05-27-2013, 04:43 PM
Quote:Mark Hygate post=338250 Wrote:Unless I am (and will happily be) mistaken, Arrianus was a Greek priest, who travelled widely and obtained the favour of Hadrian.You are! :errr: Although Arrian was certainly known as a philosopher, he was also a Roman senator who served as legatus Augusti pro praetore (i.e. consular governor) of the key military province of Cappadocia in the mid-130s. His previous career will have entailed the command of a legion (a necessary prequel to command of an armed province) and (probably) a tribunate in a legion (though some senators managed to skip this step). And he was Bithynian, not Greek!
Ahh, well then..... :dizzy:
So, the Forward in James DeVoto's translation is wrong (the only place I would have got the info I had to hand)? I'm genuinely surprised at that. So, 'born between 90-95AD to a Romanised Greek family' is wrong? Not a 'priest for life of Demeter & Kore'? Certainly nothing in that forward suggested to me any military element at all. Is there actual evidence (here it's me asking this!) that he was a senator and did command a legion, or is that supposition?
PS - although that doesn't preclude any criticism mind you - he's still writing from a 'distant' perspective, just like Polybius.
