople,[20] an office which had been offered to him, but declined, several times before.[21] He only held the prefecture a few months, as we learn from an oration delivered after he had laid down the office,[22] in which he mentions, as he had done even six years earlier,[19] and more than once in the interval,[23] his old age and ill-health. From the thirty-fourth oration we also learn that he had previously held the offices ofprinceps senatus andpraefectus annonae, besides his embassy to Rome; in another oration he mentions ten embassies on which he had been sent before his prefecture;[24] and in another, composed probably about 387, he says that he has been engaged for nearly forty years in public business and in embassies.[25] So great was the confidence placed in him by Theodosius, that, though Themistius was not a Christian, the emperor, when departing for the West to opposeMagnus Maximus, entrusted his sonArcadius to the tutorship of the philosopher, 387–388.[26] Nothing is known about Themistius after this time; and he may have died around 388. Besides the emperors, he numbered among his friends the chief orators and philosophers of the age, Christian and pagan. Not only Libanius, butGregory of Nazianzus also was his friend and correspondent, and the latter, in an epistle still extant, calls him the "king of arguments."[27]
The orations of Themistius, extant in the time ofPhotius (9th century), were thirty-six in number.[28] Of these, thirty-three have come down to us inGreek.[29] Two of them, however, (Orations 23 and 33, and perhaps Oration 28) are not fully preserved, and one (Oration 25) is a brief statement, not a full oration.[29] Modern editions of the Orations have thirty-four pieces, because aLatin address toValens has been included as Oration 12.[29] It is now believed though that this Latin address is a 16th-century creation.[29] The final oration (Oration 34) was discovered as recently as 1816 byAngelo Mai in theAmbrosian Library atMilan. There are, in addition, a few other fragments which may come from lost Orations, as well as an additional work which survives inSyriac and another preserved inArabic.[29]
The philosophical works of Themistius must have been very voluminous; for Photius tells us that he wrote commentaries on all the books of Aristotle, besides useful abstracts of thePosterior Analytics, the booksOn the Soul, and thePhysics, and that there were works of his on Plato; "and, in a word, he is a lover and eager student of philosophy."[28] TheSuda mentions his epitome of thePhysics of Aristotle, in eight books; of thePrior Analytics, in two books; of thePosterior Analytics, in two books; of the treatiseOn the Soul, in seven books; and of theCategories in one book.
The epitomes which survive are:[30]
In addition to these works, two surviving anonymous paraphrases were mistakenly attributed to him in the Byzantine era, and are now assigned to aPseudo-Themistius:[30]
His paraphrases of Aristotle'sPosterior Analytics,Physics andOn the Soul are valuable; but the orations in which he panegyrizes successive emperors, comparing them to Plato's true philosopher, and even to theIdea itself, are intended to flatter.Boëthius describes him as,disertissimus (ordiligentissimus[31])scriptor ac lucidus, et omnia ad facilitatem intelligentiae revocans.[2]
In philosophy Themistius was an eclectic. He held thatPlato andAristotle were in substantial agreement, thatGod has made men free to adopt the mode of worship they prefer, and thatChristianity andHellenism were merely two forms of the one universal religion.[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Themistius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 758.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)