Synesius of Cyrene

“ Ptolemais, a new city, 82 miles to the westward of Cyrene, assumed the metropolitan honors of the Pentapolis, or Upper Libya, which were afterwards transferred to Sozusa.]
118 (return)
[ Synesius had previously represented his own disqualifications. He loved profane studies and profane sports; he was incapable of supporting a life of celibacy; he disbelieved the resurrection; and he refused to preach fables to the people unless he might be permitted to philosophize at home. Theophilus primate of Egypt, who knew his merit, accepted this extraordinary compromise.] ”

“ It remains for you to bring forth worthy fruits of penitence; of which I know none better than those which John the Baptist commanded to the soldiery of old, "Do no violence to any man, and be content with your wages."'
'As for rebels and rebellion,' said Synesius, 'they are matters unknown among as; for where there is no king there can be no rebellion. Whosoever will help us against Ausurians is loyal in our eyes. And as for our political creed, it is simple enough—namely, that the emperor never dies, and that his name is Agamemnon, who fought at Troy ”

“ Synesius in his good-nature might dignify him with the name of brother, but to her he was a powerless pedant, destined to die without having wrought any deliverance on the earth, as indeed the event proved. Plutarch of Athens? He was superannuated. Syrianus? A mere logician, twisting Aristotle to mean what she knew, and he ought to have known, Aristotle never meant. Her father? A man of triangles and conic sections. ”

“ When Syennesis, king of Cilicia, heard of this great army, he was greatly perplexed what to do, because he was in no condition to cope with so great a force. But being sent for by Cyrus, with promises of safe conduct, he came to him, and being acquainted with the design, promised his assistance against Artaxerxes, and straitway joined Cyrus with a small party, under the command of one of his sons: but being a crafty man, and preparing for the worst, he sent the other secretly to the king, to inform him of the great forces that were coming against him ”

“ The fugitives of Scythia were permitted to disgrace the illustrious dignities of the empire; their ferocious youth, who disdained the salutary restraint of laws, were more anxious to acquire the riches, than to imitate the arts, of a people, the object of their contempt and hatred; and the power of the Goths was the stone of Tantalus, perpetually suspended over the peace and safety of the devoted state. The measures which Synesius recommends, are the dictates of a bold and generous patriot. He exhorts the emperor to revive the courage of his subjects, by the example of manly virtue ”

“ He was denominated Cyrus from the Sun, which was so called. It was the same as Orus: and according to Strabo it is sometimes so expressed; as we may infer from a river of this name, of which he says, [315] Εκαλειτο δε προτερον Κορος. We find it sometimes rendered Κυρις, Curis: but still with a reference to the Sun, the Adonis of the east. Hesychius explains Κυρις, ὁ Αδωνις. In Phocis was [316] Κυῤῥα, Currha, where Apollo Κυῤῥαιος was honoured; which names were more commonly expressed Κιῤῥα and Κιῤῥαιος. The people of Cyrene are said by Palæphatus to have been originally Ethiopians or Cuthites. ”

“ As the result of similar indiscretions, there is the common remark of to-day that religion is necessary for the people; the question is for what people, seeing that no one will tolerate inclusion in this category when understanding and morality are involved.
The most remarkable work of Synesius is a treatise on dreams, in which he unfolds the purest Kabalistic doctrines and appears as a theosophist whose exaltation and obscure style have rendered suspect of heresy; but he had neither the obstinacy nor the fanaticism of sectarians. ”

“ Synesius addresses his letters to Hypatia τῇ φιλοσὸφῳ—"To the Philosophess." This contains at least two of the unapproachable "portmanteau" words in which Greek, and especially late Greek abounds—φιλοχωρῶν, "loving one's country," and μεταναστεύειν, a rare and complicated compound in which I have ventured to see a hint of ironic intention. He feels that he will be a sort of shirker or deserter (μετὰ often imparts this meaning) but he will be coming to her. ”

