Volkmann, Lebcn,
Schriflen
und Philosophic des P.
Windelband - History of Philosophy
but the Stoics, on the contrary, granted them an entrance that was all the freer.
With the Stoics, not only did metaphysics lead to seeking the principle of morals in a divine command, but in their
pneutna doctrine, the possibility presented itself of giving to the creations of myth a philosophical meaning, which might be shared also by all forms of worship. Finally, the spiritual monotheism in Aristotle's teaching, and that ideal tendency with which Plato sought the abiding essence of things in a higher world of the super- sensuous, were not forgotten.
Just this dualism, which opposed the earthly world of the perish able to a suj>ersensuous world of the divine, ultimately proved to be the right expression for that inner discord which ran through the entire life of the aging Greek and Roman world. The old craving for sensuous pleasure might still celebrate its orgies in full power and U> the intoxication of the senses ; but in the midst of it all, out of surfeit and loathing grew a new craving for a purer, higher joy : and in the presence of the tremendous contrasts which the social condition of the Roman Empire brought with the look of all the millions that saw themselves excluded from the good things of this earth turned longingly toward better world. Thus in all ways deep, passionate need for true salvation of the soul (owi/pia) came to be increasingly felt, hunger for something beyond the earthly,
religious urgency without an equal.
This religious movement proved its vigour first of all in the eager
reception which foreign forms of worship found in the Graeco- Koinaii world, in the mingling and fusing of Oriental and Occidental religions. But with the adjustment which their oppositions found here and there, their strife for the mastery over men's spirits be came still more energetic, and thus the soil of the ancient world of
civilisation, after bearing the fruits of art and science, became the battleground of religions. Man's essential interest became thereby transferred for long centuries from the earthly to the heavenly tpbere he began to seek his salvation beyond the world of sense.
But the forms in which this contest of the religions was waged prove in spite of all what spiritual and intellectual power Greek science had grown to be. For so strongly was the ancient world
a
;
a
a
a
a
it,
212 Hellenistic-Roman Thought.
[Part IL
"sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," so deeply had it be come permeated by the feeling of a need for knowledge, that each of the religions desired to satisfy not only the feelings but also the intellect, and was therefore anxious to transform its life into a doc trine. This is true even of Christianity, and indeed precisely true of it. The true, victorious power of the religion of Jesus lay, to be sure, in the fact that it entered this decrepit, blase" world with the youthful force of a pure, high, religious feeling, and a conviction that was courageous to the death ; but it was able to conquer the ancient civilised world only by taking it up into itself and working it over ; and as in its external conflict with the old world it shaped its own constitution ' and thereby ultimately became so strong as to be able to take possession of the Roman state, so also in its defence against the ancient philosophy it made the world of that philoso phy's ideas its own, in order thereby to build up its own dogmatic system.
Thus the needs of science and of life met. The former sought the solution of the problems at which it had been labouring in vain, in religion, and the latter desired a scientific formulation and basis for its religious longing or conviction. Hence from this time on, for many centuries, the history of philosophy is grown together with that of dogmatic theology,' and the period of religious metaphysics begins. The thought of antiquity described a peculiar curve, sepa rating itself farther and farther from religion from which it pro ceeded, reaching its extreme separation in Epicureanism, and then again steadily drawing near to religion, to return at last entirely within it.
Under these conditions it is possible to understand how that Weltanschauung which separated the supersensuous and the sensu
ous, — looking upon them, from the point of view of value, as divine perfection and earthly baseness, respectively, — constituted the common ground of the whole religious-philosophical movement. This view had already, indeed, been introduced by the Pythagoreans (cf. § 5, 7), and had been maintained even by Aristotle, but it had, without doubt, found its most forcible formulation in the Platonic metaphysics. It was, therefore, this latter system which formed the controlling ceutre for the religious closing development of ancient thought. A religious development of Platonism is the fundamental character of this period.
1 Cf. K. J. Neumann, Der rdmische Staat und die allgemeine Kirche bis auf Diocletian (Vol. I. Leips. 1890).
a It will be understood as a matter of course that the following exposition has left at one side all specifically dogmatic elements, except where they are quite inseparably interwoven with philosophical principles.
Cmaf. 2. ] The Religion* Period. 213
The geographical centre of the movement, however, is found in that city which, by its history, as well as by its population, repre sented most distinctly the mingling of peoples and of religions, — Alexandria. Here, where in the active work of the museum all treasures of Grecian culture were garnered, all religions and forms of worship crowded together in the great throngs of the commercial metropolis to seek a scientific clarification of the feelings that surged and stormed within them.
The first line of the Alexandrian philosophy is the so-called Neo- Pythagoreanism, a mode of thought which, proceeding from the religious practice of the Pythagorean mysteries, makes only an external use of the number-mysticism of the old Pythagoreans after whom it calls itself and its writings, while it finds the theoretical setting for its world-renouncing, religious-ascetic ethics in a trans formation of the Platonic metaphysics, which became of the pro- foundest value for the conception of the spiritual nature in the following period. Apollonius of Tyana, the founder of a religion, is to be regarded as typical representative of this school.
Not without influence from this school, the Stoa, also, in the time of the Empire, brought out more energetically the religious elements in its theory of the world, so that not only did the anthropological dualism of the system become sharpened, but a more theistic mode of thought gradually became substituted for the original pantheism of the school. In men like Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic doctrine became completely a philosophy of deliverance or redemption.
Even Cynicism revived again about this time in a religious garb, as a rude, popular preaching of renunciation, and Demonax passes for its best-known representative.
Scarcely to be separated from the Neo-Pythagoreans are the Edectie Platonists of the first centuries of our era, such as Plutarch of Chaeronea and Apuleiux of Madaura. Later appear Numenius of Apamea and Xicomachns of Gerasa, who, besides, already stand ■oder Jewish and Christian influences as witnesses of a complete fusion of the two tendencies.
