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Priscus Of Epirus
Priscus of Epirus (; c. 305 – c. 395 AD), also known as Priscus the Thesprotian () and Priscus the Molossian (), was a Neoplatonist philosopher and theurgist, a colleague of Maximus of Ephesus, and a friend of the Emperor Julian. Priscus was a pupil of Aedesius in Pergamon, and later went to teach in Athens, where he taught Julian. When Julian was in Gaul, he wrote to Priscus in the hope of acquiring the writings of Iamblichus on the Chaldean Oracles. When Julian was proclaimed Caesar he summoned Priscus to Gaul, and he accompanied him to Constantinople when he became Augustus in 361. Priscus and Maximus travelled with Julian on campaign in Persia, and they were with him when he died in 363. Sometime after the death of Julian, Priscus was arrested but eventually freed, avoiding the fate of Maximus who was executed in 371. Priscus returned to Athens where he continued to teach for more than thirty years.M. V. Sakellariou, (1997), ''Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thesprotian
The Thesprotians () were an ancient Greek tribe, akin to the Molossians, inhabiting the kingdom of Thesprotis in Epirus. Together with the Molossians and the Chaonians, they formed the main tribes of the northwestern Greek group. On their northeastern frontier, they neighbored the Chaonians and on their northern frontier they neighbored the kingdom of the Molossians. The poet Homer frequently mentions Thesprotia in the ''Odyssey'', which had friendly relations with Ithaca and Doulichi. The Thesprotians originally controlled the Dodona oracle, the oldest religious shrine in Greece. Later, they were part of the Epirus until they were annexed into the Roman Empire. Geography Strabo puts the Thesprotians' territory, Thesprotis, on the coast of southwest Epirus. Thesprotis stretched between the Ambracian Gulf in the south to the River Thyamis (modern-day Kalamas) in the north, and between the Pindus mountains and the Ionian Sea. According to legend, the nation got its name from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaul
Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . According to Julius Caesar, who took control of the region on behalf of the Roman Republic, Gaul was divided into three parts: Gallia Celtica, Gallia Belgica, Belgica, and Gallia Aquitania, Aquitania. Archaeologically, the Gauls were bearers of the La Tène culture during the 5th to 1st centuries BC. This material culture was found throughout Gaul and as far east as modern-day southern Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. Warbands led by the Gaul Brennus (leader of the Senones), Brennos Battle of the Allia, sacked Rome in 387 BC, becoming the only time Rome was conquered by a foreign enemy in 800 years. However, Gallia Cisalpina was conquered by the Romans in 204 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
4th-century Greek Philosophers
The 4th century was the time period from 301 CE (represented by the Roman numerals CCCI) to 400 CE (CD) in accordance with the Julian calendar. In the West, the early part of the century was shaped by Constantine the Great, who became the first Roman emperor to adopt Christianity. Gaining sole reign of the empire, he is also noted for re-establishing a single imperial capital, choosing the site of ancient Byzantium in 330 (over the current capitals, which had effectively been changed by Diocletian's reforms to Milan in the West, and Nicomedeia in the East) to build the city soon called Nova Roma (New Rome); it was later renamed Constantinople in his honor. The last emperor to control both the eastern and western halves of the empire was Theodosius I. As the century progressed after his death, it became increasingly apparent that the empire had changed in many ways since the time of Augustus. The two-emperor system originally established by Diocletian in the previous century fel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eunapius
Eunapius (; c. 347 - c. 420) was a Greek sophist, rhetorician, and historian from Sardis in the region of Lydia in Asia Minor. His principal surviving work is the ''Lives of Philosophers and Sophists'' (; ), a collection of the biographies of 24 philosophers and sophists. Life He was born at Sardis, around the year 347 AD. While still a youth, he went to Athens, where he became a pupil of Prohaeresius the rhetorician. Back in his native city he studied under his relative, the sophist Chrysanthius. He as well possessed considerable knowledge of medicine. In his later years, he seems to have lived at Athens, teaching rhetoric. He was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries by the last Hierophant, Nestorius.Eunapius, ''Vit. Soph.'' 7.3.1; K. Clinton, ''Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries'' (1974) p. 42ff. There is evidence that he was still living in the reign of Theodosius II as he mentions an event that happened in 414 AD. The exact date of his death is unknown but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian (novel)
''Julian'' is a 1964 novel by Gore Vidal, a work of historical fiction dealing with the life of the Roman emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus (known to Christians as Julian the Apostate), who reigned briefly from 361 to 363 A.D. Synopsis The novel, told mostly in the first person, begins on March of AD 380, nearly 20 years after the death of Julian. A series of letters between Libanius and Priscus of Epirus, two confidantes of Julian, discuss their lives and in particular the recent events involving an imperial edict of Theodosius involving the Nicene Creed of Christianity. In his first letter to Priscus, Libanius proposes to write a biography of Julian. Eventually Priscus agrees to send a manuscript written by Julian himself to Libanius along with his own comments written in the margins. The book takes the form of the correspondence between two Hellenistic pagans, Libanius, who is considering writing a biography of Julian, and Priscus, who possesses Julian's personal memoir. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gore Vidal