“ I can ruin them—sell them as slaves—betray them to death as rebels—and last, but not least, cannot I hire a dozen worthy men to carry her off, and cut the Gordian knot most simply and summarily? And yet I dare not. I must be pure to approach the pure; and righteous, to kiss the feet of the righteous. Whence came this new conscience to me I know not, but come it has; and I dare no more do a base thing toward her, than I dare toward a God, if there be one. This very mortgage—I hate it, curse it, now that I possess it—the tempting devil!’
‘Burn it,’ said Synesius quietly. ”

“ Cyrus was prepared to find Prince Syennesis less disposed than his wife to receive him with open arms. As a subject of Artaxerxes the Great King, it would be his duty to prevent Cyrus the rebel from advancing through his country. This he could easily do, for the entrance to Cilicia was by a road so steep and narrow36 that a very small number of men could hold it against an army of invaders. ”

“ If I had not loved her it might have been different: but now—just because I do love her, I will not, I dare not, listen to Augustine's arguments, or my own thoughts on the matter.'
'Most wayward of men!' cried Synesius, half peevishly; 'you seem to take some perverse pleasure in throwing yourself into the waves again, the instant you have climbed a rock of refuge!'
'Pleasure? Is there any pleasure in feeling oneself at death-grips with the devil? ”

“ This was the new era which commenced for Cyrene with the reign of the third king, the Battus who, on account of the marvellously rapid rise of his kingdom, was celebrated as 'the fortunate' in all Hellas. The Battiadæ [the family or dynasty of Battus] were soon regarded as a great power." E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 2, chapter 3. {646} Cyrenaica became subject to Egypt under the Ptolemys, and was then usually called Pentapolis, from the five cities of Cyrene, Apollonia, Arsinoë (formerly Teuchira) , Berenice (formerly Hesperis, or Hesperides) and Ptolemais (the port of Barca) . ”

“ Battus became king of all Cyrenaica, and his descendants, by the name of Battidæ, did rule that land, and maintain the prosperity of Cyrene through eight generations, until the Ptolemies of Egypt conquered the country, and under their patronage Apollonia, the seaport, became the chief city.
It would be a great error to suppose that because Cyrene was on the northern coast of Africa, and near the vast and arid Barcan Desert, it was therefore an unpleasant seat. On the contrary, it may well be doubted whether a more delightful locality can be found on earth. ”

“ In this sequence of thought we find a sufficient explanation of the καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁρῶμεν (and we see it for ourselves) ; this refers not so much to the ocular recognition of the νοῦσος θήλεια, the possibility of which however we have demonstrated elsewhere, as to the fact that the disease was still to be met with among the Scythians, in order to show which Synesius laid special stress on the phrase, and added—undoubtedly to the sacrifice of truth—the word ἅπαντας (all of them) . ”

“ They cannot hold their pace against this breeze . . . . Well tried, good dog, though you did miss him! Ah, that my boy were here! There—they double. Spread right and left, my children, and ride at them as they pass!'
And the ostriches, unable, as Synesius said, to keep their pace against the breeze, turned sharp on their pursuers, and beating the air with outspread wings, came down the wind again, at a rate even more wonderful than before.
'Ride at him, Raphael—ride at him, and turn him into those bushes!' cried Synesius, fitting an arrow to his bow. ”

“ In the present survey we are not concerned with Christian belief in the Empire, and so it is only as a Neo-Platonist that Synesius will at present interest us. He is the more interesting for us in that he was a man with some taste for science. He knew some medicine and was well acquainted with geometry and astronomy, subjects which he probably studied under his friend Hypatia. ”

“ But Cyrus being mounted upon a noble but a headstrong and hard-mouthed horse, bearing the name, as Ctesias tells us, of Pasacas, Artagerses, the leader of the Cadusians, galloped up to him, crying aloud, "O most unjust and senseless of men, who are the disgrace of the honored name of Cyrus, are you come here leading the wicked Greeks on a wicked journey, to plunder the good things of the Persians, and this with the intent of slaying your lord and brother, the master of ten thousand times ten thousand servants that are better men than you? ”

