(nolo episcopari by declaring that he
would not put away his wife, that he disbelieved the resurrection of the body, and that in
other respects his studies and opinions and pursuits were of a nature not quite consistent
with the notions of the strictly orthodox. Theophilus, however, overruled these objections :
Synesius was permitted to retain his wife; and he very soon made a public profession of his
belief in the resurrection of the body. He presided over his diocese with energy and success
for about twenty years. Among his most remarkable acts were the conversion to Christianity of
the philosopher Evagrius, and the humiliation of Andronicus, the tyrannical president of
Libya, whom he brought, by the combined effect of the terrors of excommunication, and a
complaint to the emperor, to supplicate the pardon of the church. The time of his death is not
stated; but he cannot have lived beyond
Synesius' writings have been objects of admiration both to ancient and modern scholars, and have obtained for him the surname of Philosopher. Those of them still extant are the following :--
the oration already referred to.
Dio, sive de suo ipsius Instituto, a work in which he professes his
intention, after the example of Dio Chrysostom, to devote his life to true philosophy. It
appears to have been written about
Encomium calvitii, a sort of exercise of wit, in which he defends the
conditions of baldness in opposition to the Chil. 11.725.) The
work of Chrysostom is now lost.
Aegyptius sive de Providentia, in two books, in which he gives an
allegorical description of the evils of the time, under the guise of the fable of Osiris and
Typhon.
De Insmniis, on Dreams, a work which Cave and others have supposed,
from internal evidence, to have been written before he became a Christian.
a collection of 156 (not 155) Letters, which form by far the most interesting portion of his extant works.
a short discourse on Psalm 75.8.
another short disconrse on the Eve of the Nativity of Christ.
an oration in praise of Aysius, the prefect of Libya.
de dono Astrolabii ad Pueonium dissertatio.
ten Hymns; which appear to have been only a small portion of his poetical compositions.
The Greek Anthology contains three epigrams ascribed to him, two of which consist each of
a single hexameter verse (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 449; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii. p. 555, vol. xiii. p. 956), and he himself refers
to tragedies and comedies of his own composition. (Dion, p. 62c.;
Welcker, die Griech. Tragöd. p. 1323.)
Editio Princeps of his whole works is that of Turnebus,
Paris, 1553, fol.
There are also numerous editions of the separate works, and of collections of several of
them. (Tillemont, Mém. Eccles. vol. xii. pp. 499, foll. ; Cave,
Hist. Litt. s. a. 410, vol. i. pp. 389, 390, ed. Basil.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 190, foll. ; Hoffmann, Lex. Bibl.
Script. Graec.)
A few other writers of this name, none of whom deserve special notice, are mentioned by
Fabricius (l.c. p. 204).
In the Greek Anthology, besides the epigrams of the celebrated Synesius, there is one, on
a statue of Hippocrates, ascribed to a certain Synesius Scholasticus, who appears to have
flourished shortly before the destruction of Berytus by an earthquake in Anal. Graec. vol. iii. p. 11; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii. p. 232, vol. xiii. p. 956.)