Seve'rus RHETOR
6. RHETOR. Of this writer nothing certain is known. Fabricius is disposed to identify him with the
Σεβῆρος σοφιστὴς Ῥωμαῖος, Severus Sophista Romans, mentioned by Suidas (
s. v.) and by Photius, in his abstract of the life of Isidorus by Damascius (
Biblioth. Cod. 242). The Severus of Photius resided at Alexandria in the latter part of the fifth century, in the enjoyment of an ample library, and of literary leisure, and was a great patron and encourager of learned men, circumstances which bespeak him to have been a man of fortune.
The prospect of the revival of the Western Empire during the brief reign of the Emperor Anthemius [ANTHEMIUS], led him to visit Rome, where he obtained the honour of the consulship (A. D. 470), which honour, according to Damascius, was portended by the circumstance, deemed a prodigy, that his horse, when rubbed down, emitted from his skin an abundance of sparks.
Works
Severus, the rhetorician, wrote the following works :--
A series of fictitious speeches, supposed to be uttered by various historical or poetical personages at particular conjunctures.
There are extant eight of these
Ethopoeiae.
Editions
Nos. 1-4 were first printed, with a Latin version, by Fed. Morel, 8vo. Paris, 1616, although the third appeared in an imperfect form and the fourth appeared as a fragment, with title merely of Fragmentum alterius Ethopoeiae.
The fourth was afterwards given in a complete form by Allatius; viz. Pictoris, depictae a se puellae amore correpti.
Morel himself published the fourth complete, under the name of the sophist Aristides.
Nos. 1-5, but in a more ample form and in a different order, were included, with a new Latin version, in the Excerpta varia Graecorum Sophistarum ac Rhetorum of Allatius, 8vo. Paris, 1641.
Gale included nos. 1-5, which were already published, with 6-8 in his Rhetores Selecti, 8vo. Oxford, 1676.
Editions
No. 7 had been published in the collection of Allatius, but under the name of Theodorus Cynopolites. Gale added a new Latin version of his own, and gave a revised, at least a different, text.
The whole eight are included in the Rhetores Graeci of Walz, vol. i. p. 539, 8vo. Stuttgard and Tubingen, 1832.
Editions
These were first published by Iriarte. (
Regiae Biblioth. Matritensis Codd. Graeci MSti, vol. i. p. 462. fol. Madrid, 1769), and are reprinted by Walz in the collection just cited, p. 357. They are very short.
Further Information
Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 53.
[
J.C.M]
