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(2) PHILOSOPHY
How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs 
Aristotle the philosopher had been Alexander's
tutor, but his life was more connected with
Athens than with Alexandria. Yet his influence
permeated Greek thought, and was mainly responsible
for directing it towards natural science
and mathematics, though this scientific tendency
had a precedent in earlier philosophy.
The latest type of Greek philosophy, and
one which had very great influence on Greek
thought when it came into contact with the
Arabs, was that known as neo-Platonism. This
school of philosophy was fond of tracing
its beginnings back to the senii-legendary
Pythagoras (580-500 B. C.?), a native of
Samos or of Tyre who, if not the pupil of
Thales, at least visited him and was influenced
by him. Thales is said to have studied mathematics
and physical science in Egypt, and Pythagoras
is described as following in his footsteps
and going to Egypt and receiving instruction
there from the priests. Amongst other things
he learned from these priests the doctrine
of transmigration (cf. Herdt. ii, 123)- On
returning home he found that Samos was under
the tyrant Polycrates, and thereupon rmgrated
to Magna Graccia, ultimately settling at
Croton. There he established a school in
the form of a confraternity, following Egyptian
precedent. This fraternity possessed all
its goods in common, and kept all its teaching
secret from the outside world, which caused
it to be regarded with suspicion, as a secret
society with potential subversive political
tendency. So the fraternity experienced rough
treatment and Pythagoras escaped to Tarentum,
then to Metapontum. The community was broken
up, but continued as a philosophical group
for some two centuries, though no longer
preserving secrecy about its tenets. The
rule of secrecy was first broken by Philolaus
(circ- 400 B. C.), in fact such secrecy was
altogether alien to Greek thought. After
the fourth century B. C., when Philolaus
disclosed its esoteric doctrine, the Pythagorean
school declined in prominence. Pythagorean
schools or clubs in Magna Graecia had assumed
a political character, strongly antidemocratic
in their tone, and at some period in the
course of the fourth century there was a
rising against them during which the cities
of Magna Graccia became a scene of murder,
armed rebellion, and disorder of every kind
(Polybius, ii, 39; Strabo, viii, 7, 1; Justin,
xx, 4)- Plato shows tendencies towards Orphic
and Pythagorean ideas, especially in the
later treatises. Tle Old Academy was more
Pythagorean than Plato, but the New Academy
turned in a different direction. Whether
the doctrine of the immortality of the soul
came from Egypt through a Pythagorean medium
is not clear, but most of the Greeks who
accepted that doctrine were in touch with
Pythagoreanism.
About 100 B. C. there was a revival of Pythagoreanism
and a number of pseudonymous treatises appeared
purporting to describe Pythagoras' teachings,
including a set of poetical maxims which
were called "the Golden Verses of Pythagoras
It does not seem that the Pythagorean school
ever took root in Rome. In this maturer Pythagorean
teaching the soul was regarded as consisting
of three parts, nous, thumos, and phrenes,
only the first of these immortal. All nature
was regarded as being alive, animated by
heat, and the sun and stars as centres of
heat were esteemed to be gods. The movements
of the heavenly bodies are harmoniously adjusted
by number, an idea of Egyptian origin, and
so certain numbers have a sacred character,
e. g. io which represents the sum of a pyramid
of four stages, 4ù3ù2--1=10. This consideration
of numbers appears again in Philo and later
philosophers. All these ideas recur again
in the later neo-Platonic philosophers, whose
influence was felt by the Arabs. From the
beginning Pythagorean teaching was much concerned
with mathematics, its geometry chiefly interested
in measuring areas. The Athenian Sophists
turned to the geometry of the circle which
the Pythagoreans had neglected. This revived
Pythagoreanism exercised great influence
in later Athens, and apparently in Alexandria
as well. Neo-Platonists knew Pythagorean
teaching in this later form. Both Porphyry
and lamblichus, leading neo-Platonists, wrote
lives of Pythagoras. In itself neo-Platonism
was a perfectly natural and logical development
of Greek thought, not an oriental intruder.
It was eclectic, but so were most of the
later philosophies, and combined the systems
of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics under
the mgis of Pythagoras. It received its clear
definition in the teaching of Plotinus and
his disciples.
The Neo-Pythagorean philosopher Numenius
of Apamea (circ. 160-180 B. C.), whose teaching
is known by citations in Busebius (Praep.
Evang., xi, 10; xviii, 22; xv, I 7), and
a few other references (e. g. Porphyry in
Stob., Eccl. i, 836) must be regarded as
a precursor of neo-Platonism. He was the
first Greek philosopher to show any sympathy
with Hebrew religion, describing Plato as
Moses speaking in Attic (Clement Alex., Strom.
i, 342; Eusebius, Praep. Evang. xi, 10).
He shows very plainly a tendency to religious
syncretism such as is strongly marked in
the neo-Platonists, but is not confined to
them, indeed it seems to have been widely
prevalent in the second century and after.
The neo-Platonic school had its parent in
Ammonius Saccas or Saccophorus, so named
because he had been a carrier in his youth.
Very little is known of his life. The chief
source of information is Porphyry cited by
Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 6, I9, 7), who states
that he was a native of Alexandria and a
Christian educated by his parents in the
faith, but when he began to study philosophy
he changed his opinions and became a pagan,
though this last statement Eusebius denies
(ib. 6, 16, 9). It has been suggested that
Eusebius confuses him with another Ammonius,
his contemporary and also an Alexandrian
who was the editor of a Diatessaron giving
the gospel according to St. Matthew with
parallel passages from the other gospels,
the basis of what afterwards were known as
the Ammonian sections. Hieronymus (de vir.
must. 55) says, "de consonantia Moysi
et lesu opus elegans et evangelicos canones
excogitabit". Apparently there were
two contemporary persons, both of Alexandria
and both called Ammonius. According to Longinus
and Porphyry our Ammonius refrained from
writing any books, following the precedent
of Pythagoras, but the other Ammonius was
the author of several works. Amongst the
pupils of Ammonius were Origen, Plotinus,
Herennius, Longinus the critic, Heracles,
Olympius, and Antoriius, but these may not
all have been pupils of the same Ammonius.
Porphyry says that his teaching was kept
secret, also a Pythagorean idea, that he
bound his pupils by oath not to disclose
it, but that vow was broken first by Herennius,
then by Origen. There were two Origens, one
the well-known Christian writer, the other
a pagan philosopher, both Alexandrians and
contemporary, but the Christian Origen and
Heracles may have been the pupils of the
other Ammonius who composed the Diatessaron.
As to Ammonius' teaching, Hierocles (apud
Photius) says that he endeavoured to reconcile
Plato and Aristotle, but that was the aim
of all the later Alexandrians. Nemesius,
a bishop and neoPlatonist of the later fourth
century, gives two citations, one from both
Numenius and Ammonius, the other from Ammonius
alone, both about the nature of the soul
and its relation to the body. If it be true
that Ammonius did not leave any writings,
these references can only represent traditions
about his teaching. The association with
Numenius is significant.
Plotinus was an Egyptian, a native of Lycopolis
or Siut, now known as Assiout, where he was
born about A. D. 200 (Eunatius, Vit. Soph.
P. 6; Suidas, sub voc., puts his birth at
Nicopolis). He attended the school of Alexandria,
but was dissatisfied with the teaching he
heard there, until a friend took him to hear
Ammonius Saccas. On hearing his lecture,
Plotinus decided that he had found the right
teacher. He was then in his twentyeighth
year, and remained with Ammonius eleven years.