But while, in all these forms, the Hellenic element ever maintains the ascendency over the Oriental, the latter makes its appearance in very much stronger force in the Jewish philosophy of religion. As the sect of the Essenes ' probably proceeded from a contact of Neo- Y\ thagoreanism with the Hebrew religious life, so the various attempts of learned Jews to draw nearer to Greek science in the
» Cf. E. Zeller V. « 277 ff.
214 Hellenistic- Roman Thought. [Part EL
presentation of their dogmas, led ultimately to the doctrine of Philo of Alexandria, whose original elaboration of these fermenting bodies of thought influenced their further formation and movement in the most important points.
The philosophy of Christianity, which for these first centuries is usually designated by the name Patristics, unfolded in an analogous manner upon a larger scale. This philosophical secularisation of the gospel begins with the Apologists, who sought to present its re ligious belief as the only true philosophy, with the purpose of pro tecting Christianity in the eyes of the cultured world from contempt and persecution, and therefore began to adapt this content of re ligious faith to the conceptional forms of Greek science : the most important of them are Justin and Minucius Felix.
But the need of changing faith (irurrts) into knowledge or wisdom (■yvuMTis) asserted itself vigorously in the Christian communities, even without this polemical tendency. The first attempts, how
ever, which the Gnostics made to create an adequate view of the world for the new religion, proceeded from the excited phantasies of a Syrian mingling of religions, and, in spite of the employment of Hellenistic philosophemes, led to such grotesque constructions, that the Church as it grew stronger and more definitive was obliged to reject them. Saturninus, Basileides, and Valentinus are to be named as the best known of this class.
In reaction against such over-hasty attempts of religious fantasti- calness, a violent aversion toward all philosophical interpretation and adjustment of Christian faith set in, for a time, in Christian literature in the writings of men like Tatian, TertuUian, and Arno- bius. An express anti-rationalism thus came forward which never theless found it necessary on its part also to return to the related doctrines of Greek philosophy. Without this one-sidedness and with a closer approximation to the older
Hellenising Apologists, Gnosticism was combated by Irenmus and his disciple Hippolytus.
It was not until the beginning of the third century, and after all these preceding attempts, that a positive Christian theology, a sys tem of dogmatics in a complete conceptional form, was established. This came about in the School for Catechists at Alexandria, through the leaders of the school, Clement and Origen. The latter especially is to be regarded as philosophically the most important representa tive of Christianity in this period.
By his side, however, there went out from the Alexandrian phil osophic school the man who undertook to bring the religion-forming tendency of philosophy to an issue solely upon the Hellenistic basis, —Plotinus, the greatest thinker of this period. His attempt to
Chak 2. ] The Religious Period. 215
systematise all the main doctrines of Greek and Hellenistic phil osophy under the religious principle is designated as Neo- Plntonism. His doctrine is the most definitive and thoroughly constructed sys tem of science that antiquity produced. His disciple Porphyry, however, showed himself already inclined to make a religion out of this religious teaching, and Jamblichus, who is termed the leader of Syrian Neo-Platonism, transformed it into a dogmatic theology of poly theism, with which the learned and political opponents of Christianity, such as the Emperor Julian, hoped to revive the forms of worship of the heathen religions, then in a state of dissolution. After this attempt had miscarried, the Athenian school of Neo-Platonism, as the heads of which Plutarch of Athens, Proclus, and Damascitis appear, returned finally to a methodical, scholastic development of the system of Plotinus.
Thus the Hellenistic efforts to attain to a new religion by means of science remained without result in this form : the scholars dis covered no church. On the other hand, the need felt by positive religion to complete and strengthen itself in a scientific doctrine did attain its goal : the Church created its dogma. And the great course of history in this movement was, that the defeated Hellenism in its powerful death-struggle still created the conceptions by means of which the new religion shaped itself into a dogma.
While the Pythagorean mysteries had maintained their existence through all antiquity, scientific Pythagoreanism vanished as a proper school after its incorporation into the Academy (cf. p. 31). It is not until during the first ct-ntury b. c. that specifically Pythagorean doctrines become noticeable again : they appear in the Pythagorean writings, of which Diogenes Laertius (VIII. 34 ■. ). following Alexander Polyhiator, gives an account that leads us to infer an essentially Stoic influence. They are renewed expressly by Cicero's learned friend, P. Nlgidius Figulus (died 45 n. c), and And approval also with other men in Home. Cf . M. Here, Dr P. Xig. Fig. Sludiit atque Ojitribus (Berlin, 1846).
But Ifeo-Pythagoreanlsm proper was first presented in literary form by the great number of writings which became public in Alexandria at about the beginning of our era, under the names of l*ythagoras, or Philolaus, or Archytas, at other older Pythagoreans, the fragments of which give rise to so great diffi culties in forming a conception of genuine Pythagoreanisni. Cf. the lit. p. 31.
<H the personalities of the new school, on the contrary, very little is known. The only distinct figure is Apollonina of Tyana, of whose life and nature the rhetorician Philostratus (ed. by C. L. Kayser, I^eips. 1870) gava a romantic representation at the beginning of the third century, in order to portray in it the ideal of the Pythagorean life. Of the works of Apollnniua himself, who liTtd in the first century a. d. , fragments of a biography of Pythagoras and of a treatise on Sacrifice are extant. Cf. Chr. Baur, Apolloniua unit ChriMut in Drti Abhandl. zur Ge»ch. d. alt. l'hilo$. (helps. 1876). [Treiiwell, Life of AfiUluniut of Tyana, contains a good bibliography, N. Y. 188)1. ] ilia con temporary, Biodaratna of Gades, might perhaps also be mentioned.
Neo- Pythagorean and Stoic doctrines appear mingled in the Eclectic Botlon of Alexandria, who was affiliated with the Sextains (cf. p. 103). His disciple, L Annaeua Bsnaca of Cordova (4-66 ad. ), was the leader of the Stoics in tht time of the Empire. He was instructor of Nero, was well known because of sis tragic fate, and also as tragic poet unfolded the rigid conceptions of life held
216 Hellenutic-Roman Thought. [Part II.
by bis school. Of his writings a considerable number of mainly ethical trea tises are preserved besides his EpistoUe (ed. by Haase, 3 vols. , Leips. 1862-3) [Eng. tr. (or rather paraphrase) by T. Lodge. Loud. 16U, Selections from this and from L'Estrange's Sentca't Moral* by Way of Abstract. Load. 1888, Came- lot series]. Cf. Chr. Baur, S. und Paulas in the Drri Abhandl. ; see above.