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual norms he perceived as driving American life. Vidal was heavily involved in politics, and unsuccessfully sought office twice as a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the United States House of Representatives (for New York), and later in 1982 to the United States Senate (for California). A grandson of U.S. Senator Thomas Gore, Vidal was born into an upper-class political family. As a political commentator and essayist, Vidal's primary focus was the History of the United States, history and society of the United States, especially how a militaristic Foreign policy of the United States, foreign policy reduced the country to a American imperialism, decadent empire. His political and cultural essays w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian's Persian Expedition
Julian's Persian expedition began in March 363 AD and was the final military campaign of the Roman emperor Julian (emperor), Julian. The Romans fought against the Sasanian Empire, ruled at the time by Shapur II. Aiming to capture the Sasanians' winter capital of Ctesiphon, Julian assembled a large army. In order to mislead the opponent and to carry out a pincer attack, he sent a detachment to join with his ally Arshak II of Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity), Arsacid Armenia to take the Tigris route from the north. Meanwhile, his main army and a large fleet, facing little opposition, advanced rapidly down the Euphrates, destroying several well-fortified cities along the way. The ships then reached the walls of Ctesiphon, where a large Sasanian force had assembled in its defense. The Romans won a victory outside the city, but the northern army failed to arrive, and the fortified capital seemed impregnable. Due to these complications, Julian did not attempt to besiege the city, inste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empires between its consecration in 330 until 1930, when it was renamed to Istanbul. Initially as New Rome, Constantinople was founded in 324 during the reign of Constantine the Great on the site of the existing settlement of Byzantium, and shortly thereafter in 330 became the capital of the Roman Empire. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Constantinople remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire; 330–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). Following the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish capital then moved to Ankara. Although the city had been known as Istanbul since 1453, it was officially renamed as Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaldean Oracles
The ''Chaldean Oracles'' are a set of spiritual and philosophical texts widely used by Neoplatonist philosophers from the 3rd to the 6th century CE. While the original texts have been lost, they have survived in the form of fragments consisting mainly of quotes and commentary by Neoplatonist writers. They were likely to have originally formed a single mystery-poem, which may have been in part compiled, in part received via trance, by Julian the Chaldean, or more likely, his son, Julian the Theurgist in the 2nd century CE. Later Neoplatonists, such as Iamblichus and Proclus, rated them highly. The 4th-century emperor Julian (not to be confused with Julian the Chaldean or Julian the Theurgist) suggests in his ''Hymn to the Magna Mater'' that he was an initiate of the God of the Seven Rays, and was an adept of its teachings. When Christian Church Fathers or other Late Antiquity writers credit "the Chaldeans", they are probably referring to this tradition. The ''Chaldean Oracles'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iamblichus
Iamblichus ( ; ; ; ) was a Neoplatonist philosopher who determined a direction later taken by Neoplatonism. Iamblichus was also the biographer of the Greek mystic, philosopher, and mathematician Pythagoras. In addition to his philosophical contributions, his is important for the study of the sophists because it preserved about ten pages of an otherwise unknown sophist known as the Anonymus Iamblichi. Life According to the and Iamblichus' biographer, Eunapius, Iamblichus was born in Chalcis (later called Qinnašrīn) in Coele, now in northwest Syria. Iamblichus was descended from the Emesene dynasty. He initially studied under Anatolius of Laodicea and later studied under Porphyry, a pupil of Plotinus (the founder of Neoplatonism). Iamblichus disagreed with Porphyry about theurgy, reportedly responding to Porphyry's criticism of the practice in '' On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians''. He returned to Coele Syria around 304 to found a school i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian The Apostate
Julian (; ; 331 – 26 June 363) was the Caesar of the West from 355 to 360 and Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of Neoplatonic Hellenism in its place, caused him to be remembered as Julian the Apostate in the Christian tradition. A nephew of Constantine the Great, Julian was one of few in the imperial family to survive the purges and civil wars during the reign of Constantius II, his cousin. Julian became an orphan as a child after his father was executed in 337, and spent much of his life under Constantius's close supervision. However, the emperor allowed Julian freedom to pursue an education in the Greek-speaking east. In 355, Constantius II summoned Julian to court and appointed him to rule Roman Gaul, Gaul. Julian was successful in his rule, defeating and counterattacking Germanic peoples, Germanic raids across the Rhine and encouraging the provinces' return to prosperi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molossian
The Molossians () were a group of ancient Greek tribes which inhabited the region of Epirus in classical antiquity. Together with the Chaonians and the Thesprotians, they formed the main tribal groupings of the northwestern Greek group. On their northern frontier, they neighbored the Chaonians and on their southern frontier neighbored the kingdom of the Thesprotians. They formed their own state around 370 BC and were part of the League of Epirus. The most famous Molossian ruler was Pyrrhus of Epirus, considered one of the greatest generals of antiquity. The Molossians sided against Rome in the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC) and were defeated. Following the war, the region witnessed devastation while a considerable number of Molossians and other Epirotes were enslaved and transported to the Roman Republic, in the Italian Peninsula. Ancient sources According to Strabo, the Molossians, along with the Chaonians and Thesprotians, were the most famous among the fourteen t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
