Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Sophistry in the High Roman Empire: Maximus of Tyre and Twelve Other Intellectuals

339 Pages·2015·1.51 MB·English

by  Jeroen Lauwers

Philosophy,Rhetoric,andSophistryintheHighRomanEmpire
Mnemosyne
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monographs on greek and
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volume385
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/mns
Philosophy, Rhetoric, and
Sophistry in the High Roman
Empire
MaximusofTyreandTwelveOtherIntellectuals
By
JeroenLauwers
leiden | boston
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Lauwers,Jeroen.
Philosophy,rhetoric,andsophistryinthehighRomanEmpire:MaximusofTyreandtwelveother
intellectuals/byJeroenLauwers.
pagescm.–(Mnemosynesupplements:monographsonGreekandLatinlanguageandliterature,ISSN
0169-8958;VOLUME385)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-90-04-30152-8(hardback:alk.paper)–ISBN978-90-04-30153-5(e-book)
1.Maximus,ofTyre,active2ndcentury.2.Philosophy,Ancient.3.Sophists(Greekphilosophy)4.Rhetoric,
Ancient.I.Title.
B588.Z7L382015
184–dc23
2015022563
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isbn978-90-04-30153-5(e-book)
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
ScholarlyReception 3
FromtheCollectivetotheIndividual 6
FromMacroleveltoMicrolevel 11
WhyMaximus? 12
1 Philosophy,Rhetoric,andSophistryintheRomanEmpire 15
1 TheTraditionalConflict:AShortOverview 16
2 Greco-RomanImperialCulture 20
3 AFunctionalistApproach 38
4 IndividualAuthors 40
2 ThedialexeisofMaximusofTyre 125
1 ReadingMaximus’dialexeis 125
2 CommunicationandPedagogy 136
3 Sophistry 166
4 Rhetoric 175
5 Philosophy 201
6 PurposeandMeaning 235
7 AnalysisofIndividualdialexeis 269
Conclusion 290
Bibliography 295
IndexLocorum 321
IndexofPersonsandConcepts 328

Acknowledgements
Overthepastfewyears,anumberofpeopleandinstitutionshavehelpedme
completethismonograph.Firstofall,mygeneroussupervisorandcolleague
LucVanderStocktdeservesaninfinitenumberofthanksforhiscontinuous
encouragements and for his critical eye, which studied several previous ver-
sionsofthismanuscript.WarmregardsalsogoouttomycosupervisorMichael
Trapp,whosegreatgenerosityandknowledgeaboutMaximusandhisculture
have proven invaluable for the eventual argument in this book. I have also
greatly benefited from the feedback of Geert Roskam, Jan Opsomer, Ortwin
deGraef,andThomasSchmitz,whosecriticalyetencouragingreadingshave
greatly increased the quality of this contribution. The same can be said of
Mnemosyne’sanonymousreviewer,whopointedoutseveralareasforimprove-
ment.NeedlesstosaythatIstilltakefullresponsibilityforanyremainingover-
sightsorerrorsinthismanuscript.
Otherpeoplewhohavedefinitelyhelpedmeagreatdealinthewritingpro-
cess, maybe even without them knowing, include Judith Mossman, Katerina
Oikonomopoulou, Michiel Meeusen, Bram Demulder, Thomas Schampaert,
Tom Deneire, Dries De Crom, Martin Korenjak, Chiara Thumiger, Tim Whit-
marsh,Heinz-GüntherNesselrath,MiriamLeonard,MaartenDePourcq,Ewen
Bowie,andLuciaAthanassaki.SpecialthanksgoouttoChristopherRansom,
who went through the entire manuscript in order to correct all unidiomatic
andfaultyexpressions.
Many friends and colleagues, both from the department of classics at the
UniversityofLeuvenandfromthedepartmentofliterarystudies,haveeachin
theirownwaycontributedtotheprojectthatresultedinthismonograph.Their
variousinitiativesandeffortshavegreatlybeenappreciated.
Theresearchthatproducedthisvolumewouldnothavebeenpossiblewith-
outthesupportoftheResearchFoundation—Flanders(fwo)andtheUniver-
sityofLeuven.TheformerinstitutionalsosupportedascholarlystayatKing’s
CollegeLondon,whichwashighlydesirableifnotnecessaryforthedevelop-
mentoftheargumentofthisbook.Thefinalstagesofthewritingprocesstook
placeattheinspiringlibraryoftheFreieUniversitätBerlin,forwhichIthank
Almut-BarbaraRengerandtheJuniorMobilityAllowanceoftheUniversityof
Leuven.
Last but not least, I wish to thank my parents, my brother Freek, my wife
Ann,andmysonMagnus,towhomIdedicatethisbook.

Introduction
IsMaximusofTyre,theImperialGreekauthorof41orationsaboutphilosoph-
icaltopics,toberegardedasaphilosopher,arhetor,orasophist?Thisisthe
primaryquestionregardingwhichtheauthorofthisstudyundertookhisdoc-
toral project, of which this book is the final result. It is, all in all, a straight-
forwardquestion,buttheanswerprovestobealotmorecomplicated,asthe
mainscholarlyjudgementsabouttheTyriansofartendtobemoreindicative
ofthesescholars’owninterpretativeassumptionsthanofthedynamicintellec-
tualbackgroundofImperialliteratureandphilosophy.Bymeansofadetailed
studyofMaximus’dialexeisandimportantconcurrentvoices,thisbookpro-
poses to resolve this scholarly problem in a fashion that is more historically
accurate.
For our answers, Maximus’ life and career are sources of information upon
which we can hardly rely. Unlike many rhetoricians and philosophers from
theperiodoftheso-called‘SecondSophistic’,MaximusofTyre,thehistorical
authorofthedialexeis,isalmostentirelyunknowntous.Moreover,asaresult
oftheuncertaintyabouttheadequatenessofoursources,mostelementsofthe
littleinformationthatwedopossesscanbedoubtedaswell.Consequently,the
statusofMaximus’ownautobiographicalaccounts,whicharealreadynotvery
numeroustobeginwith,isoftenhardtoverify.
A first problem arises when we confront the data of our two most impor-
tantsources,viz.theChronicleofEusebiusofCaesareaandtheSuda.1Accord-
ing to the former, Maximus of Tyre ‘came to prominence’ around the 232nd
Olympiad,whichcorrespondstotheperiodof149to153ad.Thiswouldimply
thatMaximus’floruitwas,oratleaststarted,duringthereignofAntoninusPius
(138–161).However,scholarlyresearchhasevidencedthatEusebius’accountis
probablyfallacious.2TheSuda,ontheotherhand,whichtookitsinformation
from the Onomatologos of Hesychius, situates Maximus a couple of decades
1 Suda,s.v.Μάξιμος,Τύριος.
2 Eusebius’sourcesdonotgiveanyimpressionofbeinghistoricallyaccurate.Jerome’sversion
pairsMaximuswithArrian,whocomesmuchearlier.SyncellusconfusesMaximusTyrius
with the proconsul of Africa Claudius Maximus, who functioned as a judge in the trial
ofApuleius’Apology.TheArmeniantranslationmakesbothmistakestogether,suggesting
moreoverthatMaximus(togetherwithArrian)wasateacherofMarcusAurelius.Wecan
stronglydoubt,therefore,whetherEusebius’accountitselfwasunambiguouslycorrect.See
Trapp(1997a),xiin.4.
© koninklijkebrillnv,leiden,2015 | doi:10.1163/9789004301535_002