Themi'stius(Θεμίστιος).
1. The distinguished philosopher and rhetorician, surnamed Euphrades on account of his
eloquence, was a Paphlagonian, the son of Eugenius, who was also a distinguished philosopher,
and who is more than once mentioned in the orations of Themistius. He flourished, first at
Constantinople and afterwards at Rome, in the reigns of Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valens,
Gratian, and Theodosius; and he enjoyed the favour of all those emperors, notwithstanding
their diversities of character and opinion, and notwithstanding the fact that he himself was
not a Christian. Themistius was instructed by his father in philosophy, and devoted himself
chiefly to Aristotle, though he also studied the systems of Pythagoras and Plato. While still
a youth he wrote commentaries on Aristotle, which were made public without his consent, and
obtained for him a high reputation. He passed his youth in Asia Minor and Syria. He first met
with Constantius when the emperor visited Aneyra in Galatia in the eleventh year of his reign,
B. C. 347, on which occasion Themistius delivered the first of his
extant orations, περὶ φιλανθρωπίας. It was not long
after that he fixed his residence at Constantinople, where he taught philosophy for twenty
years. In A. D. 355 he was made a senator; amid the letter is still
extant, in which Constantius recommends him to the senate, and speaks in the highest terms
both of Themistius himself and of his father. We also possess the oration of thanks which
Themistius addressed to the senate of Constantinople early in A.D. 356, in reply to the
emperor's letter (Orat. ii.). In A. D. 357 he
recited in the senate of Constantinople two orations in honour of Constantius, which were
intended to have been delivered before the emperor himself, who was then at Rome (Orat. iii. iv.). As the reward of his panegyrics, Constantius conferred upon
him the honour of a bronze statue ; and, in A. D. 361, he was
appointed to the praetorian dignity by a decree still extant, in which he is mentioned in the
following terms, Themistius, cujus auget scientia dignitatem (Cod.
Theodos. vi. tit. 4. s. 12; comp. Orat. xxxi., in which Themistius says, ἀρκεῖ μοι Κωνστάντιος, ὁ κόσμον
τῆς ἑαυτοῦ βασιλείας τὴν ἐμὴν φιλοσοφίαν εἰπὼν πολλάκις, and in which he
also recites the compliments paid to him by Julian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius).
Constantius died in A. D. 361 ; but Themistius, as a philosopher and
a heathen, naturally retained the favour of Julian, who spoke of him as the worthy senator of
the whole world, and as the first philosopher of his age. (Themist. Orat.
xxxi.) Suidas (s. v.) states that Julian made Themistius prefect of
Constantinople; but this is disproved by the speech delivered by Themistius, when he was
really appointed to that office under Theodosius. (See below ) The error of Suidas simply arises from his placing together, with his usual carelessness, two distinct
facts in the life of Themistius. Shortly before the death of Julian, A.D. 363, Themistius
delivered an oration in honour of him, which is no longer extant, but which is referred to at
some length by Libanius, in a letter to Themistius (Ep. 1061). In A.D.
364 he went, as one of the deputies from the senate, to meet Jovian at Dadastana, on the
confines of Galatia and Bithynia, and to confer the consulate upon him; and on this occasion
he delivered an oration, which he afterwards repeated at Constantinople, in which he claims
full liberty of conscience both for the Christians and the heathen. (Orat. v.; Socrat. H. E. 3.26.) In the same year he delivered an
oration at Constantinople, in honour of the accession of Valentinian and Valens, in the
presence of the latter. His next oration is addressed to Valens, congratulating him on his
victory over Procopius in June 366, and interceding for some of the rebels ; it was delivered
in A. D. 367. (Orat. vii.) Ill the next year he
accompanied Valens to the Danube in the second campaign of the Gothic war, and delivered
before the emperor, at Marcianopolis, a congratulatory oration upon his
Quinquennalia, A. D. 368. (
Oral. viii.) His next orations are
to the young Valentinian upon his consulship,
A. D. 369 (
Orat. ix.), and to the senate of Constantinople, in the presence of Valens,
in honour of the peace granted to the Goths,
B. C. 370 (
Orat. x.). On March 28,
A. D. 373, he addressed to
Valens, who was then in Syria, a congratulatory address upon the emperor's entrance on the
tenth year of his reign (
Orat. xi.). It was also while Valens was in
Syria, that Themistius addressed to him an oration by which he persuaded him to cease from his
persecution of the Catholic party. (Socrat.
