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[German Version] (Martianus Minneus Felix Capella; 4th/5th cent. ce), lived in Carthage in North Africa, and in his old age wrote for his son the nine books De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (dated between 380 and 500 ce), and a separate work on metrics (see de Nonno). Denuptiis follows the form of a Menippean satire. It deals in allegorical manner with a central Neoplatonic (Neoplatonism) theme: Philology is the embodiment of knowledge that the rational human soul has to obtain in order to return home, and achieve union (symbolized by marriage) with divine reason, Mercury = Hermes-Thot ( l…

[German Version] (2nd half of 5th cent. ce), Christian (probably Monophysite), as a rhetorician belonged to the school of rhetoric in Gaza. Extant are a collection of 25 letters (ed. Massa Positano, 21962) and a dialogue “Theophrastus” (ed. M. Colonna, 1958), a writing dated between 485 and 490. It consists of a debate of the Christians Aegyptus and Euxitheos – the latter calls himself a student of the Neoplatonist Hierocles – with Theophrastus, a neoplatonic Athenian philosopher who had recently arrived in Alexandria. Ilsetraut Hadot Bibliography CPG 3, 7450–7451 M. Wacht, Aeneas als…

[German Version] The original appearance of Celsus' polemic against the Christians, ᾽Αληθής λόγος/ Alēthḗs logos (“True Teaching” or “True Discourse”), is only roughly deducible from the quotes and paraphrases preserved in the eight volumes of Origen's Contra Celsum (written 249). The dating of the polemic to the years 176–180 is based on vague allusions to historical events in the fragments and remains hypothetical. The author belongs to the philosophical school of Middle Platonism. He defines the highest God …