Synesius

(Συνέσιος), one of the most elegant of the ancient Christian writers, was a native of Cyrene, and traced his descent from the Spartan king Eurysthenes. He devoted himself to the study of all branches of Greek literature, first in his own city, and afterwards at Alexandria, where he heard Hypatia; and became celebrated for his skill in eloquence and poetry, as well as in philosophy, in which he was a follower of Plato. About A. D. 397, he was sent by his fellow-citizens of Cyrene on an embassy to Constantinople, to present the emperor Arcadius with a crown of gold; on which occasion he delivered an oration on the government of a kingdom (περὶ βασιλείας), which is still extant. Soon after this he embraced Christianity, and was baptized by Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, who had such a sense of his merits that, in the year 410, he ordained him as bishop of Ptolemais, the chief city of the Libyan Pentapolis, although Synesius was very unwilling to accept the office. and enforced his nolo episcopari by declaring that he would not put away his wife, that he disbelieved the resurrection of the body, and that in other respects his studies and opinions and pursuits were of a nature not quite consistent with the notions of the strictly orthodox. Theophilus, however, overruled these objections : Synesius was permitted to retain his wife; and he very soon made a public profession of his belief in the resurrection of the body. He presided over his diocese with energy and success for about twenty years. Among his most remarkable acts were the conversion to Christianity of the philosopher Evagrius, and the humiliation of Andronicus, the tyrannical president of Libya, whom he brought, by the combined effect of the terrors of excommunication, and a complaint to the emperor, to supplicate the pardon of the church. The time of his death is not stated; but he cannot have lived beyond A. D. 430 or 431, since in the latter year his younger brother and successor Euoptius appeared at the council of Ephesus as bishop of Ptolemais. Works

Synesius' writings have been objects of admiration both to ancient and modern scholars, and have obtained for him the surname of Philosopher. Those of them still extant are the following :-- 1. Εἰς τὸν αὐτοκρἀτορα Ἀρκάδιον περὶ βασιλείας

the oration already referred to. 2. Δἰων, ἢ περὶ τῆς καθ̓ ἑαυτὸν διαγωγῆς

Dio, sive de suo ipsius Instituto, a work in which he professes his intention, after the example of Dio Chrysostom, to devote his life to true philosophy. It appears to have been written about A. D. 404, soon after his marriage. 3. Φαλάκρας ἐλκώηιον

Encomium calvitii, a sort of exercise of wit, in which he defends the conditions of baldness in opposition to the κόμης ἐλκώηιον of Dio Chrysostom. (See Tzetz. Chil. 11.725.) The work of Chrysostom is now lost. 4. Αἰγύπτιος ἢ περὶ προνοίας

Aegyptius sive de Providentia, in two books, in which he gives an allegorical description of the evils of the time, under the guise of the fable of Osiris and Typhon. 5. Περὶ ἐνυπνίων

De Insmniis, on Dreams, a work which Cave and others have supposed, from internal evidence, to have been written before he became a Christian. 6. Ἐπιστολαί

a collection of 156 (not 155) Letters, which form by far the most interesting portion of his extant works. 7. Ὁμιλία

a short discourse on Psalm 75.8. 8. Ὁμιλια

another short disconrse on the Eve of the Nativity of Christ. 9. Κατάστασις ῥηθεῖρα ἐπὶ τῇ μεγίστῃ τῶν βαρβάρων ἐφόδῳ

ἡγεμονεύοντος Γενναδίου καὶ Δουκὸς ὄντος Ἰννοκεντίου, an oration describing the calamities suffered by the Pentapolis from the great incursion of the barbarians in A. D. 412. 10. Κατάστασις

an oration in praise of Aysius, the prefect of Libya. 11. Πρὸς Παιόνιον ὑπὲρ τοῦ δώρου λόγος

de dono Astrolabii ad Pueonium dissertatio. 12. Ὕμνοι

ten Hymns; which appear to have been only a small portion of his poetical compositions. Three Epigrams ascribed to Synesius

The Greek Anthology contains three epigrams ascribed to him, two of which consist each of a single hexameter verse (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 449; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii. p. 555, vol. xiii. p. 956), and he himself refers to tragedies and comedies of his own composition. (Dion, p. 62c.; Welcker, die Griech. Tragöd. p. 1323.) Editions

The Editio Princeps of his whole works is that of Turnebus, Paris, 1553, fol.: the next is that of Cl. Morell, with the Latin version of Petavius, Lutet. (Paris), 1612, fol.; much improved and enlarged, Lutet. (Paris), 1633, fol.; reprinted, 1640, fol.

There are also numerous editions of the separate works, and of collections of several of them. (Tillemont, Mém. Eccles. vol. xii. pp. 499, foll. ; Cave, Hist. Litt. s. a. 410, vol. i. pp. 389, 390, ed. Basil.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 190, foll. ; Hoffmann, Lex. Bibl. Script. Graec.) Other Writers Named Synesius

A few other writers of this name, none of whom deserve special notice, are mentioned by Fabricius (l.c. p. 204).

