Salustios (Neoplatonist)

Salustios on a Kontorniat (medallion) of the late 4th or early 5th century

Salustios ( Greek  Σαλούστιος , Latin Sal (l) ustius ) was a late antique philosopher of the Neoplatonic direction. His writing activity falls into the sixties of the 4th century. He dealt mainly with metaphysical topics and with the interpretation of myths .

identity

The philosopher and writer Salustios is only known as the author of the book On the Gods and the World . His identification with other known people working in the Reich administration has been discussed in modern research since the 19th century. The high officials Flavius ​​Sallustius and Saturninius Secundus Salutius have been considered. Both played an important role under Emperor Julian (360–363).

Flavius ​​Sallustius was appointed Praetorian Prefect of Gaul (praefectus praetorio Galliarum) by Julian in 361 and held the ordinary consulate together with the emperor in 363 . He advised Julian against the campaign against the Persian Sasanid Empire , on which the emperor was killed in 363. At that time Sallustius was already very old.

Saturninius Secundus Salutius - often just called Secundus - came from Gaul. He was appointed by Emperor Constantius II as adviser to Julian when he was still responsible for Gaul with the rank of Caesar . In 359, Constantius dismissed him from this post and brought him to Constantinople , because the suspicious emperor disliked the familiarity between the militarily successful Caesar and his adviser. Julian was deeply saddened to break up with his advisor, with whom he had become friends. After Julian had taken power in Constantinople in 361 as the successor to Constantius, he appointed Secundus Salutius as Praetorian Prefect for the East (praefectus praetorio Orientis) . The new prefect remained in the vicinity of the emperor; he was significantly involved in the preparation of Julian's Persian War and took part in the campaign, where his life was in danger. After Julian's death, at which he was present, the relevant officers considered him as a successor, but he rejected the emperor's dignity with reference to his old age and poor health. However, he retained the office of Praetorian prefect under the following emperors.

The difference in the name seems to speak against the equation of the writer with Secundus Salutius; the contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus always clearly distinguishes between Salutius and Sallustius . In the Greek sources, however, both Praetorian prefects are named Saloustios , and this form of name has also come down to the writer. Therefore nothing stands in the way of identifying the writer with Salutius, but it remains hypothetical. To justify the hypothesis, it is stated that the writer was a follower of the pagan religion and shared the philosophical and religious interests and inclinations of Emperor Julian, which is also true of Salutius. Julian wanted to push back Christianity, which had been strongly favored by his Christian predecessors, and renew the old pagan religion and make it the state religion again. Salutius was one of the pagan scholars who Julian valued and kept in his environment. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the excellently educated Praetorian prefect explained the religious worldview that he shared with Julian in a treatise for a broader educated audience. Most classical scholars consider this hypothesis plausible; it is much better justified than the assumption that Flavius ​​Sallustius is the author, because there is no evidence for a philosophical activity of Flavius ​​Sallustius.

plant

The author of the Greek treatise On the Gods and the World (Peri theōn kai kósmou) wants to offer a generally understandable representation of the pagan religion. Therefore, it is often assumed in research that he intended to promote the ideology propagated at Julian's court and to provide literary support for the ruler's religious endeavors. According to this, the writing was created at the time of Julian's autocracy, i.e. 362 or in the first half of 363. Franz Cumont and the researchers who followed him , however, have a different view . They believe that at the end of the fourth chapter, which speaks of the souls of deceased mythographers , it can be seen that Julian was already dead at the time of writing, which leads to a date after the summer of 363. Karl Praechter raised weighty objections to this argument .

The title is not handed down by hand; it was only introduced in the 17th century and has been in common use ever since. What the author himself called his work is unknown.

The work summarizes Platonism and its educational concept from the late antique Neoplatonic point of view. Chapters 1–12 contain an introduction to the basics of Neoplatonism suitable for beginners, the remaining chapters (13–21) should lead to a deeper understanding and clarify individual questions. Salustios received inspiration from a speech by Julian and from the ideas of the famous Neo-Platonist Iamblichus .

At the beginning, Salustios explains which qualities someone who wants to gain knowledge about the gods must have and which basic assumptions in the doctrine of gods can be assumed. In the third chapter he then answers the question of why poets and philosophers present knowledge of the gods in a mythically veiled form and why the gods themselves express themselves in this way in their oracles . This is the case because this language is appropriate to the subject; a myth can be interpreted on different levels of understanding, and so everyone can penetrate as deeply into the truth as his comprehension allows. In the fourth chapter he classifies the myths. In chapters 5–12 he deals with the first cause, the division of the gods into groups, the nature of the cosmos, the doctrine of the soul, providence and fate, virtue and vice , the forms of government and the origin of evil . The following topics of the second part, intended for more advanced readers, include the relationship of the gods to the cosmos and to humans, the indestructibility of the cosmos, “ atheism ” (meaning Christianity) and the transmigration of souls .