Undoubtedly the meeting with Ammonius was
a turning-point in Plotinus' life and gave
the clue to his doctrine. But Arnmonius wrote
no books, nor did he make any effort to publish
his teaching, preferring to instruct in private
and u; ider a pledge of secrecy. One result
of Ammonius' teaching was to make Plotinus
anxious to obtain more accurate information
about the beliefs of the Indians and Persians.
Reverence for, and interest in, oriental
thought was characteristic of the Alexandrian
school and this was inherited by the neo-Platonists.
In order to gratify this desire Plotinus
joined the Emperor Gordian's expedition to
Persia in 242, an expedition which turned
out ill and resulted in the emperor's death,
and Plotinus had difficulty in reaching Antioch
in safety. He then went to Rome, being at
the time forty years of age, and there lectured
for ten years and had many hearers, some
of them senators and other leading citizens.
But for long he followed Ammonius' example
and taught privately, writing and publishing
nothing. Then in 254, he began to write,
and in 263 Porphyry became one of his hearers,
introduced by Ametius who had been his hearer
for twenty-four years, and remained with
him six years. Plotinus had written twenty-one
books of his Enneads when Porphyry met him,
during the six years they were together he
wrote twenty-four more, which Porphyry considered
his best work, and in the brief remainderofhislifehewroteninemore.
He died in 269, having completed his 69th
year. His death took place during a visitation
of plague, but was not due to the pestilence.
Apparendy he became ill because he was deprived
of the ministrations of his personal attendants
who had been carried off by the plague. Finding
himself ill, he retired to Campania to a
house bequeathed to him by the Arab physician
Zethus, who had been one of his pupils, and
there finished his life in peace.
Later neo-Platonists often associated themselves
with the revival of paganism then in progress,
as did his pupil Amelius, but Plotinus himself
stood aloof. The Enneads have come down to
us rearranged and revised by his pupil Porphyry
who, however, outlines another arrangement
disposing the books in chronological order,
and by that arrangement the development of
Plotinus' thought is made clearer.
Though Plotinus was educated at Alexandria,
his teaching was developed and delivered
in Rome. At one time neo-Platonism was regarded
as essentially Alexandrian, but this is an
overstatement, if not altogether untrue,
though the system contains elements which
appear also in the Alexandrian Jew Philo,
in the Gnostics who seem to have been of
Egyptian origin, and in the Alexandrian Christians
Clement and Origen. It was indeed eclectic,
though claiming to be Platonism. It had a
religious syncretism akin to that which appears
in Plutarch and Maximus of Tyre, and which
seems to have been very widely prevalent
at the time.
In Plotinus' teaching the Monad is presented
as the Supreme God, the ultimate source of
all good and order. God is immanent, but
is also transcendent. Between God and the
world is the World Soul, the creator whose
work is not altogether good and orderly,
whilst the phenomenal world itself is unsubstantial
and unstable. It is very much like the Gnostic
attitude towards the problem of evil: the
Creator whose work is obviously imperfect,
is a subordinate, not the Supreme God, and
therefore not perfect. Knowledge may be obtained
by sense-perception, by inference from sense-perception,
but the highest and best knowledge is that
receive directly by inspiration.
Neo-Platonism, substantially the doctrine
of Plotinus' Enneads, though developed by
his successors, exercised a powerful influence
over the Graeco-Roman world for several centuries.
Books IV-VI of the Enneads, in an abridged
Syriac translation, circulated amongst Syriac-speaking
Christians, especially the Monophysites,
as the "Theology of Aristotle "and
were accepted as genuinely Aristotelian by
the earlier scholars of Baghdad, before the
time of al-Kindi, and were still so accepted
by many for long afterwards. It is easy to
see how such material contributed to a pantheistic
and mystical tone of thought such as is apparent
in Muslim philosophy.
Porphyy (b. 233, died after 301) was a Syrian,
his original name Malchus meaning "king"
or "royal", which he changed at
the advice of his teachers to Basileus, then
to Porphyry. He studied at Athens under Longinus,
Ammonius' disciple, then at Rome in 263 under
Plotinus. After a visit to Sicily he returned
to Rome and gave expository lectures on the
philosophy of Plotinus. He married Marcella,
a friend's widow, simply for the sake of
educating her children. At the time there
were many sects which produced spurious apocalyptic
works which they attributed to various distinguished
authorities of ancient times, and with some
of these Porphyry was led into controversy,
especially against a book published under
the name of "Zosimus" and purporting
to give an account of the religious tenets
of the Persians. This work he showed to be
a recent forgery, and in doing so applied
sound principles of criticism. The inquiry
led him into controversy With the Christians,
and for several centuries his writings were
viewed by the Christians as the most serious
attack made upon their faith. Only fragments
of his work in this direction are preserved
by Christian apologetical writers, but it
is clear that his method of treatment was
by way of historical criticism as already
developed in the school of Alexandria. In
one treatise, De antro nympharum, he applied
the method of allegorical interpretation
to the story of Ulysses' visit to the cave
of the nymphs in Homer, Odyss. 13, I 08-1
I2As a writer, Porphyry was distinguished
by a clear insight into the meaning of the
literary work he examined, and had an exceptionally
lucid manner of stating that meaning. His
Isagoge or introduction to the Categories
of Aristotle was used for many centuries
in east and west as the clearest and most
practical manual Of Aristotelian logic, indeed
that logic was to a great extent popularized
by the excellence of its presentation in
the Isagoge. His "Sententiae"represent
his exposition of Plotinus, again lucidly
expressed but much preoccupied with his ethical
teaching. He wrote a history of philosophy,
of which his extant Life of PYthagoras no
doubt formed a part. Like many neo-Platonists
he was a vegetarian and ascete, which accorded
with the tradition inherited from Pythagoras,
as appears in the life of Apolloniu. s of
Tyana, a religious and mor-al reformer of
the first century. One of his treatises,
De abstinentia, deals with this ascetic ideal.
He does not recommend abstinence from flesh
for all, admitting that it is unsuitable
for soldiers and athletes, but commends it
to those who are occupied with philosophy:
he disapproves the offering of animal victims
in sacrifice, which he regards as a barbarous
survival of the days when men had false ideas
about the gods and as akin to human sacrifices
which were obsolete since the days of Hadrian,
animal sacrifices being in many cases a commutation
of older human sacrifices. Animals have some
measure of reason, and so have certain rights,
they do not exist solely for the service
of men. Abstinence from flesh food was practised
by the Essenes, by the Egyptian priests,
and by the Indian Sarmanoi, by which he denotes
Buddhist priests about whom he obtained information
from the Syrian Bar Daisan who had contact
with an Indian embassy proceeding to Rome
(Porphyry, De abstinentia, 4, i8). He repudiates
the doctrine of transmigration of souls which
to many people had nade Pythagoreanism ridiculous.
He was the author also of several works on
psychology and mathematics.
lamblichus (d. circ. 320), a native of Cocle-Syria,
was Porphyry's pupil in Rome and succeeded
him as leader of the neo-Platonists. He was
credited with supernatural powers, and it
was said that at his devotions he was raised
in the air and transfigured. His pupils asked
him if this were true, and he laughed, and
said that there was no truth in it Whatever,
As a writer he was inferior to Porphyry,
with defects in style and often obscure,
but the Emperor Julian considered him the
equal Of Plato, "a thinker who is inferior
to him in time, but not in genius, I refer
to Iamblichus of Chalcis" (julian, Oral.
