Maximus of Ephesus

Maximos of Ephesus (* around 310 probably in Ephesus , Asia Minor , † beginning of 372 in Ephesus) was a late antique philosopher of the Neoplatonic direction. He was a friend and teacher of the Roman emperor Julian , whom he had strongly influenced long before he came to power. With his activity as a religious and philosophical advisor to Julians, he acted in the sense of the Platonic tradition of political engagement of the philosophers, for which Plato himself was the model.

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The most detailed information can be found in the writing Biographies of the Philosophers and the Sophists of Eunapios of Sardis , a younger contemporary of Maximus who knew him personally. In Chapter 7 it contains a literarily embellished biography of the philosopher. Like Maximos, Eunapios was a keen follower of traditional religion and an opponent of Christianity. Although he praises Maximos, he also makes him appear in an unfavorable light. This criticism reflects a rivalry among the Neo-Platonists of Asia Minor between the direction represented by Maximos and that of Eunapios' teacher Chrysanthios of Sardis .

The historian Ammianus Marcellinus is more impartial . The view of the admirers of Maximus is given by Emperor Julian, from whom three letters to Maximos have been received, and the famous orator Libanios . The Christian authors make a very negative assessment, some of whom use legendary material. The demonization of Maximus in Christian literature finds a late echo in the figure of the "magician Magnus", who appears in a Syrian novel that is fragmentarily preserved in a 7th century manuscript. Magnus causes Julian to ally himself with Satan and the demons and to worship them.

The sources deal primarily with the religious and religious-political activities of Maximus; Far less is known about his philosophy and teaching.

Origin and family

Ammianus Marcellinus describes Ephesus as the hometown of Maximus. The correctness of this previously mostly accepted statement is doubted by some scholars, but it is certain that it came from the west of Asia Minor. His parents were wealthy. Maximos had a brother named Claudianus, who also became a philosopher. Another brother, Nymphidianus, was appointed magister epistularum Graecarum (secretary for Greek-language correspondence) by Emperor Julian .

Life

Ammonios Hermeiou , a 5th / 6th century philosopher Century, reports that Maximos was a pupil of the Neo-Platonist Hierios. This Hierios is possibly identical to a Corinthian teaching philosopher of that name. If this is true, Maximos began his philosophical training in Corinth and there he met Julius Constantius , the half-brother of Emperor Constantine the Great and father of the future Emperor Julian, who lived in Corinth for a few years. This phase of his training, in which he dealt with Aristotelian logic, among other things , should - if the hypothesis is correct - encompass approximately the period 328-335.

Around the period 335-350 Maximos was a student of the Neo-Platonist Aidesios in Pergamon . Aidesios had studied in Syria with the famous Neoplatonist Iamblichos of Chalkis , who was also Hierios' teacher, and later opened his own school in Pergamon. Among Maximos' fellow students in Pergamon were the prominent philosophers Chrysanthios of Sardis, Eusebios of Myndos and Priskos . In addition to the teachings of Plato and Aristotle , which were interpreted in the neo-Platonic sense, religious topics were also part of the subject matter. Many Neoplatonists practiced theurgy (making contact with the world of the gods through special ritual acts). Maximos was particularly concerned with oracle interpretation and caused a stir as a miracle worker. His fellow student Eusebios von Myndos took the opposite position; he rejected the magical practices because he saw no real religious aspirations in them. In this his attitude differed from that of the other Neoplatonists in Pergamon.

The philosopher Sosipatra also lived and taught in Pergamon at that time . In his legendary account of events from Sosipatra's life, Eunapios tells how the philosopher fell victim to a love spell of one of her relatives named Philometor. Then she turned to Maximos, who had managed to break the magical spell.

Around 350 Maximos left the school of Aidesios in Pergamon to work as a philosophy teacher in Ephesus. Apparently Christians also attended his teaching; a Christian named Sisinnios, who later became bishop of the Novatians in Constantinople , is said to have studied with Maximos.