Besides him we mention L. Annxus Cornutus ^Phurnuius), a chief repre sentative of the Stoic interpretation of myths (Ilcpt r^t rir Mr ^iV«n, ed. by Osann, Gottingen, 1844), the satiric poetPenrae, the moralist C. Muaonina Rufus, and especially Eplctetua. who lived at the time of Douiitian. and whose doctrines were published by Arrian in two works, Aurpt/iai and ' Eyx'f*^1" ve<l- together with the commentary of Simplicios by J. Scbweighausrr. Leips. 1799 f. ) [tr. by G. Long, Bonn's library ; also by T. W. Higginson, Boston, I860]. Cf. A. Bonhoffer E. und die Stoa (Stuttgart, 1890).
With the noble Marcos Aurelius Antoninus the Stoa mounted the Roman imperial throne (161-180). His reflections t& tit alrrtr (ed. by J. Stich, Leips. 1882) are the characteristic monument of this eclectic-religious Stoicism. [Eng. tr. by G. Long. The Thoughts of the Emperor, M. Aurelius Antoninus, Lond. Bohn's lib. ; \V. Pater, Marias the Epicurean, Lond. and H. Y. 1888 ; M. Arnold in Essays. ]
In the ancient Grecian period, an original figure, that of the monkish wan dering preacher Teles, had gone out from the Cynic school (cf. v. Wilamovitz- Mullendorf, Philol. Unters, IV. 292 ff. ). In the time of the Empire this quaint creature was frequently copied and exaggerated even to the most ridiculous extent. Demetrius, Oinomaos of Gadara, Demonax (cf. Fritsche, Leips. I860), and Peregrinus Proteus, known through Lucian. belong to these figures. Cf. J. Bernays, Lukian und die Kyniker (Berlin, 1879).
Of the representatives of religious Platonism who kept at a distance from the number theory, may be mentioned the eclectic commentators Eudorua and Arius Didymua. Thrasyllus. the editor of the works of Plato and Democritus, and especially Plutarch of Chaeronea (about 100 a. i>. ), from whom, in addition to his famous biographies, a great number of other writings are preserved, especially philosophical treatises of dogmatic and polemical content (Moralia, ed. Dtibner ; Paris, Didot, Vols. III. and IV. 1855) (cf. R.
Volkmann, Lebcn, Schriflen und Philosophic des P. , Berlin, 1872). [Plutarch's Morals, trans, ed. by Goodwin, 5 vols. , Boston, 1870 ; also tr. by Shilleto and by C. W. King, both in Bohn's lib. , Lond. 1888 and 1882 resp. ] We mention further **•»■*! tthi« of Tyre of the time of the Antonines ; his contemporary, Apuleius of Madaura, who belongs in this series not only on account of bis philosophical writings (ed. by A. Goldbacher, Vienna, 1876), but also on account of his allegorico-satincal romance, "The Golden Ass" (cf. Hildebrand in the introduction to his col lected works, Leips. 1842) [The Works of Apuleius, Bohn's lib. ] ; the oppo nent of Christianity, Celaus, whose treatise dXr^t XA70* (about 180) is known only from the counter- treatise of Origen, na-rd KA<roi> (cf. Th. Keim, C. " voahres
Wort," ZQrich, 1873); and lastly the physician Claudius Galen, who died about 200, and might, to be sure, with his broad eclecticism be likewise classed as a Peri patetic and also as a Stoic (cf. K. Sprengel, Beitrage zur (reach, d. Medicin, I. 117 ff. ). From the same circle of ideas arose also the writings circulated under the name of Hermes Trismegistus, which belong to the third century (French tr. by L. Menard, Paris, 1866 ; partially published by G. Parthey, Berlin, 1864).
Among the Platonists of the second century Nicomacbus of Gerasa in Ara bia, of whose writings arithmetical text-books and (through Photius) an extract from a work ' Apitf/irjTucd Btokoyoiiuro. are extant, and Numenius of Apamea, concerning whom we owe our instruction mainly to Eusebius, are strongly Neo- Pythagorean. Cf. F. Thedinga (Bonn, 1875).
The entrance of Greek philosophy into Jewish theology may be traced back to the middle of the second century b. c, where it can be recognised in the Biblical explanation of Aristobuloa ; it appears then in a particularly marked manner, and in a form that is already much nearer the Alexandrian sphere of thought, in the pseudo-Solomonic Book of Wisdom. Yet these are but weak forerunners of the important creation of Philo of Alexandria, of whose life little more is known than that in the year 39, when already in advanced age, he was a member of an embassy from his native community to the Emperor Calig
Chap. •-». ]
The Religion* Period. 217
ola. His numerous writings, among which there is also much that is not genuine, were edited by Th. Mangey (Lond. 1742), Leips. stereotype ed. , 8 vols. , 1861-53 ; [Eng. tr. by C. D. Yonge, 4 vols. , Lond. , Bohn's lib. ].
F. Dihne, Die jiidisch-alexandrinische Beligionsphilosophie (Halle, 1834).
A. Gfrorer, Philon und die alexandrinische Theosophie (Stuttgart, 1835); M. Wolff, Die philonischt Philosophic (Gothenburg, 1858); Ewald, Gesch. de$
Volkes Israel, VI. 231 ff.
