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Re: orion-list Dio
Stephen, this comment by C.P. Jones regarding Synesius' inserted
reference to Sodom is interesting. Dio's reference to the Essenes is so
brief that it is difficult to evaluate, but his inaccurate description of the
Essenes as occupying a city and his description of it as "blessed [
eudaimonic]" suggests the genre of his source. Since the time of Aristotle
there was a category of writing that collected together the customs of
various tribes and peoples around the world, with a specific philosophically
motivated interest in their political institutions. Aristotle wrote one such
essay (lost), and various others are known from later times (including that
of
Nicolas of Damascus at FGH 90 103-124). These were by and large Stoic and
paradoxographical. Pliny's description of the Essenes appears to derive from
such a source. The paradoxographical elements I have discussed before on
Orion. I would here merely add that the content of Pliny's description also
touches on a number of topics of also addressed in Aristotle's Politics, such
as education, private vs. public property, etc. Returning to Dio (apud
Synesius), the (inaccurate) description of the Essenes as occupying a "city"
points to some such source whose interest in exotic ethnography is concerned
with political institutions. (The city-state ["polis"] was by some
considered the ideal political unit.) The term "eudaimonic" is also
frequently encountered in descriptions of ideal political states.
Best regards,
Russell Gmirkin
For private reply, e-mail to RGmyrken@aol.com
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