Teaching

Doctrine of gods

In the doctrine of gods, Salustios establishes a hierarchical order between the different types of gods. The differentiators are their different functions in creating, shaping and maintaining different things. The "creation" is not meant in the sense of a creation out of nothing or generation at a certain point in time, but in the sense of a time-independent causality. Salustios considers the physical universe as well as the spiritual world to be undeveloped and indestructible. He divides the gods into two main types: the super-cosmic (hyperkósmioi) and the inner-cosmic (enkósmioi) .

The super-cosmic gods are divided into three classes. The first class includes those who produce the beings or substances ( ousíai ) of the (other) gods. The second rank is occupied by the gods who create the intellect ( nous ). The third tier includes the gods who are responsible for creating souls .

The inner cosmic gods are the creators of the sensually perceptible world in which people live. Salustios distinguishes four types of them. Each species includes three gods and has a special task with the three aspects beginning, middle and end, for each of which one of the three gods is responsible. From this it follows that the number of inner cosmic gods is twelve. This corresponds to the traditional doctrine of the twelve "great" gods , also represented by Plato , although some of the lists in the sources give different names. The first type in Salustios are the three gods who bring about the existence of the cosmos: Zeus , Poseidon and Hephaestus . The gods of the second kind, Demeter , Hera and Artemis , animate the universe and give it life. The third type includes those who ensure the harmonious order among the various components of the cosmos: Apollon , Aphrodite and Hermes . The fourth type consists of the gods who guard and protect the cosmos and ensure its continued existence: Hestia , Athena and Ares .

The assignment of the gods to their areas of responsibility sometimes makes an arbitrary impression. Salustios justifies his assignments with the idiosyncrasies of the gods, which are identified on their statues. As an example he cites the lyre , an attribute of Apollo. By tuning the lyre, Apollo indicates his role in shaping the harmonious world order. The musical instrument stands for musical harmony and thus symbolizes the cosmic harmony. Athene's armament suggests her duty to preserve the cosmos.

The philosopher considers the gods that do not belong to the twelve order to be mere manifestations of the twelve gods of his system; he denies their independent existence. So he makes Dionysus a mode of appearance of Zeus and Asklepios a mode of appearance of his father Apollo.

Salustios emphatically opposes the opinion that the gods are subject to emotions such as pleasure or anger or that they can be influenced by human behavior. Such changeability is unworthy of her. Rather, they remained eternally in perfect goodness; they could never harm anyone. Salustius compares the claim that God turns away from evildoers to the idea that the sun hides from those who have lost sight. The philosopher criticizes - without naming them - the Christians who believe in an angry God and try to appease him. He considers the deification of rulers common in the Roman Empire to be a grave offense .

ethics

In his discussion of theodicy , Salustios states that the gods are good and therefore in no way come into consideration as the authors of an evil. Even instances like the intellect ( nous ), the soul or demons could not be responsible for something bad; Since they owed their power to the gods and nothing has an extra-divine origin, it is impossible that there is something evil in them or that something emanates from them. For this reason it is also impossible that the bodies are bad in themselves. Also to be excluded are the hypotheses that the good will of the gods is connected with powerlessness or that they have power but not will; both would be incompatible with her divinity. Salustios concludes that the evil cannot have any real existence; it is only the absence of good. Nothing in the world is inherently bad. Salustios thus represents the current position of the Neo-Platonists on this question. His view differs from that of the emperor Julian, who assumes goodness to the gods, but believes in the existence of evil demons. The worldview that Salustios sees as a result of this conviction is overall optimistic and shaped by trust in divine providence, while Julian's philosophy shows much more pessimistic features.

Salustios thinks that goodness is more important than being. This can be seen from the fact that there are values ​​for which virtuous people sacrifice their lives. These values ​​are therefore more important than existence. Therefore, the first cause, the one of the Neoplatonists, is to be determined not as being ( Ousia ), but as the absolutely good. The cause of the existence of things is their goodness. Thus, for Salustios, goodness is the highest and at the same time the most general principle.

mythology

In mythology , Salustios differentiates between theological, physical, psychological, material and mixed myths or myth interpretations. Theological interpretation of myths deals only with the purely spiritual essence of the gods and does not refer to anything physical. Physical myth interpretation has the action of the gods directed towards the cosmos as an object. Psychological interpretation of myths thematizes mental processes. Salustios describes the Egyptians' understanding of myths as "material", in which material conditions such as earth and water, moisture and heat, fruit and wine are not only associated with the gods, but are themselves viewed as deities. Salustius considers this view to be absurd, and he attributes it to a lack of education among the Egyptians. Mixed myths or myth interpretations contain elements from more than one of the other four types.