Among the Christian Apologists whose writings are collected in the Corpus
Apoioyetarum Christianorvm secundi sceculi, ed. by Otto (Jena, 1842 ff. ), the most prominent is Flavius Justin Martyr of Sichem, who lived in the middle of the second century. Two defensive writings and a dialogue with Trypho the Jew axe preserved [Eng. tr. in Ante-Nicene Ch. lib. , ed. by Roberts and Donald son. Edinburg, T. 4 T. Clark, 1867 —]. K. Semisch (2 vols. , Breslau, 1840-42), and B. Aube (Paris, 18(31) treat of him. Further Apologists from the Hellenic circle of culture are Aristldes (whose discourses, discovered in the Armenian language, were printed with a Latin translation, Venice, 1878), Athenagoras of Athens (rpta-ptla s-tpl Xpia-Ttar&e addressed to Marcus Aurelius about 176), Theophilus of Ant inch (a treatise addressed to Autolycus about 180), Melito of . Sard is, Apollinaris of Hierapolis, and others. — Latin literature presents especially Minucius Felix, whose dialogue Oft an' us was written about 200 >d. in the Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, by C. Halm, Vienna, 1W7). The rhetorician, Firmianus Lactantius (about 300), is to be placed in the same series. His main treatise is the Institution's Divinoe [tr. of the above authors in Ante-Nicene lib. , see above].
Of the Gnostics our information comes essentially through their opponents, Iren»us (140-200 ; his treatise "EXryxot «al irarpowii ttjs yf>tvSuriiu>v yriiatut, ed. by A. Stieren, Leips. 1863), Hippolytus (Kurd racwr alpioiur f\ryx°*- *'''■ by I>uncker and Schneidewin, Gottingen, 1869), Tertullian (Adversus Valenti- nianos), etc. [Eng. tr. of the above writings in Ante-Nicene lib. , above]. Of Gnostic treatises only one, and that by an unknown author, is extant, VUara npU (ed. by Petermann, Berlin, 1861). Of the main representatives of this doctrine there were active in the first half of the second century Saturninus of Antioch, Basilides, a Syrian, and Carpocrates in Alexandria ; toward the ■riddle of the century VaJentinus. the most important of them (died about let)); and toward the end of the century Bardeaanea of Mesopotamia. — Expo sitions of the Onostif Systems by A. W. Neander (Berlin, 1818) [Eng. tr. by Tnrrey, Boston, 1866], E. Matter (Paris, 1843), Chr. Baur (Tubingen, 1836), A- Hilgenfeld (Jena, 1884), same author, Bardesancs, der letzte Gnostiker <Leips. 1864). — A. Harnack, Zur QucUenkritik der Geschichte des Gnosticismus (Leips. 1873); [H. L. Mansel, Gnostic Heresies, Lond. 1876].
The most radical opponent of Greek science was TaUan, an Assyrian, whose treatise npkt "EXXijrot arose about 170, but who later became himself an adherent of the Valentinian Gnosticism. The passionate Apologist Qu. Sep- timius Florens Tertullian (195-220, for a time Presbyter in Carthage) ended likewise in opposition to the Catholic Church, in the sect of the Montanists. Hi« works have been edited by Fr. Oehler (3 vols. , Leips. 1853 f. ), recently by A ReifJt-rscheid and Wlssowa (Vol. I. Vienna, 1890, in Corp. script, eccl. tat. ) [Eng tr. in Ante-Ntcene lib. ]. Cf. A. W. Neander, Antignostifus, Geist des
Tertullian, etc. (2d ed. Berlin, 1849) [Eng. tr. Bohn's lib. , 1851J; A. Hauck, 7V» Lef>en und Schriften, Erlangen, 1877). — In the same series, but from a later lime, is the African rhetorician Arnobius, whose seven books, Adversus
G'ntes. were composed about 300 (ed. by A. KeifTerscheid in Corp. script, ecel. 1st. . Vienna, 1876).
<*1 the writings of Clement of Alexandria (died about 217) three treatises are preserved, A470I wporprrTiitit vpii *EXXqra{ — IIai6a>u>>4« — £rpw/iarcit (ed. by J. Potter, Oxford, 1716) [tr. in Ante-Nicene lib. ]. From his school (cf. on the Alex. Catechetical school, Guericke, Halle, 1824 f , and Hasselbaoh, SteUin, 1636) went forth the founder nf Christian theology, Origan, surnamed the Ada- •matine. Born 18ft a. d. in Alexandria, equipped with the full education of the time, he came forward early as a teacher, fell into conflicts on account of his doctrines with the Synod, was by it removed from his nffice, and later lived in Cawarea and Tyre, dying in the latter place 2. 14. of his writings, aside from the above-mentioned treatise against Celsus, his work lUpl ipx&' is of chief importance ; It is extant almost only in the Latin version of Kufinus (ed. by
218 Hellenistic-Roman Thought : Religious Period. [Part II
Uedepenning, Leips. 1836) [tr. in Ante-Nicene lib. ]. Cf. J. Reinkens, De Clemente Presbytero Al. (Breslau, 1851); Redepenning, 0. , Darstellung seines Lebens und seiner Lehre (Bonn, 1841-46) [cf. Bigg, The Christian Platonitts
of Alexandria, Oxford, 1887 ; A. Harnack, Art. Origen in Ene. Brit. l.
A collection of the sources for all the Church writers of this period has been
issued by J. P. Migne, Patrologia; Cursus Computus (Paris, 1840 ff. ).
A certain Ammonius Saccus appears in old traditions as the founder of Neo-Flatonism, but nothing is known to justify this tradition. To his pupils belonged Plotinus, Origen, the rhetorician Iionginua (213-273), to whom the book llepl \nj/ovt was ascribed, and another Origen.
The true founder of the school was Plotinus (204-269). Born in Lycopolis in Egypt, and educated in Alexandria, he became a member of an expedition against the Persians in order to promote his religious studies, made a highly successful appearance as teacher in Rome about 244, and died on a country estate in Campania. His works, written late in life, were published by his disciple Porphyry, arranged in six enneads. Ed. by H. Mliller (Leips. 1878-80), with a German translation [Eng. tr. in part by Th. Taylor, Lond. 1787, 1704, 1817, French tr. by Bouillet, Paris, 1857-60]. Cf. H. Kirchner, Die Philos. des PI. (Halle, 1864). — A. Richter, Neuplatonische Studien (Halle, 1864 ff. ). — H. v. Kleist, Neuplat.
pneutna doctrine, the possibility presented itself of giving to the creations of myth a philosophical meaning, which might be shared also by all forms of worship. Finally, the spiritual monotheism in Aristotle's teaching, and that ideal tendency with which Plato sought the abiding essence of things in a higher world of the super- sensuous, were not forgotten.