H. E. 4.32; Sozom.
H. E. 6.36.) It is thought by the best critics that this oration is lost,
and that the extant oration to Valens on behalf of religious liberty (
Orat. xii.) was delivered at some other time, probably soon after the emperor's
accession. (Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 797.) In addition to these
numerous orations, which prove that the orator was in high favour with the emperor, we have
the testimony of Themistius himself to his influence with Valens. (
Orat.
xxxi. where the words,
ἡττηθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν λόγων
πολλάκις, seem to refer to such examples of the orator's power as that mentioned
just above.)
In A. D. 377 we find him at Rome, whither he appears to have gone
on an embassy to Gratian, to whom he there delivered his oration entitled
Ἐρωτικός (
Orat. xiii.). On the association
of Theodosius in the empire by Gratian, at Sirmium, in
A. D. 379,
Themistius delivered an elegant oration, congratulating the new emperor on his elevation (
Orat. xiv.). Of his remaining orations some are public and some private; but
few of them demand special notice as connected with the events of his life. In
A. D. 384, about the first of September, he was made prefect of
Constantinople (
Orat. xvii.), an office which had been offered to him,
but declined, several times before (
Orat. 34.13). He only held the
prefecture a few months, as we learn from an oration delivered after he had laid down the
office (
Oral. xxxiv.), in which he mentions, as he had done even six
years earlier (
Orat. xiv.), and more than once in the interval (
Or. xv. xvi.), his old age and ill-health. From the 34th oration we also
learn that he had previously held the offices of
princeps senatus and
pracfectus annonae, besides his embassy to Rome; in another oration he mentions ten
embassies on which he had been sent before his prefecture (
Orat. xvii.);
and in another, composed probably about
A. D. 387, he says that he
has been engaged for nearly forty years in public business and in embassies (
Orat. xxi.). So great was the confidence reposed in him by Theodosius, that, though
Themistius was a heathen, the emperor, when departing for the West to oppose Maximus,
entrusted his son Arcadius to the tutorship of the philosopher,
A. D.
387-
388. (Socrat.
H. E. 4.32; Sozom.
H. E. 6.36; Niceph.
H. E. 11.46.) We have no
particulars of the history of Themistius after this time; and it may therefore be inferred
that his life did not extend much, if at all, beyond
A. D. 390.
Besides the emperors, to whom so many references have been made, he numbered among his friends
the chief orators and philosophers of the age, Christian as well as heathen. Not only
Libanius, but Gregory of Nazianzus also was his friend and correspondent, and the latter, in
an epistle still extant, calls him the " king of arguments" (
βασιλέα λόγων, Greg. Naz.
Epist. 140).
Works
Orations
The orations (πολιτικοὶ λόγοι) of Themistius, extant
in the time of Photius, were thirty-six in number (Phot. Bibl. Cod.
74), of which thirty-three have come down to us in the original Greek, and one in a Latin
version. The other two were supposed to be lost, until one of them was discovered by
Cardinal Maio, in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, in 1816.
