Author(s):
Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum)
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Baltes, Matthias (Münster)
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Montanari, Franco (Pisa)
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Tinnefeld, Franz (Munich)
Roman cognomen (greek Λογγῖνος;
Longînos), derived from
longus (‘tall’), in the Republican period in the family of the Cassii (Cassius [I 6-17; II 14-16]), in the Imperial period attested in numerous other families. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [1] Cassius Longinus Grammarian, Rhetor and platonic philosopher, c. AD 210-272/3 [German version] A. Life A Greek grammarian, rhetor and Platonic philosopher (
c. AD 210-272/3), who was an outstanding representative of the education and culture of his time and was therefore called a ‘living library and walking university’ (fr. 3a [1]). Nothing is known about L.'s father; his mother was the sister of Phronton of Emesa, to whom L. probably owed much of his rhetorical education (fr. 1b). Phronton made him heir to his fortune. In his childhood, L. took extensive voyages together with his parents, during which he got to know all the well known philosophers of his time, and later he would study with some of them. He spent the most time with Ammonius [9] Saccas and his student, the Neoplatonist Origenes (fr. 2) [2. 324; 3. 8ff., 140ff.]. After his education, L. founded his own school in Athens in which grammar, rhetoric and philosophy were taught [1. 5216, 5221]. Here he gained the reputation of being the most important literary critic of his time, comparable to Dionysius [18] of Halicarnassus (fr. 2; 3a; 5) [4. 1405f.]. In his school Plato's birthday was lavishly celebrated every year. It became evident that the school was a meeting place for the most significant scientists and philosophers of the …