Just this dualism, which opposed the earthly world of the perish able to a suj>ersensuous world of the divine, ultimately proved to be the right expression for that inner discord which ran through the entire life of the aging Greek and Roman world. The old craving for sensuous pleasure might still celebrate its orgies in full power and U> the intoxication of the senses ; but in the midst of it all, out of surfeit and loathing grew a new craving for a purer, higher joy : and in the presence of the tremendous contrasts which the social condition of the Roman Empire brought with the look of all the millions that saw themselves excluded from the good things of this earth turned longingly toward better world. Thus in all ways deep, passionate need for true salvation of the soul (owi/pia) came to be increasingly felt, hunger for something beyond the earthly,
religious urgency without an equal.
This religious movement proved its vigour first of all in the eager
reception which foreign forms of worship found in the Graeco- Koinaii world, in the mingling and fusing of Oriental and Occidental religions. But with the adjustment which their oppositions found here and there, their strife for the mastery over men's spirits be came still more energetic, and thus the soil of the ancient world of
civilisation, after bearing the fruits of art and science, became the battleground of religions. Man's essential interest became thereby transferred for long centuries from the earthly to the heavenly tpbere he began to seek his salvation beyond the world of sense.
But the forms in which this contest of the religions was waged prove in spite of all what spiritual and intellectual power Greek science had grown to be. For so strongly was the ancient world
a
;
a
a
a
a
it,
212 Hellenistic-Roman Thought.
[Part IL
"sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," so deeply had it be come permeated by the feeling of a need for knowledge, that each of the religions desired to satisfy not only the feelings but also the intellect, and was therefore anxious to transform its life into a doc trine. This is true even of Christianity, and indeed precisely true of it. The true, victorious power of the religion of Jesus lay, to be sure, in the fact that it entered this decrepit, blase" world with the youthful force of a pure, high, religious feeling, and a conviction that was courageous to the death ; but it was able to conquer the ancient civilised world only by taking it up into itself and working it over ; and as in its external conflict with the old world it shaped its own constitution ' and thereby ultimately became so strong as to be able to take possession of the Roman state, so also in its defence against the ancient philosophy it made the world of that philoso phy's ideas its own, in order thereby to build up its own dogmatic system.
Thus the needs of science and of life met. The former sought the solution of the problems at which it had been labouring in vain, in religion, and the latter desired a scientific formulation and basis for its religious longing or conviction. Hence from this time on, for many centuries, the history of philosophy is grown together with that of dogmatic theology,' and the period of religious metaphysics begins. The thought of antiquity described a peculiar curve, sepa rating itself farther and farther from religion from which it pro ceeded, reaching its extreme separation in Epicureanism, and then again steadily drawing near to religion, to return at last entirely within it.
Under these conditions it is possible to understand how that Weltanschauung which separated the supersensuous and the sensu
ous, — looking upon them, from the point of view of value, as divine perfection and earthly baseness, respectively, — constituted the common ground of the whole religious-philosophical movement. This view had already, indeed, been introduced by the Pythagoreans (cf. § 5, 7), and had been maintained even by Aristotle, but it had, without doubt, found its most forcible formulation in the Platonic metaphysics. It was, therefore, this latter system which formed the controlling ceutre for the religious closing development of ancient thought. A religious development of Platonism is the fundamental character of this period.
1 Cf. K. J. Neumann, Der rdmische Staat und die allgemeine Kirche bis auf Diocletian (Vol. I. Leips. 1890).
a It will be understood as a matter of course that the following exposition has left at one side all specifically dogmatic elements, except where they are quite inseparably interwoven with philosophical principles.
Cmaf. 2. ] The Religion* Period. 213
The geographical centre of the movement, however, is found in that city which, by its history, as well as by its population, repre sented most distinctly the mingling of peoples and of religions, — Alexandria. Here, where in the active work of the museum all treasures of Grecian culture were garnered, all religions and forms of worship crowded together in the great throngs of the commercial metropolis to seek a scientific clarification of the feelings that surged and stormed within them.
The first line of the Alexandrian philosophy is the so-called Neo- Pythagoreanism, a mode of thought which, proceeding from the religious practice of the Pythagorean mysteries, makes only an external use of the number-mysticism of the old Pythagoreans after whom it calls itself and its writings, while it finds the theoretical setting for its world-renouncing, religious-ascetic ethics in a trans formation of the Platonic metaphysics, which became of the pro- foundest value for the conception of the spiritual nature in the following period. Apollonius of Tyana, the founder of a religion, is to be regarded as typical representative of this school.
Not without influence from this school, the Stoa, also, in the time of the Empire, brought out more energetically the religious elements in its theory of the world, so that not only did the anthropological dualism of the system become sharpened, but a more theistic mode of thought gradually became substituted for the original pantheism of the school. In men like Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic doctrine became completely a philosophy of deliverance or redemption.
Even Cynicism revived again about this time in a religious garb, as a rude, popular preaching of renunciation, and Demonax passes for its best-known representative.
Scarcely to be separated from the Neo-Pythagoreans are the Edectie Platonists of the first centuries of our era, such as Plutarch of Chaeronea and Apuleiux of Madaura. Later appear Numenius of Apamea and Xicomachns of Gerasa, who, besides, already stand ■oder Jewish and Christian influences as witnesses of a complete fusion of the two tendencies.
But while, in all these forms, the Hellenic element ever maintains the ascendency over the Oriental, the latter makes its appearance in very much stronger force in the Jewish philosophy of religion. As the sect of the Essenes ' probably proceeded from a contact of Neo- Y\ thagoreanism with the Hebrew religious life, so the various attempts of learned Jews to draw nearer to Greek science in the
» Cf. E. Zeller V. « 277 ff.
