c. 373–414 CE · Platonist philosopher · bishop of Ptolemais · poet
Synesius of Cyrene
Συνέσιος
In Alexandria: c. 393–395 CE
Studied with Hypatia in Alexandria in the 390s and wrote her letters of devotion all his life, calling her mother, sister, teacher and benefactor. Made bishop of Ptolemais in 410 while still a Platonist. His letters are the best evidence for her teaching.
Their life and work
He came from a landed family of Cyrene that traced its descent to the Spartans, and went to Alexandria in the 390s to hear Hypatia. His letters to his fellow pupils speak of the circle around her as a mystery kept from the crowd. He went as his city's envoy to Constantinople and addressed On Kingship to the emperor Arcadius; Barnes, and Cameron and Long after him, argue that so outspoken a text was not spoken before the emperor as it stands but read to a circle of friends. Chosen bishop of Ptolemais in 410, he wrote that he would not give up his wife or pretend to believe in the resurrection as the people did (Letter 105).
Our device: Their emblem is a silver astrolabe. No portrait of any of these people survives. The emblems are our devices.
On the shelves
- Synesius of Cyrene, Letters · c. 395–413 CE · Survives whole
- Synesius of Cyrene, On Dreams · c. 404–405 CE · Survives whole
Moments
- March 415 CE · The murder of Hypatia Known: attested
In the show
The show has not yet spoken of Synesius of Cyrene.
Sources (7)
- Synesius, Letters 10, 15, 16, 81, 124, 154
- M. Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995)
- Synesius, Letters 105, 137
- Synesius, On Kingship ed. Terzaghi
- A. FitzGerald (trans.), The Letters of Synesius of Cyrene (London: Oxford University Press, 1926)
- T. D. Barnes, "Synesius in Constantinople", Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 27 (1986) 93–112
- A. Cameron and J. Long, Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)