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PRUSSA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Dion Chrysostomus, that is, Dion the golden-mouthed, a surname which he owed to
his great talents as an orator. He bore also the surname Cocceianu (Plin. Epist
x. 85, 86), which he derived from the emperor Cocceius Nerva, with whom he was
connected by intimate friendship. (Orat. xlv.) Dion Chrysostomus was born at Prusa
in Bithynia, about the middle of the first century of our era, and belonged to
a distinguished equestrian family. Reimarus has rendered it very probable that
a daughter of his was the mother of Dion Cassius, the historian. His father, Pasicrates,
seems to have bestowed great care on his son Dion's education and the early training
of his mind; but he appears to have acquired part of his knowledge in travels,
for we know that he visited Egypt at an early period of his life. At first he
occupied himself in his native place, where he held important offices, with the
composition of speeches and other rhetorico-sophistical essays, but on perceiving
the futility of such pursuits he abandoned them, and devoted himself with great
zeal to the study of philosophy : he did not, however, confine give himself up
to any profound speculations, his object being rather to apply the doctrines of
philosophy to the purposes of practical life, and more especially to the administration
of public affairs, and thus to bring about a better state of things. The Stoic
and Platonic philosophies, however, appear to have had the greatest charms for
hilm. Notwithstanding these useful and peaceful pursuits, he was looked upon in
his native place with suspicion and hostility (Orat. xlvi.), which induced him
to go to Rome Here he drew upon himself the hatred of Domitian, who had so great
an aversion to philosophers, that by a senatus-consultum all were expelled from
Rome and Italy, and Dion found himself obliged to quit Rome in secret. (Orat.
xlvi., xiii.) On the advice of the Delphic oracle, it is said, he put on the attire
of a beggar, and with nothing in his pocket but a copy of Plato's Phaedon and
Demosthenes's oration on the Embassy, he undertook a journey to the countries
in the north and east of the Roman empire. He thus visited Thrace, Mysia, Scythia,
and the country of the Getae, and owing to the power and wisdom of his orations,
he met everywhere with a kindly reception, and did much good. (Orat. xxxvi.; comp.
xiii.) In A. D. 96, when Domitian was murdered, Dion used his influence with the
army stationed on the frontier in favour of his friend Nerva, and seems to have
returned to Rome immediately after his accession. (Orat. xlv.) Nerva's successor,
Trajan, entertained the highest esteem for Dion, and shewed hint the most marked
favour, for he is said to have often visited hill, and even to have allowed him
to ride by his side in his golden triumphal car. Having thus received the most
ample satisfaction for the unjust treatment he had experienced before, he returned
to Prusa about A. D. 100. But the petty spirit he found prevailing there, which
was jealous of his merits and distinctions, and attributed his good actions to
impure motives (Orat. l.), soon disgusted him with his fellow-citizens, and he
again went to Rome. Trajan continued to treat him with the greatest distinction:
his kindly disposition gained him many eminent friends, such as Apollonius of
Tyana and Euphrates of Tyre, and his oratory the admiration of all. In this manner
he spent his last years, and died at Rome about A. D. 117.
Dion Chrysostomus is one of the most eminent among the Greek rhetoricians
and sophists. This is the opinion not only of the ancients who have written about
him, such as Philostratus, Synesius, and Photius, but it is also confirmed by
the eighty orations of his which are still extant, and which were the only ones
known in the time of Photius, who, however, enumerates them in a somewhat different
order from that in which they now stand. These orations are for the most part
the productions of his later years, and there are very few, if any, among them
that can with certainty be at tributed to the early period of his life. They are
more like essays on political, moral, and philosophical subjects than real orations,
of which they have only the form. We find among them lopsoi peri basileias or
logoi basilikoi, four orations addressed to Trajan on the virtues of a sovereign
; Diogenes se peri turannidos, on the troubles to which men expose themselves
by deserting the path of nature, and on the difficulties which a sovereign has
to encounter; essavs on slavery and freedom; on the means of attaining eminence
as an orator; further, political discourses addressed to various towns which he
sometimes praises and sometimes blames, but always with great moderation and wisdom;
on subjects of ethics and practical philosophy, which he treats in a popular and
attractive manner; and lastly, orations on mythical subjects and show-speeches.