214 Hellenistic- Roman Thought. [Part EL
presentation of their dogmas, led ultimately to the doctrine of Philo of Alexandria, whose original elaboration of these fermenting bodies of thought influenced their further formation and movement in the most important points.
The philosophy of Christianity, which for these first centuries is usually designated by the name Patristics, unfolded in an analogous manner upon a larger scale. This philosophical secularisation of the gospel begins with the Apologists, who sought to present its re ligious belief as the only true philosophy, with the purpose of pro tecting Christianity in the eyes of the cultured world from contempt and persecution, and therefore began to adapt this content of re ligious faith to the conceptional forms of Greek science : the most important of them are Justin and Minucius Felix.
But the need of changing faith (irurrts) into knowledge or wisdom (■yvuMTis) asserted itself vigorously in the Christian communities, even without this polemical tendency. The first attempts, how
ever, which the Gnostics made to create an adequate view of the world for the new religion, proceeded from the excited phantasies of a Syrian mingling of religions, and, in spite of the employment of Hellenistic philosophemes, led to such grotesque constructions, that the Church as it grew stronger and more definitive was obliged to reject them. Saturninus, Basileides, and Valentinus are to be named as the best known of this class.
In reaction against such over-hasty attempts of religious fantasti- calness, a violent aversion toward all philosophical interpretation and adjustment of Christian faith set in, for a time, in Christian literature in the writings of men like Tatian, TertuUian, and Arno- bius. An express anti-rationalism thus came forward which never theless found it necessary on its part also to return to the related doctrines of Greek philosophy. Without this one-sidedness and with a closer approximation to the older
Hellenising Apologists, Gnosticism was combated by Irenmus and his disciple Hippolytus.
It was not until the beginning of the third century, and after all these preceding attempts, that a positive Christian theology, a sys tem of dogmatics in a complete conceptional form, was established. This came about in the School for Catechists at Alexandria, through the leaders of the school, Clement and Origen. The latter especially is to be regarded as philosophically the most important representa tive of Christianity in this period.
By his side, however, there went out from the Alexandrian phil osophic school the man who undertook to bring the religion-forming tendency of philosophy to an issue solely upon the Hellenistic basis, —Plotinus, the greatest thinker of this period. His attempt to
Chak 2. ] The Religious Period. 215
systematise all the main doctrines of Greek and Hellenistic phil osophy under the religious principle is designated as Neo- Plntonism. His doctrine is the most definitive and thoroughly constructed sys tem of science that antiquity produced. His disciple Porphyry, however, showed himself already inclined to make a religion out of this religious teaching, and Jamblichus, who is termed the leader of Syrian Neo-Platonism, transformed it into a dogmatic theology of poly theism, with which the learned and political opponents of Christianity, such as the Emperor Julian, hoped to revive the forms of worship of the heathen religions, then in a state of dissolution. After this attempt had miscarried, the Athenian school of Neo-Platonism, as the heads of which Plutarch of Athens, Proclus, and Damascitis appear, returned finally to a methodical, scholastic development of the system of Plotinus.
Thus the Hellenistic efforts to attain to a new religion by means of science remained without result in this form : the scholars dis covered no church. On the other hand, the need felt by positive religion to complete and strengthen itself in a scientific doctrine did attain its goal : the Church created its dogma. And the great course of history in this movement was, that the defeated Hellenism in its powerful death-struggle still created the conceptions by means of which the new religion shaped itself into a dogma.
While the Pythagorean mysteries had maintained their existence through all antiquity, scientific Pythagoreanism vanished as a proper school after its incorporation into the Academy (cf. p. 31). It is not until during the first ct-ntury b. c. that specifically Pythagorean doctrines become noticeable again : they appear in the Pythagorean writings, of which Diogenes Laertius (VIII. 34 ■. ). following Alexander Polyhiator, gives an account that leads us to infer an essentially Stoic influence. They are renewed expressly by Cicero's learned friend, P. Nlgidius Figulus (died 45 n. c), and And approval also with other men in Home. Cf . M. Here, Dr P. Xig. Fig. Sludiit atque Ojitribus (Berlin, 1846).
But Ifeo-Pythagoreanlsm proper was first presented in literary form by the great number of writings which became public in Alexandria at about the beginning of our era, under the names of l*ythagoras, or Philolaus, or Archytas, at other older Pythagoreans, the fragments of which give rise to so great diffi culties in forming a conception of genuine Pythagoreanisni. Cf. the lit. p. 31.
<H the personalities of the new school, on the contrary, very little is known. The only distinct figure is Apollonina of Tyana, of whose life and nature the rhetorician Philostratus (ed. by C. L. Kayser, I^eips. 1870) gava a romantic representation at the beginning of the third century, in order to portray in it the ideal of the Pythagorean life. Of the works of Apollnniua himself, who liTtd in the first century a. d. , fragments of a biography of Pythagoras and of a treatise on Sacrifice are extant. Cf. Chr. Baur, Apolloniua unit ChriMut in Drti Abhandl. zur Ge»ch. d. alt. l'hilo$. (helps. 1876). [Treiiwell, Life of AfiUluniut of Tyana, contains a good bibliography, N. Y. 188)1. ] ilia con temporary, Biodaratna of Gades, might perhaps also be mentioned.
Neo- Pythagorean and Stoic doctrines appear mingled in the Eclectic Botlon of Alexandria, who was affiliated with the Sextains (cf. p. 103). His disciple, L Annaeua Bsnaca of Cordova (4-66 ad. ), was the leader of the Stoics in tht time of the Empire. He was instructor of Nero, was well known because of sis tragic fate, and also as tragic poet unfolded the rigid conceptions of life held
216 Hellenutic-Roman Thought. [Part II.
by bis school. Of his writings a considerable number of mainly ethical trea tises are preserved besides his EpistoUe (ed. by Haase, 3 vols. , Leips. 1862-3) [Eng. tr. (or rather paraphrase) by T. Lodge. Loud. 16U, Selections from this and from L'Estrange's Sentca't Moral* by Way of Abstract. Load. 1888, Came- lot series]. Cf. Chr. Baur, S. und Paulas in the Drri Abhandl. ; see above.