4, "On the Sun King," 146 A), and
for some time, it appears, he had a great
vogue. He wrote a treatise tracing philosophy
back to Pythagoras, and of this some portions
survive, including a life of Pythagoras.
His Logos Proireptikos is an exhortation
to philosophy which consists largely of extracts
from Plato, Aristotle, and neo-Platoriic
writers. Besides these works he composed
three mathematical treatises.
At the death of Iamblichus in 33o, his school
dispersed, but he had a successor in Aedisius
at Pergamum in Mysia, who educated the sons
of Eustathius, a noble Roman who was sent
on an embassy to the Persian court. By that
time the Roman Empire was professedly Christian,
and the philosophers who adhered to paganism
had to keep their religious sympathies secret.
Amongst Aedisius' pupils was the Emperor
Julian, who made an attempt to revive decaying
paganism, but without permanent result. The
great hope of the pagan party lay in the
neo-Platonists. At the beginning of the fifth
century Hypathia (d. 415) expounded neo-Platonic
doctrines at Alexandria, but for the most
part Alexandrian thought was not much attached
to neo-Platonism. The same teaching was continued
after her by Hierocles (circ. 415-450), a
pupil of Plutarch of Athens (d. 481), who
seems to have been responsible for introducing
neo-Platonism into Athens which from his
time forward became its home. Plutarch was
succeeded at Athens by Syrianus of Alexandria.
After him came Proclus (410-485) a native
of Constantinople who received his education
at Alexandria, then continued at Athens under
Plutarch and Syrianus. He was the author
of a treatise on "Platonic Theology
"and of one called "Theological
Elements ", which contains a statement
of the doctrine of Plotinus modified in a
form which supplied the philosophical ideas
of the later neo-Platonists, so that he ranks
next after Plotinus as an authority of their
system. At that time the school of Athens,
the home of neo-Platonism, was secretly pagan
and conscious of the precarious character
of the tolerance which it enjoyed. One of
his pupils was Marinus, who wrote his biography.
The last head of the academy of Athens was
Damascius a native of Damascus as his name
denotes, but educated at Alexandria, then
at Athens. He professed to accept the Aristotelian
doctrine of the eternity of matter, in contradiction
to the accepted Christian tenet of creation,
and for this was viewed disapprovingly by
the Emperor Justinian. But this was merely
the climax of a growing antagonism of the
imperial authorities for what was generally
felt to be a nursery of paganism. Justinian's
ideal was a centralized and united empire,
in complete conformity with the ruling prince
in religion and in everything else. Official
disapproval led to a species of persecution
of all philosophers in
528, and in the following year the school
of Athens was closed and its endowments confiscated.
Of the deprived professors seven, including
Damascius, migrated to Persia and were welcomed
by Khusraw, who was an ardent admirer of
Greek philosophy and science. This migration
seems to have taken place in 532. The seven
philosophers expected to find an ideal state
under the rule of a philosopher king, but
were quickly disillusioned and discovered
that an oriental tyranny could be worse than
the severity of Justinian, and begged to
be allowed to go back. Khusraw tried to induce
them to remain, but used no compulsion, and
-when they did return took care to insert
a clause in the treaty made with Justinian
securing them complete liberty of conscience
and freedom from molestation when under Roman
rule. This return took place in 533.
Although the school of Athens was closed
the philosophers who had been trained there
continued to teach and both they and their
pupils produced written works. Chief amongst
these late neo-Platonists were Ammonius and
John Philoponus. Ammonius was a pupil of
ProcIus and compiled a commentary on the
Isagoge of Porphyry which became the standard
Greek authority and was afterwards adopted
by the Nestorians. John Philoponus (circ-
530), a pupil of Ammonius, was a later commentator
on the Isagoge and his exposition was preferred
by the Monophysites.
(3) GREEK MATHEMATICIANS
The fame of Euclid (before 300 B. C.), one
of the earliest scholars of Alexandria, did
much to make the Museum a home of mathematical
studies. His leading work, the Elenzents,
probably contains a good deal which is not
original, but is of great value as a summary
of the knowledge of geometry acquired by
the Greeks from the time of Pythagoras to
his own days, arranged systematically and
in logical sequence, a model method of statement,
though more rigorous than is usual with modern
r4athematicians. Other works are attributed
to him, some doubtful. Amongst them was a
treatise on optics, probably apocryphal,
which was used by the Arabs.
Aristarchus (d. circ. 230 B. C.), of Samos,
the astronomer, was a teacher at Alexandria.
He was the first to show how to find by means
of the Pythagorean triangle the relative
distances of sun and moon from the earth,
though his result is not even approximately
correct owing to the defective character
of the instruments used. He also made the
conjecture that the sun, not the earth, is
the centre of the universe, a theory confirmed
by Copernicus in the sixteenth century A.
D. In this he does not seem to have had many
followers, but his suggestion was not altogether
forgotten and is mentioned by al-Biruni (C.
A. D. 1000), who, however, did not adopt
it.
Eratosthenes (d. circ. I94 B. C.) was a distinguished
scholar of Alexandria and the leading geographer
of antiquity. He devised a method of measuring
the circumference and diameter of the earth,
which was afterwards put into practice by
the khalif al-Ma'mun in 829 and repeated
a few years later. To do this he noted that
at noon at Syene
(Assouan) the sun was directly in the zenith,
but at the same time in Alexandria it was
7° 12' south of the zenith, and from this
concluded that Alexandria was 70 12' north
of Syene on the earth's surface. Knowing
that the distance between the two places
was 5,000 stadia, and as 7° 12' is one-fiftieth
of the full circle Of 360° he calculated
that the earth's circumference must be 50
by 5,000 stadia, i. e. 250,000 stadia, but
altered that to 252,000 stadia so as to have
700 stadia exactly to a degree, thence computing
its diameter to be equivalent to 7,850 miles
of our measurement, and this is correct within
fifty miles. He further stated that the distance
between the tropics is eleven eighty-thirds
of the circumference, making the obliquity
of the ecliptic 23° 51' 20".
Archimedes (d. 212 B. C.), the friend of
Eratosthenes, was not directly connected
with Alexandria but his work, especially
in mechanics, was known to and used by the
Arabs.
Apollonius (circ. 225 B. C.), of Perga, was
educated at Alexandria and applied himself
to conic sections in which he used the names
ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola. The work
in which he dealt with this was in eight
books, the first four of which are extant
in Greek, the next three. in an Arabic translation,
and the last book is lost. The first four
books, like Euclid's Elements, are a digest
of material already known arranged in systematic
order, books V to VII contain a good deal
of new material due to his own research.
He also composed other works on geometry.
Nicomedes (circ. 180 B. C.) was a writer
of minor importance who is best known as
the inventor of the conchoid curve by means
of which an angle can be trisected.
Diocles (circ. 180 B. C.) invented the cissoid
or "ivy shaped curve which enables a
cube to be duplicated, and studied the problem
proposed by Archimedes of bisecting a sphere
by a plane so that the volumes of the segments
may be in a given ratio.
Hypsicles (circ. 180 B. C.), of Alexandria,
may have been the author of what is known
as the fourteenth book of Euclid, containing
seven propositions on regular polyhedra.
