Salustios from Emesa

Salustios from Emesa ( Greek  Σαλούστιος ; * probably around 430 ) was a late antique philosopher .

His father Basileides was Syrian, his mother Theoklea came from Emesa . Salustios studied law and received training in rhetoric from the sophist Eunoios. He chose a life as a sophist, went to Athens and from there - accompanied by the neo-Platonist Isidorus - to Alexandria, where he attended the rhetoric schools. Later, between the ages of 30 and 40, he traveled to Marcellinus , the ruler of Dalmatia .

Salustius had contacts with Neo-Platonists, but turned to cynicism and practiced an asceticism that was quite ancient for the 5th century . Among other things, he is said to have had an ability to predict the violent death of people he met.

Salustios claimed that philosophy is not only difficult for humans, but quite impossible. He successfully dissuaded young people from philosophy, including Athenodorus from the circle of Proclus , and quarreled with Proclus himself. His writings are not known.

literature

• Marco di Branco: Saloustios. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 96-100
• Elżbieta Szabat: Salustios. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , p. 324