Syne'sius
（
*Sune/sios), 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 :--
the oration already referred to.
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.
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.
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.
De Insmniis, on Dreams, a work which Cave and others have supposed, from internal evidence, to have been written before he became a Christian.
a collection of 156 (not 155) Letters, which form by far the most interesting portion of his extant works.
a short discourse on Psalm 75.8.
another short disconrse on the Eve of the Nativity of Christ.
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.
an oration in praise of Aysius, the prefect of Libya.
de dono Astrolabii ad Pueonium dissertatio.
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).
Synesius Scholasticus
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.)
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