He also investigated polygonal numbers and
certain indeterminate equations. In astronomy
he introduced the division of the circle
into 36o degrees and their subsequent sexagesimal
divisions, though this he adopted from work
already done by the Babylonian astronomers.
The work of Hypsicles was translated into
Arabic by Qusta b. Luqa, and afterwards revised
by al-Kindi.
Hipparchus (d. circ. 125 B. C.) was not directly
connected with Alexandria, but worked chiefly
at Rhodes. He was the founder of scientific
astronomy, which necessitated the measurement
of angles and distances on a sphere, and
in doing this he laid the foundations of
spherical trigonometry. He worked out a table
of chords, double sines of half the angle
which was in use until the Indian system
of calculating by sines was introduced by
the Arabs. Plane trigonometry did not appear
until later. He also made a catalogue of
850 fixed stars which marks the beginning
of astronomy proper.
Heron (circ. A. D. 50), of Alexandria, was
the inventor of several machines and wrote
on dioptrics, mechanics, and pneumatics.
Much of his mathematical work was concerned
with the mensuration of land. He gives a
formula for the sides of a triangle which
may be represented as
A = v(s(s - a)(s - b)(s - c))
where s = a + b + c.
In his geometry appears the rule which we
express as--
c = (n/4) cot(180°/11)
where n = number of sides of a polygon of
area A and side s, and where c=A/s2
He was able to solve the equations which
we represent as
ax2 + bx = c
Heron was translated into Arabic by Qusta
b. Luqa (mechanics).
Menelaus (circ. A. D. 100) wrote on the sphere
and spherical triangles, also six books on
calculating chords. He states the theorem
that if the three sides of a triangle are
cut by a transversal, the product of the
lengths of three segments which have no common
extremity is equal to the products of the
other three. Menelaus was not directly connected
with Alexandria, but is known to have taken
astronomical observations in Rome.
Nicomachus (circ. A. D. 100) also had no
direct connection with Alexandria. He wrote
a treatise on music and two books on arithmetic,
possibly a compendium of a larger work now
lost.
Marinus (circ. 100 A. S.), of Tyre, was a
geographer who improved on the methods of
Hipparchus. He located places by the use
of two co-ordinates, latitude and longitude,
but his work has not come down to us, most
of it no doubt incorporated in that of Ptolemy.
Claudius Ptolemy (circ. A. D. 140-160) taught
both in Athens and Alexandria. His chief
work was known as the Ìáèçìá“éêçò óìõ“Üîåùò
âéâëéïí ðñù“ïí. He wrote another ó²í“áîéò
and therefore the Arabs called the principal
treatise ç ìåãéó“ç and placing the Arabic
article before the name made it almajest.
He gives a summary of all earlier work on
the size of the earth and the exact position
of certain places. He further developed Hipparchus'
table of chords and extended the use of sexagesimal
fractions. His work in astronomy has been
justly compared with that of Euclid in geometry,
it gave an ordered and logical summary of
all that had been done so far. He increased
Hipparchus' catalogue Of 850 fixed stars
to 1,022. In astronomy he took the earth
as the centre of the universe and planned
a complicated system of cycles, eccentrics,
and epicycles to account for the movements
of the heavenly bodies. This system apparently
held good to a certain point, then it was
detected to be unsatisfactory by Arab astronomers
and efforts were made to correct it, the
best known being that of the "new astronomy
"which arose in Andalus (Arab Spain)
in the eleventh century, but no correction
produced a completely satisfactory result
until the whole was completely replanned
after Copernicus proved that the sun is the
centre of our system and that the earth and
other planets revolve around it. He was also
the author of a work on astrology, the Tetrabiblos,
which had a good deal of influence over Arab
thought. A good deal of his work was translated
into Arabic by Yusuf al-Haijaj, the Teirabiblos
by Abu Yahya al-Batriq, whilst his geography
formed the basis of al-Khwariznii's Book
of the Image of the Earth which reproduced
his maps in a modified form.
Diophantus (circ. A. D. 250), of Alexandria,
was the author of an arithmetic in thirteen
books of which six survive, a treatise on
polygon numbers of which part is extant,
and a collection of propositions which he
called porisms. The first of these deals
with the theory of numbers and includes an
algebraical treatment of arithmetical problems.
In solving determinate equations he recognized
only one root, even when both roots are positive.
He treats also some indeterminate equations
and certain cases of simultaneous equations.
He did not exactly invent algebra, but prepared
the way for it by a treatment of arithmetic
which anticipated algebra. His work influenced
both Indian and Arab mathematicians, but
neither followed him with sufficient confidence
to make full use of the path he opened. It
was not until the rediscovery of his work
in sixteenth century Europe that full advantage
was taken of his methods and so a foundation
was laid of modern algebra.
Pappus (circ. 300), of Alexandria, wrote
eight "books of mathematical collections",
of which the first two are lost, but the
remaining six are extant. Of these six, Book
III deals with proportion, inscribed solids,
and duplication of the cube; Book IV, spirals
and other plane curves; Book V, maximum and
isoperimetric figures; Book VI, the sphere
Book VII, analysis; and Book VIII, mechanics.
Hypatia (d. 4I5), of Alexandria, daughter
of the mathematician Theon, is said to have
written a commentary on an astronomical table
of Diophantus, possibly not the distinguished
mathematician already mentioned, and on the
conics of Apollonius, but neither of these
survive.
Proclus (d- 485) studied at Alexandria and
taught at Athens. He wrote many books, including
a paraphrase of portions of Ptolemy, a work
on astrology, another on astronomy, and a
commentary on the first book of Euclid's
Elements.
(4) GREEK MEDICINE
The history of Greek medicine proper begins
with Hippocrates, of Cos, who died in 257
B. C., and his "Aphorisms "always
remained a leading text-book for practitioners.
This collection of aphorisms was amongst
the early medical works translated into Arabic
by Hunayn ibn Ishaq, who was able to use
the Greek text. There is an anonymous Syriac
translation which has been published by Pognon
(Leipzig, 1903), but its date does not appear.
In the later period of the school of Alexandria
the medical works of Galen (d. A. D. 200)
were established as the recognized authority,
and a selection of his treatises formed the
official curriculum for medical study. This
curriculum was reproduced at Emesa and Jundi-Shapur
and Syriac versions were prepared for the
use of Syriac-speaking students, Many of
those Syriac translations were made by Sergius
of Rashayn, but were afterwards revised by
Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his companions in the
Dar al-Hikhma at Baghdad, or were supplanted
by new versions prepared at that academy.
This translation into Syriac preceded the
preparation of Arabic versions, but went
on for some time side by side with translation
into Arabic. Galen himself had practised
at Rome, but his studies were made at Smyrna,
Corinth, and Alexandria.
The chief Greek medical writers after Galen
were:-
Oribasius (born circ. 325) was a friend of
the Emperor Julian and the person whom Julian
selected to be the confidant of his dissatisfaction
with Christianity and determination to revert
to paganism. This letter (Julian, Epist.,
xvii) was probably written in 358. He was
with Julian in Gaul and accompanied that
prince's unfortunate expedition into Persia
where he was present at his death in 363.
After his return from Persia his property
was confiscated by Valentinian and Valens,
though the reason -for this is not clear.
He was then banished to a land of barbarians
", but this could not have been for
long as he returned in 369. Three of his
medical works are extant, one of these was
a Synopsis dedicated to his son Eustathius
in nine books, and this was translated into
Arabic by Hunayn ibn lihaq and was known
to 'Ali 'Abbas. It is quoted by Paul of Aegina.