“ From its loftily situated capital Cyrene (p. 411) , one of the richest and most brilliant cities in the Greek world, Greek culture spread rapidly over the whole coast-region, where the numerous seaports acquired also great wealth through the caravan-traffic with the interior. For a time (about 400–330 B.C.) the Cyrenians succeeded in repelling the attacks of the Carthaginians with their mighty fleet, but in 322 they succumbed to Ptolemy I. (p. 433) , who united the different parts of the district under the name of Pentapolis (‘five cities’) . ”

“ In the school of Cyrene, in that comparatively fresh Greek world, we see this philosophy where it is least blasé, as we say; in its most pleasant, its blithest and yet perhaps its wisest form, youthfully bright in the youth of European thought. But it grows young again for a while in almost every youthful soul. It is spoken of sometimes as the appropriate utterance of jaded men ”

“ The king lay at Thamneria, in Media, near the territory of the Cadusians, against whom he had marched to put down a revolt. When Lysander presented himself, Cyrus was urgent with him not to engage the Athenians at sea unless he had many more ships than they. "The king," he added, "and I have plenty of wealth, so that, as far as money goes, you can man plenty of vessels." ”

“ Xenophon saith that Cyrus married her after the taking of Babylon; but she was then an old woman: it's more probable that he married her while she was young and handsome, and he a young man; and that because he was the brother-in-law of Darius the King, he led the armies of the Kingdom until he revolted: so then Astyages, Cyaxeres and Darius Reigned successively over the Medes; and Cyrus was the grandson of Astyages, and married the sister of Darius, and succeeded him in the Throne. ”

“ Acte conducted her to her own unctorium to anoint and dress her; and though there was no lack of slave women in Cæsar’s house, and Acte had enough of them for her personal service, still, through sympathy for the maiden whose beauty and innocence had caught her heart, she resolved to dress her herself. It became clear at once, that in the young Grecian, in spite of her sadness and her perusal of the letters of Paul of Tarsus, there was yet much of the ancient Hellenic spirit, to which physical beauty spoke more eloquently than aught else on earth. ”

“ It is a base coward fear, in one who never before feared man or devil, and is now fallen low enough to be afraid of a helpless girl!’
‘Not so,’ cried Synesius, in his turn; ‘it is a noble and a holy fear. You fear her goodness. Could you see her goodness, much less fear it, were there not a Divine Light within you which showed you what, and how awful, goodness was? Tell me no more, Raphael Aben-Ezra, that you do not fear God; for he who fears Virtue, fears Him whose likeness Virtue is. ”

“ A young man of good family, Synesius by name, not unconnected with myself, in the full flush of youth, who has scarcely begun to live yet, is in great dangers, from which God alone has power to rescue him, and next to God, you, who are entrusted with the decisions of all questions of life and death. ”

“ Then Cyrus said to him, "Son of Hyrcania, it gives me pleasure to see that you show not only friendliness, but sagacity. It is clear that our interests are the same; the Assyrians are my foes as well as yours, only they hate you now even more bitterly than they hate me. (24) We must consult together and see that not one of our present allies turns his back on us, and we must do what we can to acquire more. You heard the Mede summon the cavalry to return, and if they go, we shall be left with nothing but infantry. ”

“ After the review, with the first approach of day, deserters from the great king arrived, bringing Cyrus information about the royal army. Then Cyrus summoned the generals and captains of the Hellenes, and held a council of war to arrange the plan of battle. He took this opportunity also to address the following words of compliment and encouragement to the meeting: "Men of Hellas," he said, "it is certainly not from dearth of barbarians to fight my battles that I put myself at your head as my allies; but because I hold you to be better and stronger than many barbarians. ”

“ Peace be with thee, O king of Persia!”
Vinicius rose to a sitting posture, and saw Chilo before him.
“Thy house is burned surely, O lord,” said the Greek, “for the Carinæ is in flames; but thou wilt be always as rich as Midas. Oh, what a misfortune! The Christians, O son of Serapis, have predicted this long time that fire would destroy the city. But Linus, with the daughter of Jove, is in Ostrianum. Oh, what a misfortune for the city!” ”