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THEMISTIUS (317--?387)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 758 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEMISTIUS (317--?387) , named euOwli (" eloquent "), statesman, rhetorician and philosopher, was See also:born in See also:Paphlagonia and taught at See also:Constantinople, where, apart from a See also:short sojourn in See also:Rome, he resided during the See also:rest of his See also:life. Though a See also:pagan, he was admitted to the See also:senate by See also:Constantius in 355. He was See also:prefect of Constantinople in 384 on the nomination of See also:Theodosius. His paraphrases of See also:Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, Physics and De Anima are valuable; but the orations in which he panegyrizes successive emperors, comparing them to See also:Plato's " true philosopher," and even to the " See also:idea " itself, are servile and unworthy. Against this, however, should be set the description given by See also:Boetius, " disertissimus scriptor ac lucidus, et omnia ad facilitalem intelligentiae revocans," and that of See also:Gregory Nazianzen—with whom Themistius corresponded—(3ao-tMw Xt ymv. Themistius's paraphrases of the De Coelo and of See also:book A of the See also:Metaphysics have reached us only through See also:Hebrew versions. In See also:philosophy Themistius was an eclectic. He held that Plato and Aristotle were in substantial agreement, that See also:God has made men See also:free to adopt the mode of See also:worship they prefer, and that See also:Christianity and See also:Hellenism were merely two forms of the one universal See also:religion. The first edition of Themistius's See also:works (See also:Venice, 1534) included the paraphrases and eight of the orations. Nineteen orations were known to Petavius, whose See also:editions appeared in 1613 and 1618; See also:Hardouin (See also:Paris, 1684) gives See also:thirty-three. Another oration was discovered by Angelo See also:Mai, and published at See also:Milan in 1816. The most See also:recent editions are W.

See also:

Dindorf's of the orations (See also:Leipzig, 1832), and L. Spengel's of the paraphrases (Leipzig, 1866). The Latin See also:translations of the Hebrew versions of the paraphrases of the De See also:Coda and book A of the Metaphysics were published at Venice in 1574 and 1558 respectively. A new edition of the latter by S. Landauer appeared in 1903. See See also:Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, vi. 790 seq.; E. See also:Zeller, See also:History of See also:Greek Phil.; E. Baret, De Themist, sophista (Paris, 1853) ; Jourdain's Recherches critiques sur l'dge et l'origine See also:des traductions latines d'Aristote (Paris, 1819); see NEOr1.ATOxIsm1. For Themistius's Commentaries on Aristotle, see Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca (See also:Berlin), and also Themistii paraphrases Aristotelis librorum quae supersunt, ed. L. Spengel (1866, Teubner See also:series, mentioned above).

End of Article: THEMISTIUS (317--?387)

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