Aetius (end of the fifth century) was a physician
who practised at Constantinople. Nothing
is known of his life, even the date of his
activity is unknown, but he is supposed to
have lived in the later fifth century as
he refers to Cyril of Alexandria, who died
in A. D. 444 and to Petrus Archiater who
was physician to Theodoric, King of the East
Goths. He was a Syrian of Amida. He was the
author of a medical compendium in sixteen
books, now divided into four groups. His
work does not contain much original matter,
but its contents are well chosen. He was
the first Greek physician to give serious
attention to spells and incantations.
Paul of Aegina, probably of the late seventh
century. Nothing is known of his life. Suidas
says that he was the author of several medical
works. Of such works one only is extant and
is known as The Seven Books on Medicine.
This was translated by Hunayn ibn Ishaq and
was in great repute amongst the Arabs, especially
as an authority on obstetrics, for which
reason he was surnamed al-qawabil "the
accoucheur by them.
Aaron, priest and physician, of Alexandria,
is another about whose life no information
is available. He was the author of a Pandects
or Syntagma, which is said to have been translated
into Syriac by a certain Gosius. This Gosius
has been identified with Gesius Petaeus who
lived in the days of the Emperor Zeno (474-491).
The late Syriac writer Bar Hebraeus states
that Aaron composed thirty books which were
translated by Sergius, of Rashayn, who added
another two books, but Steinschneider holds
that these additional books were the work
of the translator who made the Arabic version,
a Persian Jew named Mesirgoyah. Aaron's works
circulated amongst the Arabs and had a considerable
influence on Arab medicine.
CHAPTER IV CHRISTIANITY AS A HELLENIZING
FORCE
(1) HELLENISTIC ATMOSPHERE OF CHRISTIANITY
THE Christian Church in its earlier period
was essentially a Hellenizing force. Its
language was Greek and its first outspread
was amongst those who were Greek in speech
and culture, if not in race. Even in Rome
itself it used Greek, as appears from the
fact that the early Christian Roman writers,
Clement, Hermas, Hippolytus, and others wrote
in Greek. Greek is the language generally
used in the earlier catacomb inscriptions,
and seems to have been that employed in the
primitive Roman liturgy, though the Greek
phrases now surviving in that liturgy were
added later, probably in the fifth century,
the Kyrie eleison introduced by St. Gregory
at a still later date (John the Deacon, Vita
S. Gregorii, ii. 2o, P. L. lxxv, 94). This
prevailed until well into the fourth century
when Constantine removed the imperial government
to New Rome (Constantinople). The churches
of Gaul also were Greek-speaking, though
not to so late a period, and the province
of Africa, afterwards the home of Latin Christianity,
seems to have had a primitive Greek phase,
if Aub6 is right in regarding the Greek text
of the Acts of the Martyrs of Scillite discovered
by Uesener in i88i as the original (Aub6,
Etude sur un nouveau texts des acres des
Martyrs Scillitains, Paris, i88i): Greek
seems to have been largely used in second
century Carthage. All this shows that Christianity
spread first through the urban commercial
population round the Mediterranean whose
lingua franca was Greek. It was only later
that it penetrated into the hinterland and
reached the vernacular-speaking populations
of Egypt, Syria, Italy, Gaul, and Africa.
Greek was an international language and Christianity
appeared as an international religion.
It is of course true that Christianity claimed
a Jewish origin, for "salvation is of
the Jews" (St. John iv, 22), but it
developed in an atmosphere of Hellenistic
Judaism, such as produced Philo of Alexandria,
who used his Old Testament in Greek, not
in Hebrew.
The Diaspora or Dispersion of the Jews began
after the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Babylonians in 588 B. C., when many of them
found a refuge in Egypt. The Babylonians
were conquered by the Persians under Cyrus
in 538, and Cyrus permitted the rebuilding
of Jerusalem and the restoration of its temple.
But many of the Jews who had migrated to
other lands did not want to go back to Palestine,
finding much better openings elsewhere, and
this was especially the case with those who
had gone to Egypt, where they had formed
several populous and flourishing colonies.
When Alexander founded Alexandria in 332
he invited Jews to his new city and assigned
them one out of the three regions into which
it divided (Josephus, c. Apionem, 2 -4; Bell.
7ud. 2.18-7). These Egyptian Jews, however,
formed an integral part of the Jewish community,
recognized the jurisdiction of the High Priests,
and paid regular tribute to the temple at
Jerusalem. Although under the rule of the
Seleucid monarchs of Syria, they retained
their own laws and religion without interference
to the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164
B. C.), who began trying to Hellenize them
and to introduce the worship of Greek deities
in Jerusalem. This resulted in a revolt led
by the Maccabees which Antiochus was unable
to put down. At the beginning of his reign
Antiochus deposed the High Priest Onias III
and put his brother Jason in his place, then
substituted a younger brother Menelaus or
Oriias IV, who procured the murder of Onias
III. Onias V, the son of the murdered ex-High
Priest, fled to Egypt to escape the sacrilege
and disorder produced by Antiochus' policy
and with him went some adherents who esteemed
him to be the legitimate High Priest. They
were well received by Ptolemy Philometor
(181-146 B. C.), who gave them a disused
Egyptian temple at Leontopolis, and there
they constructed a replica of the temple
at Jerusalem and duly observed the daily
sacrifices and other rites. This temple at
Leontopolis remained in use until the temple
at Jerusalem was destroyed in A. D. 70, and
then it was closed. Although a sanctuary
of the Egyptian Jews this local temple never
attained the prestige of the temple at Jerusalem,
to which tribute)was sent from Egypt as from
other countries of the dispersion. Probably
it was in connection with this temple that
a Greek translation of the Old Testament,
known as the Septuagint, was made, apparently
by gradual stages, the translation of the
five books of Moses in a rather crude vernacular
such as was used in Egypt and which has its
parallel in many of the Egyptian papyri,
and this translation was made early enough
to be used by Demetrius (as cited in Clemens
Alex., Stom., i, 21, and Eusebius, Praep.
Evang., ix, 21, 29), who probably lived under
Ptolemy Philopator (222-205), whilst the
historical and prophetical books were translated
later in more literary form, and the latest
books, Ecclesiastes and Song, in an improved
and more literal style. The legend of Seventy
Elders who made the translation under Ptolemy
Philadelphus (285-247 B. c.), based on the
spurious letter of Atisteas to his brother
Philocrates, is unhistorical. Probably the
whole translation was not completed before
the early years of the Christian era. Philo
of Alexandria does not quote from Ruth, Ecclesiastes,
Song, Esther, Lamentations, Ezekiel, or Daniel,
nor does the New Testament quote from Ezra,
Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song, or
certain of the Minor Prophets.
Beginning with the revolt of the Maccabees
there was a strong anti-Hellenist reaction
in Palestine which seems to have spread abroad
amongst the Jews of the Dispersion in the
early years of the Christian era. It was
part of the nationalist movement which inspired
the Jewish revolt that culminated in the
destruction of Jerusalem. This reaction returned
to stricter observance of Hebrew tradition,
to the use of the Hebrew language, and to
the older idea of complete separation from
the "gentiles". This reaction was
the parent of Rabbinical Judaism. In this
stricter Judaism it was no longer tolerated
to read the scriptures publicly in the synagogue
in the Greek language, the observance of
the rite of circumcision and all other legal
ordinances was punctiliously enforced and
any familiar intercourse with pagans or the
"uncircumcised" was absolutely
forbidden. The Mosaic law was made stricter
by rabbinical glosses.
