Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/613

Rh JOANNES. Italy. He was the son of an Italian, who engaged as an auxiliary in an attempt of the Sicilians to withdraw fiom their subjection to the Byzantine emperor, and took with him his son, then a child, who thus spent his early years, not in the schools, but the camp. When the Byzantine commander, George Maniaces, revolted against Constantine X. [Georgius, Historical, No. 15], a. d. 1042, the father of Italus fled back to Italy with his son, who after a time found his way to Constantinople. He had already made some attainments, especially in logic. At Constantinople he pursued his studies under several teachers, and last under Michael Psellus the younger ; with whom, however, he soon quarrelled, not being able, according to Anna Comnena, to enter into the subtleties of his phi- losophy, and being remarkable for his arrogance and disputatious temper. He is described as having a commanding figure, being moderately tall and broad-chested, with a large head, a prominent forehead, an open nostril, and well- knit limbs. He knew the Greek language well, but spoke it with a foreign accent. He acquired the favour of the emperor Michael Ducas (a. d. 1071 — 1078) and his brothers ; and the emperor, when he was contemplating the recovery of the Byzantine portion of Italy, counting on the attach- ment of Italus, and expecting to derive advantage from his knowledge of that country, sent him to Dyrrachium ; but having detected him in some acts of treachery, he ordered him to be removed. Italus, aware of this, fled to Rome ; from whence, by feigning repentance, he obtained the emperor's per- mission to return to Constantinople, where he fixed himself in the monastery of Pege. On the banish- ment of Psellus from the capital (a. D. 1077), and his enforced entrance on a monastic life, Italus obtained the dignity of "TiraTos rwv ^io- (r6(pa)u, or principal teacher of philosophy ; and filled that office with great appearance of learn- ing ; though he was better skilled in logic and in the Aristotelian philosophy than in other parts of science, and had little acquaintance with gram- mar and rhetoric. He was passionate, and rude in disputation, not abstaining even from personal vio- lence ; but eager to acknowledge his impetuosity, and ask pardon for it, when the fit was over. His school was crowded with pupils, to whom he ex- pounded the writings of Proclus and Plato, lam- blichus. Porphyry, and Aristotle. His turbulence and arrogance of spirit seem to have been infectious ; for Anna Comnena declares that many seditious persons (rvpauvovs) arose among his pupils ; but their names she could not remember : they were, however, before the accession of Alexis. The dis- turbances which arose from the teachings of Italus attracted the emperor's attention apparently soon after his accession ; and by his order, Italus, after a preliminary examination by Isaac, the sebasto- crator, the brother of Alexis, was cited before an ec- clesiastical court. Though protected by the patriarch Eustratius, whose favour he had won, he narrowly escaped death from the violence of the mob of Constantinople ; and he was forced publicly and bareheaded to retract and anathematize eleven pro- positions, embodying the obnoxious sentiments which lie was charged with holding. Cave places these transactions in a. d. 1084. He was charged with teaching the transmigration of souls, with holding some erroneous opinions about ideas, and with ridiculing the use of images in worship ; and JOANNES. 899 he is said to have succeeded in diffusing his heresies among many of the nobles and ofllicers of the palace, to the great grief of the orthodox emperor. Not- withstanding his enforced retractation, he still con- tinued to inculcate his sentiments, until, after a vain attempt by the emperor to restrain him, he was himself sentenced to be anathematized ; but as he professed repentance, the anathema was not pronounced publicly, nor in all its extent. He afterwards fully renounced his errors, and made the sincerity of his renunciation manifest. The above account rests on the authority of Anna Comnena {Alecims. V. 8, 9, pp. 143—149, ed. Paris, pp. 115 — 119, ed. Venice, vol. i. pp. 256—267, ed. Bonn), whose anxiety to exalt the reputation of her father, and her disposition to disparage the people of West- ern Europe, prevents our relying implicitly on her statements, which, however, Le Beau {Bos Empire, liv. Ixxxi. 49) has adopted to their full extent. The anathema pronounced on his opinions is published in the Greek ecclesiastical book TpiwSLov, Triodium (Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. Dissertatio Secunda, p. 38), and from this it is inferred by Du Cange (A'oto in Annae Comn. Alexiad.), that his views were not dis- similar to those of the western heretic Abailard. Some works of Italus are extant in MS. 1. 'E/c- dSareis els did(popa ^riT-^/xara, Expositiones in varias quas varii propostierunt Qtcaestio7ies, Capp. xciii. s. Responsa ad ccciii. Quaestiones philosophicas Miscel- laneas. The questions were proposed chiefly by the emperor Michael Ducas and his brother Andronicus. 2. "E/cSoo'is its Toi, ToiriKd, Eccpositio Topicorum Aristotelis. 3. ITepi SiaeKTiKr}s, De Dialectica. 4. MedoSos ^rjTopiKTJs eKSoOeTcra Kord avvoi^iv, Me- thodus Synoptica Rhetoricae, an art of which Anna Comnena says he was altogether ignorant. 5 Epitome Aristotelis de Interpretatione. 6. Orationes. 7. Synopsis quinque vocum Porphyrii. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. iii. pp. 213, 217, vol. vi. p. 131, vol. xi. pp. 646, 652 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. p. 154 ; Oudin, Commentar. de Scriptorib. et Scriptis Ecclesiasticis^ vol. ii. col. 760; Lambecius, Commentar. de Biblioth. Caesar, ed. Kollar. lib. iii. col. 411, seq. note A.) 79. Laurentius or Lydus (the Lydian), or of Philadelphia, or more fully Joannes Lau- rentius of Philadelphia., the Lydian ('Iwai/i/Tjs AavpevTios ^lAaBeXcpivs 6 AuSos), a Byzantine writer of the sixth century. He was born at Philadelphia, in the ancient Lydia, and the Roman province of Asia, A. d. 490. His parents appear to have been of a respectable family, and of con- siderable wealth. At the age of twenty-one (a. d. 511) he went to Constantinople, and after deliber- ation determined to enter the civil service of the government as a " memorialis ; " and either while waiting for a suitable vacancy, or in the intervals of his official duties, studied the Aristotelian, and a little of the Platonic, philosophy, under Agapius, the disciple of Proclus. By the favour of his townsman Zoticus, praefect of the praetorium under the emperor Anastasius I., he was appointed a tachygraphus or notaiius, in the office of the pra^' feet, in which office his cousin Ammianus had already obtained considerable advancement ; and though the praefecture of Zoticus lasted little more than a year, he put Joannes in the way of making 1000 aurei, without any transgression of justice or moderation. Joannes gratefully addressed a poet- ical panegyric to his patron, which obtained from the latter a reward of an aureus per line. The kindness of some official persons (Joannes caLU