Salustios cites the story of the judgment of Paris as an example of a mixed myth . Paris awards the golden apple intended for “the most beautiful” to the goddess Aphrodite and thus decides against her rivals Hera and Athene . According to Salustius' interpretation, the apple stands for the cosmos, the figure of Paris for the soul that chooses between different kinds of goods; you can choose from erotic beauty (Aphrodite), power (Hera) and wisdom (Athene). The three goddesses amicably bestow their different gifts on the universe; only apparently, from the point of view of incomprehensible people, do they quarrel over the apple. Paris, as the soul that does not recognize the value of the various gifts, but is only interested in the sensual, is only able to perceive (physical) beauty. Therefore he gives priority to Aphrodite and the erotic promise. His error lies in the one-sidedness with which he disregards the other gifts. At the sensory level, there seems to be an opposition between beauty, wisdom and power and with it the need for choice. On the level of spiritual ( intelligible ) reality, however, there is harmony between the three goddesses and their gifts complement one another.

In line with his understanding of myths, Salustios states that the universe can also be understood as a myth, because, like myths, it is composed of an external, sensually perceptible and a hidden, intelligible reality.

Salustios' disdain for the mythical tradition and cult practice of the Egyptians is striking. It contrasts with the view of Julian, who valued the Egyptian religion , and with the syncretistic tendency of the pagan religiosity of late antiquity, usually open to oriental influences.

Soul teaching

In the question, which is disputed among the Neo-Platonists, whether rational souls also go through animal incarnations in the course of the transmigration of souls, Salustios takes a mediating position. He assumes that this is the case, but thinks that the rational soul then does not enter the animal body, but only directs it from outside.

Salustios argues that since the cosmos is finite, it cannot contain anything infinite. Hence the multitude of souls that reside in him is finite. Since souls neither arise nor perish (otherwise they would be imperfect), their number must be constant. The constant emergence of new ensouled bodies can only be explained by the transmigration of souls. Salustios explains congenital physical defects as a consequence of the behavior of the soul in earlier incarnations.

reception

Jean-Luc Desnier referred to contornians (medallions) of a bearded man with the Latin inscription Salustius autor , which apparently does not show the famous historian Sallust , but a late antique writer who can probably only be Salustios. They were minted in the late 4th or early 5th century and belong to the contemporaries, valued by the educated elite at the time, on which famous personalities from Greek and Roman cultural history are depicted. The coinage was probably initiated in the milieu of traditional pagan senators.

Only three manuscripts of the treatise On the Gods and the World have survived; the oldest is from the late 13th century, the other two are only copies made in the second half of the 16th century. The first edition appeared in Rome in 1638. The editor was Gabriel Naudé ; the Greek scholar Leone Allacci (Latin Leo Allatius) added a Latin translation and Lukas Holste a comment. At that time the work received its title, which is still used today. Naudé thought the author was a stoic .

Editions and translations

• Riccardo Di Giuseppe (Ed.): Salustio: Sugli dèi e il mondo . Adelphi, Milano 2000, ISBN 88-459-1519-0 (uncritical edition with Italian translation).
• Gilbert Murray : Five Stages of Greek Religion . 2nd edition, Columbia University Press, New York 1925; Reprint: Greenwood Press, Westport (Connecticut) 1976, ISBN 0-8371-9080-0 , pp. 239-267 (English translation; online ).
• Arthur Darby Nock (Ed.): Sallustius: Concerning the Gods and the Universe . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1926 (critical edition with English translation and commentary).
• Gabriel Rochefort (ed.): Saloustios: Des dieux et du monde . 2nd edition, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1983, ISBN 2-251-00304-5 (critical edition with French translation).

literature

• Jean Bouffartigue: Saloustios. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 91–95
• Emma C. Clarke: Communication, Human and Divine: Saloustious Reconsidered . In: Phronesis , Vol. 43, 1998, pp. 326-350
• Jan Opsomer, Bettina Bohle, Christoph Horn : Iamblichos and his school. In: Christoph Riedweg et al. (Ed.): Philosophy of the Imperial Era and Late Antiquity (= Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 5/2). Schwabe, Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7965-3699-1 , pp. 1349–1395, 1434–1452, here: 1383–1389, 1450 f.