Besides him we mention L. Annxus Cornutus ^Phurnuius), a chief repre sentative of the Stoic interpretation of myths (Ilcpt r^t rir Mr ^iV«n, ed. by Osann, Gottingen, 1844), the satiric poetPenrae, the moralist C. Muaonina Rufus, and especially Eplctetua. who lived at the time of Douiitian. and whose doctrines were published by Arrian in two works, Aurpt/iai and ' Eyx'f*^1" ve<l- together with the commentary of Simplicios by J. Scbweighausrr. Leips. 1799 f. ) [tr. by G. Long, Bonn's library ; also by T. W. Higginson, Boston, I860]. Cf. A. Bonhoffer E. und die Stoa (Stuttgart, 1890).
With the noble Marcos Aurelius Antoninus the Stoa mounted the Roman imperial throne (161-180). His reflections t& tit alrrtr (ed. by J. Stich, Leips. 1882) are the characteristic monument of this eclectic-religious Stoicism. [Eng. tr. by G. Long. The Thoughts of the Emperor, M. Aurelius Antoninus, Lond. Bohn's lib. ; \V. Pater, Marias the Epicurean, Lond. and H. Y. 1888 ; M. Arnold in Essays. ]
In the ancient Grecian period, an original figure, that of the monkish wan dering preacher Teles, had gone out from the Cynic school (cf. v. Wilamovitz- Mullendorf, Philol. Unters, IV. 292 ff. ). In the time of the Empire this quaint creature was frequently copied and exaggerated even to the most ridiculous extent. Demetrius, Oinomaos of Gadara, Demonax (cf. Fritsche, Leips. I860), and Peregrinus Proteus, known through Lucian. belong to these figures. Cf. J. Bernays, Lukian und die Kyniker (Berlin, 1879).
Of the representatives of religious Platonism who kept at a distance from the number theory, may be mentioned the eclectic commentators Eudorua and Arius Didymua. Thrasyllus. the editor of the works of Plato and Democritus, and especially Plutarch of Chaeronea (about 100 a. i>. ), from whom, in addition to his famous biographies, a great number of other writings are preserved, especially philosophical treatises of dogmatic and polemical content (Moralia, ed. Dtibner ; Paris, Didot, Vols. III. and IV. 1855) (cf. R.
Volkmann, Lebcn, Schriflen und Philosophic des P. , Berlin, 1872). [Plutarch's Morals, trans, ed. by Goodwin, 5 vols. , Boston, 1870 ; also tr. by Shilleto and by C. W. King, both in Bohn's lib. , Lond. 1888 and 1882 resp. ] We mention further **•»■*! tthi« of Tyre of the time of the Antonines ; his contemporary, Apuleius of Madaura, who belongs in this series not only on account of bis philosophical writings (ed. by A. Goldbacher, Vienna, 1876), but also on account of his allegorico-satincal romance, "The Golden Ass" (cf. Hildebrand in the introduction to his col lected works, Leips. 1842) [The Works of Apuleius, Bohn's lib. ] ; the oppo nent of Christianity, Celaus, whose treatise dXr^t XA70* (about 180) is known only from the counter- treatise of Origen, na-rd KA<roi> (cf. Th. Keim, C. " voahres
Wort," ZQrich, 1873); and lastly the physician Claudius Galen, who died about 200, and might, to be sure, with his broad eclecticism be likewise classed as a Peri patetic and also as a Stoic (cf. K. Sprengel, Beitrage zur (reach, d. Medicin, I. 117 ff. ). From the same circle of ideas arose also the writings circulated under the name of Hermes Trismegistus, which belong to the third century (French tr. by L. Menard, Paris, 1866 ; partially published by G. Parthey, Berlin, 1864).
Among the Platonists of the second century Nicomacbus of Gerasa in Ara bia, of whose writings arithmetical text-books and (through Photius) an extract from a work ' Apitf/irjTucd Btokoyoiiuro. are extant, and Numenius of Apamea, concerning whom we owe our instruction mainly to Eusebius, are strongly Neo- Pythagorean. Cf. F. Thedinga (Bonn, 1875).
The entrance of Greek philosophy into Jewish theology may be traced back to the middle of the second century b. c, where it can be recognised in the Biblical explanation of Aristobuloa ; it appears then in a particularly marked manner, and in a form that is already much nearer the Alexandrian sphere of thought, in the pseudo-Solomonic Book of Wisdom. Yet these are but weak forerunners of the important creation of Philo of Alexandria, of whose life little more is known than that in the year 39, when already in advanced age, he was a member of an embassy from his native community to the Emperor Calig
Chap. •-». ]
The Religion* Period. 217
ola. His numerous writings, among which there is also much that is not genuine, were edited by Th. Mangey (Lond. 1742), Leips. stereotype ed. , 8 vols. , 1861-53 ; [Eng. tr. by C. D. Yonge, 4 vols. , Lond. , Bohn's lib. ].
F. Dihne, Die jiidisch-alexandrinische Beligionsphilosophie (Halle, 1834).
A. Gfrorer, Philon und die alexandrinische Theosophie (Stuttgart, 1835); M. Wolff, Die philonischt Philosophic (Gothenburg, 1858); Ewald, Gesch. de$
Volkes Israel, VI. 231 ff.