Besides these eighty orations we have fragments of fifteen others. Suidas, in
enumerating the works of Dion Cassius, mentions one on the Getae, which Casaubon
was inclined to attribute to Dion Chrysostomus, on account of a passage in Philostratus
( Vit. Soph. i. 7), who says, " how fit Dion (Chrysostomus) was for writing
history, is evident from his Getica." There are extant also five letters
under the name of Dion, and addressed to one Rufus. They are published in Boissonade's
Ad Marini Vit. Procl., and some critics are inclined to consider them as productions
of Dion Chrysostolmus. All the extant orations of Dion are distinguished for their
refined and elegant style; the author most successflly imitated the classic writers
of Greece, such as Plato, Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Aeschines. His ardent study
of those models, combined with his own eminent talents, his firm and pleasing
voice, and his skill in extempore speaking, raised him at once above all contemporary
rhetoricians. His style is throughout clear, and, generally speaking, free from
artificial embellishment, though he is not always able to escape from the influence
of the Asiatic school of rhetoric. His sentences are often interrupted by the
insertion of parenthetical clauses, and his prooemia are frequently too long in
proportion to the other parts of his discourses. " Dion Chrysostomus,"
says Niebuhr (Lecturses. on Rom. Hist. ii., ed. Schmitz), " was an author
of nncommon talent, and it is much to be regretted that he belonged to the rhetoricians
of that unfortunate age. It makes one sad to see him waste his brilliant oratorical
powers on insignificant subjects. Some of his works are written in an excellent
and beautiful language, which is pure Attic Greek and without affectation : it
is clear that he had made the classical language of Athens his own, and he handled
it as a master. He appears in all he wrote as a man of an amiable character, and
free from the vanity of the ordinary rhetoricians, though one perceives the silent
consciousness of his powers. He was an unaffected Platonic philosopher, and lived
world, and which made him forget Rome, its emperor, and everything else. All this
forms a very charming feature in his character. Whenever he touches upon the actual
state of things in which he lived, he shews his master-mind. He was the first
writer after Tiberius that greatly contributed towards the revival of Greek literature."
(Comp. Philostratus. Vit. Soph. i. 7; Photius, Bibl. Cod. 209; Synnesius, Dion
e peri tes kat' diagoges; Suid. s. v. Dion; Westermann, Gesch. d. Griech. Beredis
and Beilage x.; Emperius, de Exilio Dionis Chrisostomi, Braunschweig, 1840, 8vo.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Himerius, (Himerios). A Greek sophist, born at Prusa in Bithynia, about A.D. 315, and educated at Athens, where, after extending his knowledge by travelling, he became a teacher of rhetoric. As such, he was so successful that he received the rights of citizenship and became a member of the Areopagus. Among his pupils were Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus; for, although himself a pagan, nevertheless, like Libanius, he exhibited no animosity against Christians. He was summoned to Antioch by Julian , and appointed his private secretary. On the emperor's death (363), he returned to his earlier occupation at Athens, and there died, after becoming blind in his old age, about 386. Of his speeches and declamations twenty-four exist in a complete form, ten in fragments, and thirty-six in the summaries and excerpts preserved by Photius. His style is ornate, turgid, and overladen with erudition. He owes his special importance solely to the fact that his speeches contain material for the history of the events and of the manners of his time. The complete works of Himerius have been edited by Wernsdorf (Gottingen, 1790) and Dubner (1849).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Himerius, (Himerios). A celebrated Greek sophist of Prusa in Bithynia, where his
father Ameinias distinguished himself as a rhetorician. (Suid. s. n. Himerios.)