Remarks

1. ↑ For the identity of the writer with Salutius stand up inter alia: Klaus Rosen : Julian. Kaiser, Gott und Christenhasser , Stuttgart 2006, p. 269 f .; Glen Bowersock : Julian the Apostate , London 1978, p. 125; Giancarlo Rinaldi: Sull'identificazione dell'autore del Περὶ θεῶν καὶ κόσμου . In: ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΑ 2, 1978, pp. 117-152; Gabriel Rochefort (ed.): Saloustios: Des dieux et du monde , 2nd edition, Paris 1983, pp. XII-XXIII; Emma C. Clarke: Communication, Human and Divine: Saloustious Reconsidered . In: Phronesis 43, 1998, pp. 326-350, here: 347-350. For Flavius ​​Sallustius among others Robert Étienne advocates: Flavius ​​Sallustius et Secundus Salutius . In: Revue des études anciennes 65, 1963, pp. 104–113.
2. ↑ This is what Gabriel Rochefort (ed.) Think, among others: Saloustios: Des dieux et du monde , 2nd edition, Paris 1983, pp. XXIV f. (Spring 362); Klaus Rosen: Julian. Kaiser, Gott und Christenhasser , Stuttgart 2006, p. 270; Giancarlo Rinaldi: Sull'identificazione dell'autore del Περὶ θεῶν καὶ κόσμου . In: ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΑ 2, 1978, pp. 117–152, here: 126, 152; Enrique Angel Ramos Jurado: La teoría política de Salustio, prefecto de Juliano . In: Habis 18-19, 1987/88, pp. 93-100, here: 94, 100; Polymnia Athanassiadi-Fowden : Julian and Hellenism , Oxford 1981, p. 154.
3. ↑ Riccardo Di Giuseppe (ed.) Is one of the proponents of this late dating : Salustio: Sugli dèi e il mondo , Milano 2000, p. 53 f.
4. ^ Karl Praechter: Sallustius 37. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE). Volume IA, 2, Stuttgart 1920, Sp. 1960-1967, here: 1965 f.
5. ↑ Giancarlo Rinaldi: Sull'identificazione dell'autore del Περὶ θεῶν καὶ κόσμου . In: ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΑ 2, 1978, pp. 117–152, here: 146–150; Arthur Darby Nock (Ed.): Sallustius: Concerning the Gods and the Universe , Cambridge 1926, pp. XCVI – CI.
6. ↑ Salustios, On the Gods and the World 6: 2-4.
7. ↑ On the system of gods of Salustios see Heinrich Dörrie , Matthias Baltes et al: Der Platonismus in der Antike , Volume 7.1, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2008, pp. 172–175 and 528–533.
8. ↑ Salustios, On the Gods and the World 14.
9. ↑ Salustios, On the Gods and the World 18: 3.
10. ↑ Salustios, On the Gods and the World 12.
11. ↑ Jacques Puiggali: La demonologie de l'empereur Julien étudiée en elle-même et dans ses rapports avec celle de Saloustios . In: Les Études classiques 50, 1982, pp. 293–314, here: p. 309 and note 119; Emma C. Clarke: Communication, Human and Divine: Saloustious Reconsidered . In: Phronesis 43, 1998, pp. 326-350, here: 336-338.
12. ↑ Polymnia Athanassiadi-Fowden: Julian and Hellenism , Oxford 1981, p. 158 f.
13. ^ Salustios, On the Gods and the World 5.
14. ^ Jean Daniélou: The wedding of Thetis and Peleus in Hellenistic allegorism . In: Antaios 3, 1962, pp. 244-257, here: 246 f., 255 f.
15. ↑ Salustios, On the Gods and the World 3.3.
16. ↑ Polymnia Athanassiadi-Fowden: Julian and Hellenism , Oxford 1981, p. 159.
17. ↑ Salustios, On the Gods and the World 20: 1.
18. ↑ Salustios, About the Gods and the World 20.3.
19. ↑ Salustios, On the Gods and the World 20: 2.
20. ↑ Jean-Luc Desnier: Salutius - Salustius . In: Revue des Études Anciennes 85, 1983, pp. 53-65 (with illustrations p. 65). For dating cf. Peter Franz Mittag : old heads in new hands. Author and function of the Kontorniaten , Bonn 1999, p. 115, 125 f., Illustration: plate 4. Mittag believes that the historian Sallust is depicted.