Among the Christian Apologists whose writings are collected in the Corpus
Apoioyetarum Christianorvm secundi sceculi, ed. by Otto (Jena, 1842 ff. ), the most prominent is Flavius Justin Martyr of Sichem, who lived in the middle of the second century. Two defensive writings and a dialogue with Trypho the Jew axe preserved [Eng. tr. in Ante-Nicene Ch. lib. , ed. by Roberts and Donald son. Edinburg, T. 4 T. Clark, 1867 —]. K. Semisch (2 vols. , Breslau, 1840-42), and B. Aube (Paris, 18(31) treat of him. Further Apologists from the Hellenic circle of culture are Aristldes (whose discourses, discovered in the Armenian language, were printed with a Latin translation, Venice, 1878), Athenagoras of Athens (rpta-ptla s-tpl Xpia-Ttar&e addressed to Marcus Aurelius about 176), Theophilus of Ant inch (a treatise addressed to Autolycus about 180), Melito of . Sard is, Apollinaris of Hierapolis, and others. — Latin literature presents especially Minucius Felix, whose dialogue Oft an' us was written about 200 >d. in the Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, by C. Halm, Vienna, 1W7). The rhetorician, Firmianus Lactantius (about 300), is to be placed in the same series. His main treatise is the Institution's Divinoe [tr. of the above authors in Ante-Nicene lib. , see above].
Of the Gnostics our information comes essentially through their opponents, Iren»us (140-200 ; his treatise "EXryxot «al irarpowii ttjs yf>tvSuriiu>v yriiatut, ed. by A. Stieren, Leips. 1863), Hippolytus (Kurd racwr alpioiur f\ryx°*- *'''■ by I>uncker and Schneidewin, Gottingen, 1869), Tertullian (Adversus Valenti- nianos), etc. [Eng. tr. of the above writings in Ante-Nicene lib. , above]. Of Gnostic treatises only one, and that by an unknown author, is extant, VUara npU (ed. by Petermann, Berlin, 1861). Of the main representatives of this doctrine there were active in the first half of the second century Saturninus of Antioch, Basilides, a Syrian, and Carpocrates in Alexandria ; toward the ■riddle of the century VaJentinus. the most important of them (died about let)); and toward the end of the century Bardeaanea of Mesopotamia. — Expo sitions of the Onostif Systems by A. W. Neander (Berlin, 1818) [Eng. tr. by Tnrrey, Boston, 1866], E. Matter (Paris, 1843), Chr. Baur (Tubingen, 1836), A- Hilgenfeld (Jena, 1884), same author, Bardesancs, der letzte Gnostiker <Leips. 1864). — A. Harnack, Zur QucUenkritik der Geschichte des Gnosticismus (Leips. 1873); [H. L. Mansel, Gnostic Heresies, Lond. 1876].
The most radical opponent of Greek science was TaUan, an Assyrian, whose treatise npkt "EXXijrot arose about 170, but who later became himself an adherent of the Valentinian Gnosticism. The passionate Apologist Qu. Sep- timius Florens Tertullian (195-220, for a time Presbyter in Carthage) ended likewise in opposition to the Catholic Church, in the sect of the Montanists. Hi« works have been edited by Fr. Oehler (3 vols. , Leips. 1853 f. ), recently by A ReifJt-rscheid and Wlssowa (Vol. I. Vienna, 1890, in Corp. script, eccl. tat. ) [Eng tr. in Ante-Ntcene lib. ]. Cf. A. W. Neander, Antignostifus, Geist des
Tertullian, etc. (2d ed. Berlin, 1849) [Eng. tr. Bohn's lib. , 1851J; A. Hauck, 7V» Lef>en und Schriften, Erlangen, 1877). — In the same series, but from a later lime, is the African rhetorician Arnobius, whose seven books, Adversus
G'ntes. were composed about 300 (ed. by A. KeifTerscheid in Corp. script, ecel. 1st. . Vienna, 1876).
<*1 the writings of Clement of Alexandria (died about 217) three treatises are preserved, A470I wporprrTiitit vpii *EXXqra{ — IIai6a>u>>4« — £rpw/iarcit (ed. by J. Potter, Oxford, 1716) [tr. in Ante-Nicene lib. ]. From his school (cf. on the Alex. Catechetical school, Guericke, Halle, 1824 f , and Hasselbaoh, SteUin, 1636) went forth the founder nf Christian theology, Origan, surnamed the Ada- •matine. Born 18ft a. d. in Alexandria, equipped with the full education of the time, he came forward early as a teacher, fell into conflicts on account of his doctrines with the Synod, was by it removed from his nffice, and later lived in Cawarea and Tyre, dying in the latter place 2. 14. of his writings, aside from the above-mentioned treatise against Celsus, his work lUpl ipx&' is of chief importance ; It is extant almost only in the Latin version of Kufinus (ed. by
218 Hellenistic-Roman Thought : Religious Period. [Part II
Uedepenning, Leips. 1836) [tr. in Ante-Nicene lib. ]. Cf. J. Reinkens, De Clemente Presbytero Al. (Breslau, 1851); Redepenning, 0. , Darstellung seines Lebens und seiner Lehre (Bonn, 1841-46) [cf. Bigg, The Christian Platonitts
of Alexandria, Oxford, 1887 ; A. Harnack, Art. Origen in Ene. Brit. l.
A collection of the sources for all the Church writers of this period has been
issued by J. P. Migne, Patrologia; Cursus Computus (Paris, 1840 ff. ).
A certain Ammonius Saccus appears in old traditions as the founder of Neo-Flatonism, but nothing is known to justify this tradition. To his pupils belonged Plotinus, Origen, the rhetorician Iionginua (213-273), to whom the book llepl \nj/ovt was ascribed, and another Origen.
The true founder of the school was Plotinus (204-269). Born in Lycopolis in Egypt, and educated in Alexandria, he became a member of an expedition against the Persians in order to promote his religious studies, made a highly successful appearance as teacher in Rome about 244, and died on a country estate in Campania. His works, written late in life, were published by his disciple Porphyry, arranged in six enneads. Ed. by H. Mliller (Leips. 1878-80), with a German translation [Eng. tr. in part by Th. Taylor, Lond. 1787, 1704, 1817, French tr. by Bouillet, Paris, 1857-60]. Cf. H. Kirchner, Die Philos. des PI. (Halle, 1864). — A. Richter, Neuplatonische Studien (Halle, 1864 ff. ). — H. v. Kleist, Neuplat.