In 351 the future Emperor Julian came to Pergamon to study with Aidesios. At the request of Aidesios, Chrysanthios and Eusebios took over the task of instructing Julian. Eusebios warned Julian emphatically against the magical arts of Maximus, which involved illusion; only philosophy has to do with reality. In doing so, however, he achieved the opposite of what was intended; Julian went to Ephesus between May 351 and April 352 to continue his training there with Maximos.

As a member of the Christian imperial family, Julian was initially a Christian. The point in time at which he finally decided to break with Christianity cannot be determined with absolute certainty. What is certain, however, was that the decisive impetus for this step came from the Neo-Platonists, who belonged to the school of Aidesios in Pergamon or had received their training there, and that the influence of Maximos played an essential, perhaps decisive role. Against this background, Julian's particularly high appreciation for the religious philosophy of Aidesios' teacher Iamblichos is to be understood. However, the previously common view that Maximos gave Julian an initiation in a formal ceremony has been abandoned by research. It was based on a misleading remark of Julian's and on anecdotes passed on by the church father Gregor von Nazianz . The process, the interpretation of which is controversial, was certainly not an initiation into a mystery cult , because there is no indication that Maximos belonged to a mystery priesthood.

In November 355 Julian was made Caesar , after which he set out for Gaul . During his activity there he stayed in correspondence with Maximus, who continued to teach in Ephesus. After he came to power in December 361, he invited Maximos and his former fellow student Priskos to come to his court in Constantinople . The two philosophers accepted the invitation. Maximos was not deterred by very unfavorable omens, but is even said to have declared that one should not despair in the face of obstacles and that it was possible to force the favor of the gods. From then on, both Neoplatonists always remained in the vicinity of the emperor, whose valued religious and philosophical advisers and discussion partners they were. Eunapios claims in his historically preserved historical work, the Histories , that Maximos and Priskos had no political competence.

Julian expressed his extraordinary appreciation for Maximos in exuberant words. He referred to him as his "master" ( kathēgemōn ) and considered him the most outstanding man he had ever met. Among other things, he mentioned that he owed him a soothing of his stormy nature. When Maximos arrived in Constantinople, he left a session of the Senate because of him.

Before he came to court, Maximos wore a simple philosopher's cloak ( tribon ) and the long hair and beard habit common with ascetic philosophers; at the court in Constantinople, however, he dressed more luxuriously than a philosopher would have expected. In other respects too, as a courtier, he does not seem to have conformed to the Platonic ideal of the philosophers: Eunapios writes that he has become haughty and inaccessible; he is also said to have used his influential position to enrich himself personally. He liked to polemic and was feared as an opponent in philosophical disputes.

Even when Julian went to Antioch in the summer of 362 and then set out on his Persian campaign in March 363 , Maximos stayed with him. Before the emperor died of combat injuries on June 26, 363, he had one last philosophical conversation with Maximos and Priskos.

Under Julian's Christian successor Jovian , who only ruled until February 364, Maximos enjoyed the imperial benevolence, but after Jovian's death his enemies hit him hard. In the spring of 364 he was accused in Constantinople of having caused a protracted illness of the new emperors Valentinian I and Valens by magic . This allegation could not be substantiated and the charges were dropped. But his numerous opponents did not give up; 365/366 he was arrested again and charged with having unlawfully enriched himself. A heavy fine was imposed on him, and he was sent "to Asia" - probably his homeland - where he was supposed to get the fine. Because he was unable to do so, he was tortured. Eunapios reports that Maximos wanted to kill himself when he thought he could no longer bear the pain, and that he asked his wife to get poison. The woman drank the poison first, but then he did not follow her on this way. Eunapios describes Maximos' wife as the ideal figure of a philosopher and claims that she outdid her husband. With this representation he probably wanted to put Maximos, whom he accused of character defects, in an unfavorable light.

