VANDERSPOEL, JOHN, Iamblichus at Daphne , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 29:1 (1988:Spring) p.83 Iamblichus at Daphne John Vanderspoel I N THE ABSENCE of new evidence, chronological precision about some details of Iamblichus' life will never be achieved. Careful study of the available evidence does occasionally permit progress. Alan Cameron has argued convincingly that Iamblichus was born ca A.D. 245. 1 More recently, T. D. Barnes has shown that the philosopher need not have lived much later than A.D. 320.2 Elsewhere I have attempted to establish Chalcis in the Lebanon as the place of his birth, citing a phrase of Themistius not previously noted in this context. 3 One item that still requires a satisfactory explanation is the statement of Malalas that Iamblichus lived at Daphne during the reign of Ga­ lerius (312.11f [Bonn]): E'1TL aE Tfi!; at,Tov /3a(rLA£ta!; 'IciJ.L/3ALXo!; 0 cpLAO- "f.. 'St'St ,~, A' "f.. " ~ 'I. ~ , ~ Th' cro."o!; £uLuacrKEv, OLKWV £v ~a."vTI EW!; T7]!; TEI\EVT7]!; aVTOV. IS state- ment has been disregarded by some scholars4 and interpreted vari­ ously by others. It is quite possible, chronologically speaking, that Iamblichus taught at Daphne during the reign of Galerius before moving to Apamea,5 less likely that he moved to Daphne from Apa­ mea in the late 31 O's or early 320'S.6 That the philosopher taught for a time at Apamea is certain. The contemporary correspondence of a former pupil guarantees this,7 as does the evidence of Libanius later in the century. In a speech ad­ dressed to the emperor Theodosius, the sophist mentions "the chorus I "The Date oflamblichus' Birth," Hermes 96 (1968) 374-76. J. DILLON, Iamblichi Chalcidensis in Platonis Dialogos Commentariorum Fragmenta (Leiden 1973 [here­ after 'Dillon']) 6f, accepts the argument and pushes the date back to ca 242. 2"A Correspondent oflamblichus," GRBS 19 (1978) 99-106 [hereafter 'Barnes']. 3 "Themistios and the Origin oflamblichos," Hermes 16 (1988) 125-28: Them. Or. 24.301b, lCa& 0' P.EII nilES' E'IrLxwPtOIl ~aOIlTES' P.EAOS', 0' at- 'AuuvptolllCa& EIC Atfjavov. 4 Most notably, J. Bidez, "Le philosophe Jamblique et son ecole," REG 32 (1919) 29-40. PLRE I 451 remarks that the statement should "probably be rejected." 5 So Barnes 105. Dillon (120 remains somewhat uncertain, suggesting that it makes little difference whether the philosopher taught at Daphne or Apamea. Malalas refers to the emperor in question as Maxentius Galerius, an obvious confusion, but this does not necessarily affect his knowledge of Iamblichus' career. 6 As H. D. Saffrey, "Abamon, pseudonyme de J amblique," Philomathes. Studies and Essays in the Humanities in Memory of P. Merlan (The Hague 1971) 231, thinks (admittedly, the difficulty of this view depends partly on acceptance of Barnes' chro­ nology). 7 Dillon 11-13; Barnes 105. 83 VANDERSPOEL, JOHN, Iamblichus at Daphne , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 29:1 (1988:Spring) p.83 84 IAMBLICHUS AT DAPHNE of philosophers from Apamea, whose head resembled (£c{lICEL) the gods" (Or. 51.21). In a letter of 363 he calls Apamea T~V ' IaIJ-{3ALXov TE £PWIJ-lV7JV lCat l:W'lTclTPOV IJ-TJTlpa (Ep. 1389.3). Moreover, in his funeral oration for Julian, he notes that the emperor, adjudicating a dispute about status, gave pride of place to Apamea over Laodicea precisely because oflamblichus and Sopater (Or. 18.187). The complete lack of evidence in the works of Libanius for a so­ journ at Daphne is surprising. Particularly during the reign of Julian, the sophist had ample opportunity to remark this. Perhaps the most astonishing omission (if it be such) is the sophist's failure to indicate any residence of lamblichus in Daphne in Or. 60, his monody on the destruction by fire of the temple of Apollo in 362-while Julian, a devoted follower of lamblichus, was at Antioch-though the