Orion of Thebes – a 5th Century Grammarian
This research was carried out by N.N. Bolgov under the State Assignment of the Institute of History and Archaeology of Byzantium and the Black Sea Region, Sevastopol State University: “Comprehensive Historical and Archaeological Study of Byzantium and the Black Sea Region in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages” (FEFM-2025-0002). The author's contribution is 50 %.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52575/2687-0967-2025-52-4-855-864Keywords:
Early Byzantium, intellectuals, grammarians, Orion, Proclus, Eudocia, Alexandria, Athens, Constantinople, CaesareaAbstract
This article reconstructs the main events in the biography of the early Byzantine intellectual and grammarian Orion of Thebes (c. 400–460) and analyzes his works. Based on available sources, primarily the Suda, Marinus (Life of Proclus), John Tzetzes's Chiliad, as well as manuscripts of Orion's own works, a number of conclusions are drawn. First of all, contrary to Robert Custer's hypercriticism, the possibility, and even the likelihood, of Orion's career path following the route Alexandria, Athens, Constantinople, and Caesarea in Palestine is shown. The most important circumstances of Orion's life were his time as the teacher of Proclus, the future great Neoplatonist, and also as the teacher of Athenais, later Empress Eudocia. The question of Orion as a student of Procopius of Gaza is also examined; it is demonstrated that he is a different, later Orion. Overall, this work is one of the first in Russian historical science to focus on grammarians–representatives of the vast community of teachers of the late antique (early Byzantine) period, thanks to whose tireless work the empire maintained its previous level of almost complete literacy during this period.
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Cameron Al. 2016. Wandering Poets and Other Essays on Late Greek Literature and Philosophy. New York, Oxford University Press, xi+359.
Cameron Al. 1982. The Empress and the Poet: Paganism and Politics at the Court of Theodosius II. In: Later Greek Literature. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 217–290.
Cramer J.A. (ed.). 1835-1837. Anecdota Graeca e codicihus manuscriptis bibliothecarum Oxoniensium. 4 vols. Oxford, University Press.
Garzya A. 1967. Per la tradizione manoscritta degli excerpta di Orione. In: Le parole e le idee. 9: 216–221.
Holum K.G. 1982. Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London, University of California Press, 326.
Hunger H. 1978. Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner. München, Beck, хх+528.
Hunger H. 1961. Katalog der griechischen Handschriften der österreichischen Nationalbibliothek. Museion: Veröffentlichungen der österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, n.s., 4. Reihe, Veröffentlichungen der Handschriftensammlung. T. 1: Codices historici. Codices philosophici et philogici. Vienna, George Plachner Verlag, xxi+503.
Hunt E.D. 1982. Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire, AD 312–460. Oxford, Clarendon Press, Х+269.
Jones A.H.M., Martindale J.R., Morris J. 1980. The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 2 (AD 395–527). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1342.
Kaster R.A. 1988. Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity. Berkeley; Los Angeles, University of California Press, 525.
Kröhnert O. 1897. Canonesne poetarum scriptorem artificum per antiquitatem fuerunt? Diss. Regimonti, ex officina Leupoldiana, 86.
Laniado Α. 2005. La carrière d'un notable de Gaza d'apres son oraison funebre. In: Saliou C. (ed.). Gaza dans l’antiquite Tardive. Archeologie, rhetorique et histoire. Salerno, Helios: 221–239.
Levine L. 1975. Caesarea under Roman Rule. Leiden, Brill, 297.
Micciarelli Collesi A.M. 1970. Nuovi 'excerpta' dall' 'Etimologico' di Orione. In: Byzantion. 40: 517–542.
Micciarelli Collesi A.M. 1970a. Per la tradizione manoscritta degli excerpta di Orione. In: Bolletino della Badia greca di Grottaferrata. 24: 107–113.
Miguélez Cavero L. 2008. Poems in Context: Greek Poetry in the Egyptian Thebaid, 200–600 AD. Berlin; New York, Walter de Gruyter, 453.
Montanari F., Matthaios S., Rengakos A. 2015. Brill's Companion to Ancient Greek Scholarship. 2 vol. Leiden; Boston, Brill, 1504.
Montanari F., Pagani L. (eds). 2011. From Scholars to Scholia: Chapters in the History of Ancient Greek Scholarship. Berlin, De Gruyter, xi+205.
Orionis Grammatici Caesareensis Antholognomici tituli octo. 1839. In: Coniectanea critica scripsit F.G. Schneidewin. Insunt Orionis Thebani antholognomici tituli 8. Nunc primum ex codice Bibliothecae Palatinae vindobonensis editi. Göttingen: 33–58.
Orionis Thebani Antholognomicum. 1857. Ed. Mennecii. In: Stobaei florilegium, т. 4. Lipsiae, Teubner: 290–296.
Orionis Thebani Etymologicon. 1820. Eds. Larcher P.-H., Sturz F.W., Peyron A. Lipsiae, apud I.A.G. Weigel, viii+255.
Piccione R.Μ. 2002. In margine a una recente edizione dell'«Antholognomicon» di Orione. In: Medioevo greco. 2: 141–153.
Reitzenstein R. 1897. Geschichte der griechischen Etymologika: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Philologie in Alexandria und Byzanz. Leipzig, Teubner, 424.
Sideras Α. 1991. 25 unedierte byzantinische Grabreden. Thessaloniki, Paratērētēs, 406.
von Christ W. 1924. Geschichte der griechischen Literatur, Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft, 7, 2. Teil, Die nachklassische Periode der griechischen Literatur, 2. Halfte, von 100 his 530 nach Christus, umgearbeitet von W. Schmid, O. Stahlin. Munich, Beck, 600.
Wendel C. 1939. Orion. In: Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft: neue Bearbeitung. Band XVIII, Halbband 35, Olympia–Orpheus. Stuttgart, Alfred Druckenmüller Verlag: 1083–1087.
Wilson N.G. 1996. Scholars of Byzantium. Cambridge (Mass.), Duckworth, 286.
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