According to the most correct calculation, the life of Himerius belongs to the
period from A. D. 315 to 386. He appears to have received his first education
and instruction in rhetoric in his father's house, and he then went to Athens,
which was still the principal seat of intellectual culture, to complete his studies.
It is not improbable that he there was a pupil of Proaeresius, whose rival he
afterwards became. (Eunap. Proaeres. p. 110.) Afterwards he travelled, according
to the custom of the sophists of the time, in various parts of the East: he thus
visited Constantinople, Nicomedeia, Lacedaemon, Thessalonica, Philippi, and other
places, and in some of them he stayed for some time, and delivered his show speeches.
At length, however, he returned to Athens, and settled there. He now began his
career as a teacher of rhetoric, and at first gave only private instruction, but
soon after he was appointed professor of rhetoric, and received a salary. (Phot.
Bibl. Cod. 165. p. 109, ed. Bekk.) In this position he acquired a very extensive
reputation, and some of the most distinguished men of the time, such as Basilius
and Gregorius Nazianzenus, were among his pupils. The emperor Julian, who likewise
heard him, probably during his visit at Athens in A. D. 355 and 356 (Eunap. Himer.;
Liban. Orat. x. p. 267, ed. Morel.; Zosimus, Hist. Eccles. iii. 2), conceived
so great an admiration for Himerius, that soon after he invited him to his court
at Antioch, A. D. 362, and made him his secretary. (Tzetz. Chil. vi. 128.) Himerius
did not return to Athens till after the death of his rival, Proaeresius (A. D.
368), although the emperor Julian had fallen five years before, A. D. 363. He
there took his former position again, and distinguished himself both by his instruction
and his oratory. He lived to an advanced age, but the latter years were not free
from calamities, for he lost his only promising son, Rufinus, and was blind during
the last period of his life. According to Suidas, he died in a fit of epilepsy
(hiera nosos).
Himerius was a Pagan, and, like Libanius and other eminent men, remained
a Pagan, though we do not perceive in his writings any hatred or animosity against
the Christians; he speaks of them with mildness and moderation, and seems, on
the whole, to have been a man of an amiable disposition. He was the author of
a considerable number of works, a part of which only has come down to us. Photius
(Bibl. Cod. 165, comp. 243) knew seventy-one orations and discourses on different
subjects: but we now possess only twenty-four orations complete; of thirty-six
others we have only extracts in Photius, and of the remaining eleven we have only
fragments. In his oratory Himerius took Aristeides for his model. The extant orations
are declamations and show speeches, such as were customary at the time, and were
delivered either on certain occasions, as those on the marriage of Severus, and
on the death of his son Rufinus, or they were spoken merely by way of oratorical
exhibitions. Some of them relate to events of the time, and so far are of historical
interest. Their style is not above that of the ordinary rhetoricians of his period;
it is obscure and overladen with figurative and allegorical expressions; and although
it is clear that Himerius was not without talent as an orator, yet he is so much
under the influence of his age, that with a great want of taste he indulges in
bombastic phraseology, mixes up poetical and obsolete expressions with his prose,
and seldom neglects an opportunity of displaying his learning.
After the revival of letters, the productions of Himerius were very
much neglected, for a complete edition of all that is still extant of them was
never made till towards the end of last century. Five orations had been published
before; one by Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. ix. (, &c. old edition), another by
J. H. Majus (Giessen, 1719, 8vo.), and again three by the same Majus (Halle, 1720,
fol.), when G. Ch. Harles edited one oration (the seventh in the present order),
as a specimen and precursor of all the others, with a commentary by G. Wernsdorf,
Erlangen, 1784, 8vo. Wernsdorf now prepared a complete collection of all the extant
productions of Himerius, with commentary and introduction, which appeared at length
at Gottingen, 1790, 8vo., and is still the only complete edition of Himerius.
One fragment of some length, which has since been discovered, is contained in
Boissonade's Anecdot. Graec. vol. i.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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