Later, the prisoner was helped by the proconsul of Asia, Klearchus, who was a follower of the ancient religion. Klearchus arranged for the philosopher's release and was even able to get him back a large part of his possessions that he had lost. Maximos resumed his philosophical teaching activities and even dared to return to Constantinople.

Finally he fell victim to the suspicion of having supported a conspiracy against the emperor in the winter of 371/372. While interpreting an oracle that was presented to him by opposition members, he is said to have predicted that Emperor Valens would suffer a strange death and remain unburied (in fact, Valens fell in 378 at the Battle of Adrianople ). After the opposition activities were uncovered, Maximos was taken to Antioch, where Valens was then. The interrogations were initially favorable for him, but he was eventually taken to his hometown of Ephesus, where the new proconsul of Asia, Festus, had him executed in early 372.

Works

The Suda enumerates some of the works of Maximos: an unspecified Aristotle commentary, a rhetorical text "On the insoluble antitheses" ( Peri alýtōn antithéseōn ), a treatise "On the numbers", the subject of which was apparently the Pythagorean theory of numbers, and a poem "About the [astrological] predictions [favorable times]" (Greek Peri katarchṓn , Latin De actionum auspiciis ). The Suda states that Maximos dedicated these works or part of them to Emperor Julian. However, it must be expected that not all of them actually come from Maximos.

Two lost Aristotle commentaries by Maximus are attested: one on the categories from which a fragment has been preserved, and one on the Analytica priora , to which Themistius responded with a reply. The thesis of Maximus, which Themistius opposed, was that every syllogism has its own ground of validity and is therefore perfect. Maximos therefore did not regard the modes of the first figure as the reason for validity for the other modes and rejected the traditional reduction of the other modes to one mode of the first figure as superfluous. The view that all syllogisms are equally perfect was shared by other Neoplatonists, but Maximos seems to have advocated a particularly radical version of this position.

Maximos' work on numbers is also lost. The writing on the insoluble antitheses has been preserved; the identity of its author with Maximos of Ephesus has been doubted, but is strongly endorsed by the editor Rabe. The work on predictions is an astrological handbook in the form of a poem in hexameters that has been preserved. Here too Maximos' authorship was questioned; according to the current state of research, however, it can be considered plausible. Byzantine prose versions attest to the interest in the poem in later times.

Text output

• Hugo Rabe (Ed.): Prolegomenon sylloge. Accedit Maximi libellus de obiectionibus insolubilibus . Teubner, Leipzig 1931, pp. CXV – CXXVI and 427–447 (critical edition of the text “On the insoluble antitheses”)
• Nicola Zito (Ed.): Maxime: Des initiatives. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-251-00605-5 (critical edition of the poem Peri katarchṓn ascribed to Maximos with introduction, French translation and commentary)

literature

• Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, CNRS, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-271-06386-8 , pp. 313–322
• Robert J. Penella: Greek Philosophers and Sophists in the Fourth Century AD Studies in Eunapius of Sardis . Francis Cairns, Leeds 1990, ISBN 0-905205-79-0

Web links

• Eunapios on Maximos (English translation)