In the Greek Anthology, besides the epigrams of the celebrated Synesius, there is one, on a statue of Hippocrates, ascribed to a certain Synesius Scholasticus, who appears to have flourished shortly before the destruction of Berytus by an earthquake in A. D. 551. (Brunck, Anal. Graec. vol. iii. p. 11; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii. p. 232, vol. xiii. p. 956.) [P.S]

(Συνέσιος). Works On Fevers

Under this name a short Greek treatise on Fevers was published in 1749, 8vo. Amstel. et Lugd. Bat., with the title, "Synesius de Febribus, quem nunc primnum ex Codice MS. Bibliothecae Lugduno-Batavae edidit, vertit, Notisque illustravit Jo. Steph. Bernard. Accedit Viatici Constantino Africano interprete lib. vii. pars."

The medical contents of this little work do not require any particular notice here. It is probably the earliest Greek medical work containing a distinct account of the Small Pox and Measles (100.9, p. 288, Περὶ τῆς φλυκταινούσης λοιμικῆς, καὶ τῆς ἑτέρας λεπτῆς καὶ πυκνῆς λοιηικῆς), and the author's description of these diseases and his directions respecting their treatment, agree upon the whole very nearly with those given by Rhazes. [Rhazes.] Date and Authorship

There are several questions respecting the date and authorship of this work which have never hitherto been completely and satisfactorily settled, and which therefore require to be discussed here. Bernard published the work under the name of Synesius, because the author is so called in the Leyden Catalogue (p. 394.65), and also at the back of the MS. (Bernard's Pref. p. xviii.); but, as there appears to be no good authority for attributing it to a physician of this name, we must first try to determine who was the author of this Greek fragment, - for the very first lines show that it is not a complete work in itself.

There exists in MS. in several European libraries rather a long Greek medical work, divided into seven books, and entitled, Βίβλος λεγομένη Τὰ Ἔφόδια τοῦ Ἀποδημοῦντος, συντεθειμένη παρὰ Ἔπρου Βγζαφὰρ τοῦ Ἔβη Ἐλζηζὰρ, ηεταβληθεῖσα εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα γλῶσσαν παρὰ Κωνσταντίνου πρωτασηκρήτον τοῦ Ῥηγίνου, a full account of which may be found in Lambecii Catal. Biblioth. Vindob. vi. p. 284 &c. ed. Kollar, and Bandinii Catal. Biblioth. Laurent. vol. iii. p. 142. There is a MS. of this work in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Laud, Gr. 59), which the Writer has had an opportunity of examining, and he finds that the printed work corresponds to the commencement of the seventh book of the MS. He has collated the printed book partially with the MS. from beginning to end, and finds that two of the chapters are transposed, and that the differences of reading are very numerous; but that the substance, and in general the words also, are so exactly the same that there can be no doubt about the identity of the two works, unless (which is just possible,) they should turn out to be two different (but very literal) translations of the same original treatise. Probably written by Constantinus Africanus

It is therefore tolerably certain that the Pseudo-Synesius is, in fact, the writer commonly known by the designation of Constantinus Africanus, of whom it is necessary to say a few words here, as he is not mentioned in the first volume of this work, because all his published works are written in the Latin language, and he himself lived later than the date fixed on for the admission of Roman writers.

He was a native of Carthage in the eleventh century, who spent nearly forty years in travelling in different parts of Asia, where he acquired a knowledge of many useful sciences, and also of several Eastern languages. Upon his return to Africa he was forced, apparently by the jealousy of his countrymen, to leave once more his native land, and settled in Calabria, where he was taken into the service of the Duke Robert Guiscard, and whence he is sometimes called in Greek MSS. Κωνστ. ὁ Ῥηγῖνος. Hence also his title of Πρωτασηκρῆτις or Πρωτασηκρήτης, that is, Protosecretarius, a word whose meaning may be found in the glossaries of Du Cange and Meursius, and which, in the case of Censtantinus, has occasioned his being somctimes called (by a curious series of errors) " Asyncritus " and " Asynkitus." (See Lambec. loco cit. p. 295.) At last he became a monk in the Monastery of Cassino, A. D. 1072, where he employed part of his time in writing and translating various medical works, and where he died at a great age, A. D. 1087.

It is not necessary to mention here all his numerous works, a list of which may be found in Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 124, ed. vet., and in Choulant's Handb. der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin. They were collected and published in 2 vols. fol. Basil. 1536, 1539.