The rivalry between this stricter traditional
party and the Taxer Hellenistic Jews of the
Dispersion had its repercussion in the Christian
community. There were at first two parties,
judaistic Christians who wanted all converts
to be circumcised and subject to the whole
Mosaic law, and Hellenistic converts who
demanded no more than the acceptance of the
Christian faith. The controversy between
these two parties is recorded in the Acts
of the Apostles. In the end the judaistic
party disappeared altogether, for the judaistic
Christians which appear later in the Antioch
of St. John Chrysostom belonged to a heretical
sect which deliberately tried to revive Jewish
usages. Possibly it may be said that Christianity
is the heir of Hellenistic Judaism, the irxheritor
of that monotheistic moral religion which
so well suited the trend of Hellenistic thought.
The Christian Church received the Old Testament,
but used it as subordinate to the New. The
prophecies were treated as referring to Christ,
its moral teaching as preparatory to a fuller
revelation in the gospel. As the Greek converts
greatly outnumbered the Jewish ones, it is
not surprising that Greek education, which
implied Greek philosophy, very soon began
to permeate Christian teaching. Indeed it
had already influenced Jewish thought as
can be seen in several books of the apocrypha,
such as Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, which
bear the impress of Stoic thought. In this,
as in many other respects, Christianity only
continued the logical evolution of Hellenistic
Judaism. In this adaptation of Christianity
to gentile thought the leader was St. Paul
whose epistles had a great influence on the
formation of Christian doctrine and its approximation
to current Greek philosophy. Like the Hellenistic
Jews the Christians used the Old Testament
only in its Greek version, and the earlier
formulation of its doctrine was expressed
in terms borrowed from Greek plfflosophy.
Thus from the beginning the Christian Church
was shaped to be the teacher of Greek intellectual
culture as well as of evangelical doctrine.
Later, when controversies arose within the
Church, these too were expressed in Greek
philosophical terms and fought out according
to philosophical principles.
Religion may be concerned only with ritual,
which is the case with most primitive religions,
concerned only with sacrifices and the due
performance of sacred rites. A later stage
is reached when religion becomes a moral
agency, which begins perhaps with the observance
of tabus. Last comes the development of speculative
theology, itself a form of philosophy which
seeks to explain why things are as they are
and to account for man's place in the universe.
The ancient Egyptian religion seems to have
reached this final stage in its later days,
but in Greek thought philosophy had superseded
or absorbed religion, and it was in a society
where philosophy had practically replaced
religion that Christianity was evolved. The
old Greek and Roman religions, purely ritual
and very largely magic, had no living influence
and held their ground only as traditional
survivals to which people were attached by
long association. Morality was absorbed in
philosophy as well as speculation on man's
place in the universe, indeed his duty was
essentially involved in the reason for his
existence. Thus Christianity was presented
rather as a philosophy which set itself to
unravel the problem of existence. Undoubtedly
it borrowed a good deal from the mystery
religions with which it had certain similarities,
but the dominating influence in the evolution
of Christianity was the current attitude
of the Hellenistic world towards religion,
which was a philosophical attitude. In fact
philosophy had replaced religion in the older
sense.
Although the Church inherited the Jewish
scriptures and followed the synagogue precedent
in its liturgy, it definitely broke with
Judaism, and the break was clearly seen by
the Jewish authorities. Judaism was reverting
to the ritualism of the past and to national
exclusiveness; Christianity advanced into
a freer and more open atmosphere for which
Alexander's Conquests had cleared the way.
It was a centrifugal movement, Judaism going
farther towards the right, Christianity towards
the left. The Jews aimed at a reformation
by complete reversion to the past, which
always is the professed aim of religious
reformation. They regarded the, Christians
with aversion as pressing on more recklessly
on the path of laxity which they esteemed
the cause of their own decadence. At a later
period Jewish philosophers and scientists
made a valuable contribution to intellectual
culture, but that was in days when they were
under Arab rule. No such tendency appears
in the older Jewish academies of Sora and
Pumbaditha where interest was concentrated
in law and ritual observances.
(2) EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY
The early Church, as pictured in the Acts
of the Apostles and the epistles of St. Paul,
undoubtedly had a missionary spirit. But
that missionary spirit first appears as resulting
from persecution. It is related that the
first "scattering"of Christian
teachers from Jerusalem took place when persecution
followed the martyrdom of St. Stephen. Very
often in after times a similar reason led
to the preaching of Christianity in new districts.
Probably the British Church owed its origin
to refugees from the persecution which broke
out in Lyons and Vienna. Persecution was
not the only cause of the outspread of Christianity,
but it was one cause, Bud perhaps a leading
one.
Jewish opposition appears plainly in the
narrative of the Acts, and Jewish antagonism
seems to have been the principal cause of
many, but not all, the earlier persecutions
of the Church. The first actual persecution
of Christians as a community took place in
Rome under Nero, certainly instigated by
Jews who were powerful at court. After this
there were outbreaks of popular antagonism
in many parts, especially in Asia Minor where
Christians were numerous, and in some of
these outbreaks Jewish influence seems to
have been active. Under Trajan some attempt
was made to regularize the policy to be followed
in dealing with the Christians. When Pliny
was governor of Bithynia he found many Christians
there and a good many disturbances took place
for which they were blamed. Pliny had had
experience of legal administration in Rome,
but apparently had had no contact with cases
connected with Christians, as such cases
came before the Praefectus Urbis or his deputy.
He sought the Emperor's guidance, and Trajan
replied in letters which gave a precedent
for dealing with persons charged with practising
this unauthorized religion. It was decided
that Christianity was a crime deserving of
death, but it was not permitted to make search
for Christians and informers against them
incurred penalties. At a later period Domitius
Ultianus compiled a treatise, De offido proconsulis,
of which the seventh book gave a summary
of anti-Christian legislation. This work
would have given us a complete view of the
attitude of Roman law towards the Christians,
but unfortunittely only a few extracts survive,
the most important is Lactantius' indignant
criticism (Lactantius, Instit., v, 11, 12).
The subject remains obscure, which is to
be regretted as undoubtedly persecution,
or at least liability to persecution, was
a strong motive causing Christians to go
outside the Roman Empire, and so one of the
chief causes of the spread of Christianity.
Some light is given by Hippolytus' account
of Callistus, a Christian slave who was entrusted
by his master, also a Christian, with funds
to open a bank, but went bankrupt. He tried
to recover loans from debtors, amongst them
some Jews, and was alleged to have disturbed
a synagogue in his efforts to get hold of
them, and for thus disturbing the worship
of a legally authorized community was brought
before a judge. Obviously the Jews worked
hard to get him accused of Christianity by
bringing this out incidentally in the evidence:
they could not bring it as a direct charge
for fear of incurring the penalties attached
to laying information. Callistus was sentenced
as a Christian and condemned to labour in
the Sardinian mines, but after some time
was included, in a pardon obtained by Marcia,
the concubine of the Emperor Commodus, who
either was herself a Christian or very well
disposed towards the Christians. (Whole incident
in Von Dollinger, Hipollytus und Kallistus,
ch. viii.) All through the third century
Christian interest was strong at court (cf.
