Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/974

Rh 962 SYNESIUS. and ecclesiastical, No, 30], and was printed under the name of the real author, with the grammatical treatise ot Alexander Maurocordatos. 8vo. Venice, 1745. 5. Bios Kal TroKireia tov ocrlov irarpoi i'ifj.wv Koi oixoKoyi^Tov tov QeoSwpov rov r£v 'Xrovdlwv r'iyovix4vov (rvyypa<pfs irpos MLxarjAov fxovaxov. ViUi et Mores S. Patris nostri et Confessoris Theo- dori Praepositi Studilarum conscripta a Michaele Monacho. It is with some hesitation that we class this biography, which is given with a Latin version in the fifth volume of the Opera Varia of the Je- suit Sirmond, among the works of Michael Syncel- lus. It is elsewhere [Michael, Byzantine writers. No. 9] given among the works of Michael, monk and Syncellus of Constantinople, who lived some- what later than our Michael. The authorship is a question on which critics are divided ; the work, however, bears marks of being written by a con- temporary of Theodore, which our Michael was, but which the other Michael could hardly be. Several other works of Michael Syncellus, including Carmina varia, are extant in MS. (Fabric. Bihlioih. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 133, 298, 333, 345, 382, vol. x. pp. 199, 220, vol. xi. pp. 186, &c. 205; Bandini, Catalog. Codd. MSlorum, ^c. I. c. ; Ittigius, De Biblioih. Pairum; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 830, vol. ii. p. 19, ed. Oxford, 1740—43; Oudin, Comnient. de Scripturib. Eccles. vol. ii. col. 43, &c.) [J. C. M.] SYNE'SIUS (Sui/eVios), one of the most ele- gant of the ancient Christian writers, was a native of Cyrene, and traced his descent from the Spartan king Eurj'sthenes. 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 phi- losophy, 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 {irepi ^a(rieias). 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. Theo- philus, however, overruled these objections : Syne- sius 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 Eva- grius, and the humiliation of Andronicus, tlie ty- rannical president of Libya, whom he brought, by the combined effect of the terrors of excoinmuni- cation, and a complaint to the emperor, to suppli- cate 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 ap- peared at the council of Ephesus as bishop of SYNESIUS. Ptolemais. His writings have been objects of ad- miration both to ancient and modern scholars, and have obtained for him the surname of Philosopher. Those of them still extant are the following: — 1. Els rhv avTOKpdropa 'ApKadiov irepl ^aaiheia^, the oration already referred to. 2. Aiwv^ ^ irepl ttjs Ka9^ eavrhv diayayris, Dio^ sive de mo ipsius In- stituto, 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. ^aXoLKpas iyKdifxiov, Encomium calritii, a sort of exercise of wit, in which he defends the condition of baldness in opposition to the K6/xris iyKcajiiiov of Dio Chrysostom. (See Tzetz. Chil. xi. 725.) The work of Chrysostom is now lost. 4. Alyinmos ^ irep] irpovoias, Aegyptins sive de Providentia, in two books, in which he gives an allegorical de- scription of the evils of the time, under the guise of the fable of Osiris and Typhon. 5. flepi evimvluiv, De Insomniis, on Dreams, a work which Cave and others have supposed, from internal evidence, to have been written before he became a Christian. 6. ^EiricTToXal, a collection of 156 (not 155) Let- ters, which form by far the most interesting portion of his extant works. 7. 'O/xiXla, a short discourse on Psalm Ixxv. 8. 8. 'OuiAt'a, another short dis- course on the Eve of the Nativity of Christ. 9. KardaTaffLS prjdelaa in tt? fieyiaTr] toou fiapSdpuv icpodcf, 7)yefxovevovTos TevyaSiov Koi Aovkos ovtos 'IvvoKevTLov., an oration describing the calamities suflfered by the Pentapolis from the great incursion of the barbarians in a. d. 412. 10. Kardcrraais, an oration in praise of Aysius, the prefect of Libya. 11. Ilpos TlaiSviov vTrep rov Swpov X6yos, de douo Astrolabii ad Paeonium dissertaf/o, 12. T/xuai, ten Hymns ; which appear to have been only a small portion of his poetical compositions. The Greek Anthology contains three epigrams ascribed to him, two of which consist each of a single hex- ameter verse (Brunck, Anal, vol.ii. p. 449 ; Jacobs, Aiith. Graec. vol. iii. p. 155, vol. xiii. p, 956), and he himself refers to tragedies and comedies of his own composition. {Dion, p. 62, c. ; Welcker, die Griech. Tragod. p. 1323.) The Editio Princeps of his whole works is that of Turnebus, Paris, 1553, foL: the next is that of CI. Morell, with the Latin version of Petavius, Lutet. (Paris), 1612, fol. ; much improved and en- larged, Lutet. (Paris), 1633. fol. ; reprinted, 1640, fol. There are also numerous editions of the se- parate works, and of collections of several of them, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. vol. xii. pp. 499. foil. ; Cave, Hist. Litt. s.a. 410, vol. i. pp. 389, 390, ed. Basil. ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 1 90, foil. ; Hoffmann, Lex. Bibl. Script. Graec.) A few other writers of this name, none of whom deserve special notice, are mentioned by Fabricius (/, 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 cer- tain Synesius Scholasticus, who appears to have flourished shortly before the destruction of Berytus by an earthquake in a. n. 551. (Bnmck, Anal. Graec. vol. iii, p. 1 1 ; Jacobs, Anih. Graec. vol. iii. p. 232, vol. xiii. p. 956.) [P. S.] SYNE'SIUS i^vv^aios). Under this name a short Greek treatise on Fevers was published in 1749, 8vo. Amstel. et Lugd. Bat., with the title, " Synesius de Febribus, quern nunc primnm ex Codice MS. Bibliothecae Lugduno-Batavae edidit.