Phiosophical Works
His philosophical works must have been very voluminous; for Photius (l.c.) tells us that he wrote commentaries (ὑπομνήματα) on all the books of Aristotle, besides useful abstracts (μεταφράσεις) of the Analytics, the books on the Soul, and the
Physics, and that there were exegetical labours of his on Plato; " and, in a word, he is a
lover and eager student of philosophy" (ἐραστής ἐστι καὶ
σπουδαστὴς φιλοσοφίας). Suidas mentions his Paraphrase of the Physics of
Aristotle, in eight books; of the Analyties, in two books; of the Apodeicties, in two books;
of the treatise on the Soul, in seven books; and of the Categories in one book. Of these, we
have the Paraphrases of the Second Analyties, of the Physics, of the treatise on the Soul,
and of the works on Memory and Recollection, on Sleeping and Waking, on Dreams, and on
Divination in Sleep. Besides these, which are in the original Greek, we have two other
commentaries in Latin, translated from Hebrew versions of the originals, namely, that on the
work on Heaven, translated by Moses Alatinus, and that on the twelve books of the
Metaphysics, translated by Moses Finzius.
Epigram ascribed to Themistius
The Greek Anthology contains one epigram ascribed to Themistius, on the subject, according
to the superscription in the Aldine edition, of his own appointment to the prefecture of the
city by Julian. It would seem, however, that there is a mistake respecting both the author
and the subject of this epigram. In the Palatine MS. it is ascribed to Palladius, and it is
quite in his style. The subject is explained by Maio.
Further Information
Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 404; Jacobs, Anth.
Graec. vol. iii. p. 112, vol. x. p. 191, vol, xiii. p. 957; Maio, ad
Orat. xxxiv. p. 458, p. 471, ed. Dindorf.
Editions
Philosophical Works
Latin Editions
The earliest editions of Themistius contained only the philosophical works, in the
Latin version of Hermolaus Barbarus, which was first published at Venice, 1481, fol., and
reprinted, Venet. 1502, fol., 1520, fol., 1527, fol., Paris, 1528-1529, fol., Basil. 1530.
fol., 1533, 4to., Venet. 1554, fol., 1559, fol., 1570, fol. : the last is the most
complete of the old editions.
The two commentaries which only exist in Latin were published at Venice in 1574 and
1576 respectively, both in folio.
Greek Editions
Of the Greek text the Editio Princeps is that of Aldus, 1534, fol., containing the
Paraphrases and eight Orations, together with the treatises of Alexander Aphrodisiensis on
the Soul and on Fate.
Editions of the
OrationsThere has been no subsequent edition of the whole works, or of the Paraphrases; but the
Orations have been since published, by H. Stephanus, whose edition
contains thirteen of them, Paris, 1562, 8vo.; by G. Remus, who reprinted,
with a Lation version, only the six orations which Stephanus had published for the first
time, and a seventh in Latin only, Amberg, 1605, 4to.; by
Petavius, who printed sixteen, in Greek and Latin, fifteen of which had been
hitherto ascribed to Synesius, besides a seventeenth, which is only extant in Latin, but
of which Petavius gives also a Greek version by himself, Paris, 1613, 8vo.; by
P. Pantinus, who printed a few orations not before edited, 1614, 8vo.; by
Petavius again, who inserted in this second edition all the orations which had as
yet appeared, to the number of nineteen, in Greek and Latin, several of the Latin versions
being new, with fuller notes than in his first edition, Paris, 1618, 4to.; and by
Harduin, who first published the whole thirty-three orations, with the versions and
notes of Petavius and his own, Paris, 1684, fol.
Besides these thirty-three orations, another, hitherto unknown, against certain persons
who had attacked Themistius for accepting the prefecture of the city, was discovered at
Milan by Cardinal Mai, as mentioned above, and published by him, in Greek and Latin,
in 1816, 8vo., together with a newly-discovered fragment of the second oration, and two
supplements to the nineteenth and twenty-third.
Dindorf also founded upon the Milan MS. a new edition, first of two of the orations,
Lips. 1830, 8vo., and afterwards of them all, Lips. 1832, 8vo.
Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 790, foll. ; Clinton, Fasti Romani, under the several dates given in this article; Hoffmann, Lexicon Biliograph. Script. Graec. s. v.