Eusebius, H. E., vi, 34; vii, 10) The effective
cause of the violent but brief persecutions
under Decius and Diocletian towards the end
of that century was that the Christians had
become too powerful, practising their religion
too openly and building large churches. Before
Decius they had been protected by Roman law
in holding property and the subterranean
cemeteries of Rome, covering considerable
areas, were their acknowledged property from
the time of Pope Zephyrinus
(202-219): it was an innovation when Decius
tracked down Christians even in their cemeteries
and seized their property. Persecution was
occasional and spasmodic, usually provoked
by non-religious motives, but there was a
liability to persecution, and this undoubtedly
led to some Christians going outside the
Roman frontiers, or at least moving to a
province where persecution was comparatively
rare. The first beginnings of the British
Church seem to have been due to fugitives
from persecution in Gaul, and that church
was by no means the only one which traced
its origin to refugees.
The desire to be safe from the liability
to persecution seems to have been responsible
for the formation of a flourishing church
in Mesopotamia outside the Roman Empire.
This Mesopotamian Church, chiefly about Edessa,
lived its own life in a comparatively free
atmosphere, and developed its own style of
church building and, apparently, its own
system of discipline. Later, when the empire
became Christian and the Catholic Church
was directed by Greek bishops, much of this
local Mesopotamian development was suppressed
with a high hand, but the fact remains that
some of the earliest extant evidence of church
organization and building belongs to the
area just across the eastern frontier of
the Roman Empire. This Mesopotamian area
had experienced Greek influence under the
Seleucids. Greek influence was brought to
bear by the Romans whose frontier towards
Parthia swayed back and forth from time to
time and who always had political interest
in the border lands. But it was the Church
more than anything else which brought about
the Hellenization of that area across the
frontier.
As it grew in prosperity the Church produced
literature. In Alexandria, as might be expected,
some of its earliest writers appeared, Clement
of Alexandria, Origen, and others, and about
A. D. 180 Hegesippus travelled about the
Mediterranean world investigating evidence
for the apostolical tradition of the Church's
teaching and institutions. Shortly before
Ms time Justin Martyr shows a Christian teacher
trying to combine current philosophy and
Christian doctrine. By the end of the second
century Christianity was not merely strong
in the number of its adherents but well reinforced
by its literary output and its co-operation
with philosophy. Christian literature was
in Greek, the earliest vernacular Christian
literature which came after was produced
in Syriac and its classical standard was
the dialect of Edessa, much earlier than
any Christian material in Latin. Throughout
the. Church generally the Old Testament was
known only in its Greek translation, as had
been the case with the Egyptian Jews in the
days of Philo of Alexandria, and presumably
with the Hellenistic Jews generally. Vernacular
versions of the Old Testament are mostly
translated from the Greek Septuagint, the
older Syriac version alone shows an independent
source which is closer to the Hebrew original.
It may well be, however, that the Masoretic
text which became the authorized version
of the Old Testament represents a text selected
from earlier divergent and varied texts,
so that the Septuagint and its versions sometimes
at least go back to an older form which has
been rendered obsolete in Hebrew by the acceptance
of a standardized text.
(3) ECCLESIASTTCAL ORGANIZATION
Although the Christian Church traced its
origin from the Jewish synagogue, it appears
in history in a structure organized, not
on Jewish lines, but on lines following the
structure of the Roman Empire. This began
before the Church had received formal toleration,
but became more pronounced after toleration
had brought the Church into closer relations
with the secular State. It was in 313 that
the Emperor Constantine granted formal toleration
to the Christian religion and in 325 summoned
the first general council at Nicaca to define
disputed points in Christian doctrine and
regulate discipline. From that time forward
the Church was protected and to some extent
controlled by the State, though it was not
until the days of Gratian (368) that it was
recognized as the established religion.
In its earlier days the Church consisted
mainly of urban congregations, over each
a bishop with supporting group of presbyters.
But gradually it spread out into the rural
areas and congregations were added in outlying
parts with presbyters only, each attached
in discipline to a neighbouring bishop. Thus
territorial dioceses were formed as the Church
expanded from the cities which had been its
earlier home. Already in Nicene times these
territorial units were gathered together
into confederations, like civil provinces,
each known as a diocese, the name having
a much wider scope than it now possesses.
In the Eastern Church there were four such
dioceses, the Orient, Pontus, Asia, and Thrace.
These were divided into eparchics, each with
one or two metropolitans. Thus Asia comprised
the eparchies of Ephesus, Sardis, Smyrna,
and Pergamum. The chief bishop or metropolitan
of each eparchy came to be known as an archbishop.
In the end there was a general recognition
of the primacy of the great churches of Rome,
Antioch, and after some hesitation Alexandria.
Afterwards for sentimental reasons Jerusalem
was conceded similar rank, though in fact
subordinate to Antioch. The council of Chalcedon
(canon 28) terminated the independence of
Pontus, Asia, and Thrace and put them under
the bishop of Constantinople which was thus
raised, in spite of protests, to equality
with Antioch and Alexandria. The bishop of
these greater groups of churches was called
patriarch, a name in frequent use in the
post-Nicene age, but not formally recognized
by any conciliar decree until the ninth century.
The Mesopotamian Church across the frontier
was regarded as within the diocese of Antioch,
but at an early date its chief bishop received
the title of Catholicus, a title already
employed by Constantine in writing to the
Bishop of Carthage, and used in the civil
administration for a procurator or deputy
of a provincial governor. This title is used
by Procopius (ii, 25) for the head of the
Persian Church and ultimately became the
perquisite of the Bishop of Seleucia. After
the Nestorian schism the bishops of Seleucia
appropriated it as the distinctive title
of the head of the Nestorian community.
From the Nicene age onwards the Church was
steadily organizing itself on lines similar
to those already employed in the civil administration
of the empire, though the areas of provinces,
dioceses, and eparchies was not in all cases
identical with those of the civil structure.
Thus organized as a kind of replica of the
Roman Empire it very efficiently and thoroughly
assimilated the Christian communities, not
only of Mesopotamia but also of Persia, to
Hellenistic standards. Such standards applied
to social organization prepared the way for
Greek culture. The Christian religion, unlike
some of the older religions, was not based
on ritual observances alone, nor entirely
on rules of moral conduct. The Greek influence
it inherited came from that later Greek thought
in which religion was absorbed in philosophy.
Christianity set a body of theological doctrine
in the forefront: ritual observances were
designed as expressions of that body of doctrine,
and morality also was built up on a basis
of doctrinal teaching. All this doctrine
was strongly Coloured by philosophy, much
of it was simply philosophy expressed in
theological terms. The philosophy thus adopted
and utilized by the Christian Church was
that philosophical teaching current in the
Greek world during the earlier centuries
of the Christian era, the eclectic philosophy
which professed to be derived from Plato
and Aristotle. Such philosophy guided and
directed the controversies raised in the
Church by Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, and
others. The problems debated were suggested
by philosophy, the conclusions reached were
the results of philosophical treatment. Perhaps
the most salient point is the complete adoption
of the Aristotelian logic as the means of
investigation and argument. However much
Christian sects differed in their tenets,
all alike accepted the Aristotelian logic
as the method to be employed in investigation
and solution.