The only one of his writings with which we are at present concerned is that which consists of seven books, and is entitled, "De omnium Morborum, qui Homini accidere possunt, Cognitione et Curatione," or in some other editions simply "Viaticum." This work is the same as the Ἐφόδια τοῦ Ἀποδημοῦντος mentioned above, and consequently contains (at the beginning of the seventh book) the Pseudo-Synesius " De Febribus." It appears also that Constantinus is the author of both works, or, in other words, that he translated the original work into both Greek and Latin. The Latin work indeed (at least as we now possess it,) does not profess to be merely a translation, and this circumstance, added to a similar omission in the case of one of his other works, has exposed Constantinus to the charge of plagiarism and dishonesty,--but whether the accusation be altogether well-founded or not, the Writer is unable to decide, as he has never had occasion to examine the other work alluded to with sufficient minuteness to enable him to form an opinion on the subject. (See Russell's Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, Append. p. xii. &c.) Name and author of the Original work

It only remains to determine the name and author of the original work; for, even if we had not the title of the Greek MSS. to aid us, it would be sufficiently evident from the inspection of the Pseudo-Synesius that the fragment is translated from the work of some oriental author; the writer not only making constant mention of the natural productions of Eastern countries, but also having preserved two Arabic words in Greek characters. * As some difference of opinion has existed respecting one of these words, it may be stated that ἰντεύχε (p. 76) should be written ἴντεχε, that is, Intihá, as appears from Avicenna, Canon, 1.2, 2.7 (vol. i. p. 38, l. ult. ed. Arab.). The other word, ἐληούθει (p. 120), should of course be written ἐληούθελλεθ, that is, Almathallath ; see Avicenna, 2.2. 436 (vol. i. p. 200 50.41. ed. Arab.) The name of the writer so strangely metamorphosed in the titles of the Greek MSS. of Constantinus is Abú Ja'far Ahmed Ibn Ibrahím Ibn Abí Cháled, who is also called Ibnu-l-Jezzár. Constantinus never gives his author's complete name, but calls him sometimes Abú Jafar Ibnu-l-Jezzár, sometimes Ahmed Ibn Ibrahím Ibn Abí Cháled ; which has led Lambecius and Bandini, in their excellent catalogues, to state that the original work " partim ab Epro filio Zaphar nepote Elgzezar, partim autem ab Achmede filio Abrami, nepote Chaletis medici, primum fuit compositum." Ibnu-l-Jezzár was a pupil of Ishak Ibn Soleiman Al-Isráílí (commonly called Isaac Judaeus), and lived at Kairowán in Africa. He died at a great age, A. H. 395 (A. D. 100 4/5). He was a man of considerable eminence, and wrote several works on medicine, metaphysics, history &c., some of which are extant in MS. in different European libraries. The only one of these with which we are here concerned is entitled Zádu-l-Musáfer, " Viaticum Peregrinautium," and consists of seven books. There is an incomplete Arabic MS. of this work in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Hunt. 302), which the Writer has examined partially throughout, more especially the part corresponding with the Pseudo-Synesius; and he finds (as Reiske had done before him,) that it agrees (upon the whole) very exactly with the Greek and Latin translations mentioned above. A more minute examination of the Arabic, Greek, and Latin texts will probably enable some future editor to give some further information respecting the two transltions : the Writer can only say of the conjecture that the Latin version was made from the Greek rather than from the original Arabic, that it appears to him to be wholly without foundation, inasmuch as the Latin translation in some places agrees more closely with the Arabic text than with the Greek. Ibnu-l-Jezzár's work was also translated into Hebrew by Rabbi Moshe Ben Tibbon (Uri, Catal. MSS. Hebr. Bibl. Bodl. § 413), and thus enjoys the singular honour of having been translated into no less than three languages during the middle ages. Further Information

For further information see Bernard's Preface to Synesius; Nicoll and Pusey's Catal. MSS. Arab. Bibl. Bodl. p. 587; Wüstenfeld, Gesch. der Arab. Aerzte und Naturforscher, § 120; Choulant, Handb. der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin, §§ 46, 70, 90. [W.A.G]

(Συνέσιος). A native of Cyrené. He was one of the most remarkable of the literary men of the fifth century. He was born A.D. 378, of a distinguished family, and studied at Alexandria under Hypatia and other celebrated instructors. So rapid was the progress he made, that, at the age of nineteen years, he was chosen by the inhabitants of Cyrené to present to the Emperor Arcadius a golden crown which had been voted him. The oration which he delivered on this occasion, and which is still preserved, has been much admired. At this period he was still a pagan; subsequently, however, he was persuaded by Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, to embrace Christianity. He was for a long time, however, very unsettled in his theological notions, and it was this very uncertainty which induced him for a considerable time to withstand the solicitations of Theophilus and not accept a bishopric. He yielded, however, in A.D. 410, and, separating from a wife for whom he cherished a deep affection, he was consecrated bishop of Ptolemaïs in Cyrenaïca. He died about 430. The works of Synesius are rather philosophical and literary than theological. They are written with elegance. When the subject admits, his diction is elevated, and sometimes even sublime. He possesses the art of rendering abstract subjects agreeable, by intermingling with them mythological and historical or else poetical passages. His letters, which are 154 in number, afford varied, amusing, and instructive reading. His hymns, in iambics of four or five feet, present a singular mixture of poetic images, Christian truths, and Platonic reveries, for it was to the school of Plato that he always continued to be more or less attached. The most complete edition of his works is that of Petau or Petavius (Paris, 1612; reprinted 1631-40), with additions by Morel. See Volkmann, Synesius von Cyrene (Berlin, 1869).