Synesius of Cyrene

Mosaic depicting an angel. Museum of Ptolemais

Synesius of Cyrene (c.370-c.413) was a Neo-Platonic philosopher who became bishop of Ptolemais in the Cyrenaica. He left behind a small corpus of texts that offer much information about daily life in Late Antiquity, and about the christianization of the Roman world.

Letter 33, written in 394 and offered here in the translation by A. Fitzgerald, is obviously incomplete.

Letter 33: In Praise of Alexander

To the Philosopher [Hypatia]

I seemed destined to play the part of an echo. Whatever sounds I catch, these I repeat. I now pass on to you the praises of the marvelous Alexander…[1]

Note 1:
Perhaps a relative of Synesius.

Online 2007
Revision: 31 July 2007