Thus the Christian Church remodelled the
communities of its converts in conformity
with the social structure of the Roman Empire,
grouping Persians, Arabs, and other Orientals
according to a system of dioceses and provinces
which was copied from the imperial administration,
and promulgated amongst them educational
standards which reproduced those established
in Alexandria. The chief source of scientific
and philosophical material received by the
Arabs came through Christian influence.
It has been disputed whether Muhammad owed
most to Jewish or Christian predecessors,
apparently he owed a great deal to both.
But when we come to the 'Abbasid period when
Greek literature and science began to tell
upon Arabic thought, there can be no further
question. The heritage of Greece was passed
on by the Christian Church.
CHAPTER V THE NESTORIANS
(1) THE FIRST SCHOOL OF NISIBIS
NISIBIS lay within the territory ceded to
Rome in 298. As it then became a frontier
town commanding the main route between Upper
Mesopotamia and Damascus, the Romans fortified
it very strongly. Probably there already
were Christians there, as in so many parts
of Mesopotamia, and some few years later,
in 300 or 30I, it was recognized as an episcopal
see, its first bishop Babu, who was succeeded
by Jacob. The town had a great many Jewish
inhabitants also and possessed a Jewish academy
founded by R. Judah ben Bathyra, an eminent
tanna seventeen of whose halakoth are quoted
in the Mishna. Probably there were three
persons of this name, father, son, and grandson:
the first living whilst the Temple was still
standing in Jerusalem, the last contemporary
with R. Akiba, with whom he is said to have
had controversies. Apparently the Jews suffered
severely when the Romans took the town, and
it is probable that this involved the end
of their academy, at any rate it is not mentioned
afterwards.
Bishop Jacob attended the Council of Nicaea
in 325 and subscribed its decrees. Not long
after that council Eustathius, Bishop of
Antioch, founded a school at Antioch in imitation
of the great school of Alexandria, and his
example was followed by Bishop Jacob who
founded a similar school at Nisibis, with
the special purpose of spreading Greek theology
amongst Syriac-speaking Christians, whose
theology and the arrangement of whose churches,
as Strzygowski points out, did not conform
to the accepted standards of the Catholic
Church. He placed a presbyter named Ephraem
in charge of this academy. Ephraem became
a celebrated teacher and raised the school
of Nisibis to great fame. Not only so, but
he was also distinguished by his literary
work. He was not the first to Write in Syriac,
but in later ages he was always regarded
as the standard authority for classical Syriac.
Whilst he presided over the school at Nisibis
he composed poems which became the models
of Syriac verse. He is said to have presided
over the school for a period not far short
of sixty years, presumably he was quite a
young man when he was appointed, and the
end of the school was by no means the end
of his career. The chronology, however, is
not altogether clear.
The school at Antioch had a chequered history.
Cornparatively early in its career, in 331,
Eustathius himself was sent into exile and
left the school in the hands of Flavian,
who took as his associate Diodorus, an ascete
who had long been his intimate friend. All
these three, Bishop Eustasius, Flavian, and
Diodorus were prominent in controversy with
the Arians, a prominence responsible for
many of the troubles which came upon the
school of Antioch, for at the time the A.
rians had much political power, and that
became more so after the death of Constantine
in 337. The school, however, continued until
379 when Diodorus became Bishop of Tarsus:
in 381 he was one of the bishops who consecrated
Flavian to the see of Antioch. When Diodorus
was raised to the episcopate the school dispersed,
but one of its teachers, named Theodore,
continued teaching a few members who adhered
to him until 392, when he was made Bishop
of Mopseustia. Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore
of Mopseustia came to be regarded as the
leading theologians of the Syrian Church,
the Greek speaking church dependent on Antioch,
and their writings which, of course, were
in Greek, were taken as the bulwarks of the
faith in Syria. Greatly revered as teachers
of orthodoxy their teaching differed in method
from that in vogue in the school of Alexandria,
and it would seem that such difference in
scholastic method was accentuated by a racial
jealousy between the Syrians and Egyptians,
for certainly there was a rivalry, not altogether
friendly, between Antioch and Alexandria.
No one could have suggested any doubt as
to the orthodoxy of these two distinguished
theologians, but later ages suspected them
of having sown unintentionally the seeds
of Nestorianism, and some incautious expressions
used by Theodore were seized upon as suspect
of implied Nestorianism and so were formally
condemned at the fifth General Council held
at Constantinople in 553.
Meanwhile Nisibis also had its troubles.
Bishop Jacob died probably soon after 34I
when he was visited by Milles, Bishop of
Susa in Persia. Not long after this came
Julian's unfortunate expedition against Persia,
and after its disastrous end in 363 the five
provinces acquired by the Romans in 298 had
to be handed back to Persia. In the war which
ended thus calamitously Ephraem, the head
of the school of Nisibis, had taken a leading
part in defending the city against the Persians
and, as the city now passed into Persian
occupation, he felt it impossible to remain
there and fled to Edessa.
No doubt there were many other refugees and
Ephraem, as an unknown fugitive, had to undertake
menial labour to earn his daily bread. For
some time at least he found employment as
an attendant in the public baths. But friends
discovered him and encouraged him to resume
teaching, and thus a Christian school was
established at Edessa. The school of Nisibis
had not migrated to Edessa, it had simply
scattered when Nisibis fell into the hands
of the Persians, but as its head resumed
his work in Edessa there was a continuity
between the two schools and that of Edessa
may be considered as a revival of the school
of Nisibis. Ephraem lived twelve years after
the fall of Nisibis and died in 375. Not
all that period was spent in teaching; besides
his literary work he seems to have travelled
and to have spent some time as a hermit.
After his death the school had a prosperous
career. Its teaching was carried on in Syriac,
the Syriac of Edessa being reckoned as the
literary dialect of Syrian Christians.
In 412 Rabbula was appointed Bishop of Edessa.
He was the son of a converted pagan priest
of Kerinesrin (Chalcis) and a man of considerable
energy. The school was under a teacher named
Ihibha or Hibha, whose name is rendered in
Greek as Ibas. Some while before this there
had been a revival of learning which seems
to have commenced in Asia Minor, probably
in Cappadocia, and reached the Syriac-speaking
community in the course of the fifth century.
It seems to have been connected with an ecclesiastical
development which centred at Caesarea in
Cappadocia. From St. Gregory Thaumaturgus
and onwards the church there attained a great
reputation as a model in matters liturgical
(cf Brightman, Eastern Liturgies, Appendix
N, pp. 521-8), which culminated in a revised
liturgy produced by St. Basil (d- 379), which
became the established rite of Constantinople
and still remains the principal liturgy of
the Orthodox Greek Church. The second Greek
liturgy, in more general use, bearing the
name of St. John Chrysostom (d. 407), is
simply an abridged form of the liturgy of
St. Basil, whilst there is a third form,
wrongly ascribed to St. Gregory (d. 604),
which also is based on St. Basil. Of these
the full liturgy of St. Basil is now used
only on the Sundays of Lent (except Palm
Sunday), Maunday Thursday, the eves of Christmas,
Epiphany, and Easter, and on St. Basil's
day (1st January): that of St. Gregory is
used on weekdays in Lent. This liturgical
development was a byproduct of an extensive
and influential wave of cultural influence
which spread out from Cappadocia to Byzantium,
and then passed onwards through the Oriental
churches into Asia. Edessa, as the metropolis
of the Syriac-speaking Church and the focus
of the Syriac phase of Hellenistic intellectual
life, became the distributing centre of the
Cappadocian renaissance.
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Evans Experientialism 