Remarks

1. ^ So Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 313–322, here: 314; Karl Praechter , on the other hand, dated “by the beginning of the century at the latest” : Maximus. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIV, 2, Stuttgart 1930, Sp. 2563-2570.
2. ^ Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (Ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 313–322, here: 317 f .; however, the authenticity of two of the three letters is controversial.
3. ^ René Braun, Jean Richer (ed.): L'empereur Julien. De l'histoire à la légende , Paris 1978, p. 234 f. (Introduction by Jean Richer), 263–267 (French translation of the relevant section of the novel).
4. ^ Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 313–322, here: 314; Karl Praechter already expressed doubts: Maximus . In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE), Vol. XIV, 2, Stuttgart 1930, Sp. 2563-2570, here: 2563 f.
5. ^ Richard Goulet: Claudianus . In: Richard Goulet (Ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 2, Paris 1994, p. 401.
6. ↑ See Henri Dominique Saffrey: Hiérios , in: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 3, Paris 2000, p. 684 (No. 121).
7. ^ Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 313–322, here: 315 f.
8. ↑ According to Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 313–322, here: 316 f. The spectacular miracles of Maximus are not theurgy in the strict sense.
9. ↑ See also Antonino M. Milazzo: Fra racconto erotico e fictio retorica: la storia di Sosipatra in Eunapio (vs 6,9,3-17 Giangr.) . In: Cassiodorus 3, 1997, pp. 215-226, here: 216 f., 219 f .; Silvia Lanzi: Sosipatra, la teurga: a “holy woman” iniziata ai misteri caldaici . In: Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni 28, 2004, pp. 275–294, here: 291 f.
10. ↑ Klaus Rosen : Julian. Kaiser, Gott und Christenhasser , Stuttgart 2006, p. 97 f.
11. ^ Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 313–322, here: 317 means that it was Maximos who brought about Julian's decision in Ephesus; also Rowland Smith: Julian's Gods , London 1995, pp. 3 and 29 f. Klaus Rosen is skeptical: Julian. Kaiser, Gott und Christenhasser , Stuttgart 2006, pp. 99–101, 229–231; he does not plead for a change of faith until 361.
12. ^ Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 313–322, here: 317; Carine Van Liefferinge: La Théurgie. Des Oracles Chaldaïques à Proclus , Liège 1999, pp. 213-223; Klaus Rosen: Julian. Kaiser, Gott und Christenhasser , Stuttgart 2006, p. 101 f. See Jean Bouffartigue: L'Empereur Julien et la culture de son temps , Paris 1992, pp. 43-45.
13. ↑ On Eunapios 'critical description of Maximos' handling of the accidentals see Robert J. Penella: Greek Philosophers and Sophists in the Fourth Century AD Studies in Eunapius of Sardis , Leeds 1990, pp. 68–70, 119 f.
14. ^ Robert J. Penella: Greek Philosophers and Sophists in the Fourth Century AD Studies in Eunapius of Sardis , Leeds 1990, p. 15.
15. ↑ See Polymnia Athanassiadi : Julian. An Intellectual Biography , London 1992, p. 34 f .; Arcangela Tedeschi: Giuliano e il κοινὸς καθηγεμών . In: Quaderni di storia 31 (62), 2005, pp. 123–129, here: 124 f.
16. ^ Filipe Delfim Santos: Maxime (d'Éphèse?) . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 313–322, here: 319.
17. ↑ Udo Hartmann : Late antique philosophers. Women in the philosophers' lives from Porphyrios to Damascius. In: Robert Rollinger , Christoph Ulf (Eds.): Women and Gender , Vienna 2006, pp. 43–79, here: 57 f.
18. ^ Jean Bouffartigue: L'Empereur Julien et la culture de son temps , Paris 1992, p. 319 f.
19. ↑ For the content of the controversy see Tae-Soo Lee: The Greek Tradition of Aristotelian Syllogistics in Spätantike , Göttingen 1984, pp. 127–132. Aburraḥmān Badawi provided a French translation of Themistius' counter-writing, which has only survived in Arabic: La transmission de la philosophie grecque au monde arabe , Paris 1987, pp. 180–194.
20. ↑ Paola Radici Colace pleads for the authenticity of the poem: Giuliano, Selene e l'autore del ΠΕΡΙ ΚΑΤΑΡΧΩΝ . In: Bruno Gentili (ed.): Giuliano imperatore , Urbino 1986, pp. 127-133.
21. ↑ Edited, commented on and translated into Italian by Paola Radici Colace (ed.): Le parafrasi bizantine del ΠΕΡΙ ΚΑΤΑΡΧΩΝ di Massimo , Messina 1988.