speech is admittedly fragmentary. Libanius had other opportunities as well. Neither Or. 15 nor Or. 16, both composed in the context of Julian's anger with the Antiochenes, mention lamblichus, and Julian's Mis­ opogon is similarly silent. It would seem, then, that doubts about the verity of Malalas' claim are well-founded.8 Nevertheless, Malalas occasionally offers evidence that is not found elsewhere-sometimes correct-and ought not to be rejected summarily. The first part of Malalas' statement is perhaps little more than the establishment of ajloruit for the philosopher,9 or simply an indication that he began teaching during the reign of Galerius. This last is not out of line with what is known about lamblichus' career, since there are indications that he left Porphyry before the latter's death and returned to Syria.10 The second part of the statement is more prob­ lematic, quite apart from the reference to Daphne. The pronoun aVTov refers either to lamblichus or to Galerius. If it refers to the philosopher himself, Malalas is wrong: lamblichus almost certainly was not residing at Daphne when he died, but at Apamea.11 Reference 8 Would Malalas actually have found information on the death of Iamblichus in the 'Stadtannalen' of Antioch, as A. Schenk von Stauff enberg, Die romische Kaiserge­ schichte bei Mala/as (Stuttgart 1931) 407, suggests? 9 For other examples of this in Malalas, cf 121, tV TO'S aVTo'r O~V XPOVO&S ~V b Kudpwv lI'a1 0 l:aAAotlCTT&OS, 0& CTo4>~TaTO& 'Pwp.alwv 7rO&"ITal; 215, fV TO'S aVTO'S oltv I A'R. ' ",' 'p I ,~ , I ~ '~/8 "I I 'p I It XPOVO&S &,...&OS 0 CTO."OS wp.a&(J)v V7r'1PXfV &CTTOP&II'OS, os f~f fTO 7rOl\l\a 7rfP& (J)p.a&(J)v. matters little that the Suda, s.v. 'Ia.p.~A&XOS, places hisjloruit under Constantine. 10 Cf Dillon 9-14 for discussion. B. D. Larsen, "La place de Jamblique dans la philosophie antique tardive," De Jamblique a Proc/us (=Entretiens Hardt 21 [Van­ doeuvreslGeneva 1975]) 4, suggests that the philosopher was at Alexandria for more than a decade. 11 Dillon (12f), who chooses this option, works himself out of the problem by supposing that Iamblichus lived at Daphne and visited Apamea often. VANDERSPOEL, JOHN, Iamblichus at Daphne , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 29:1 (1988:Spring) p.83 JOHN VANDERSPOEL 85 to Galerius is more probable, since that allows Iamblichus to move to Apamea ca 311 12 and saves Malalas' integrity. The problem of Daphne remains. As stated, it is quite unlikely that Iamblichus taught at the famous suburb of Antioch. It is nevertheless altogether possible that Malalas is correct in naming the location of Iamblichus' school. Josephus (BJ 4.3) refers to a delightful little place named Daphne, situated at the northern edge of the marshes associ­ ated with Lake Semachonitis, with springs that feed the Little Jordan: , A''''' ",,'\. '\. '" ~ \ \,' ., IJ-Exp' a."v1JS xwpwv Ta TE al\l\a TpV."EpOV Ka, 7r1Jyas ExovTas, a, TpE- cpovcra, TOV IJ-'KPOV KaAOVIJ-EVOV 'IopSavov. 13 Some scholars have sup­ posed that Jerome (in Hiezech. 47.18) mentions this Daphne,14 but this depends on the view that Jerome has confused the two places. He writes: contra fontem, quem perspicuum est significari Daphnen, de quo fonte supradicta urbs aquis abundantissimis fruitur-hic autem lo­ cus a Cnaeo Pompeio, qui primus Iudaeam romano subegit imperio, militari manu consitus est, et ab eo-iuxta fabulam poetarum­ Daphnes nomen accepit ob lauros et cyparissos, quae arbores *et in ipso loco jrequentissimae sun!. 15 This clearly refers to Daphne at Antioch,16 Elsewhere, Jerome (ab Abr. 1949) reports that Pompey consecrated a grove (lucus) near the temple of Apollo at Daphne. Festus is in agreement (Brev. 15: rediens apud Antiochiam Daphnensem lucum, delectatus loci amoenitate et aquarum abundantia, addito nemore consecravit), as is, for the most part, Eutropius (Brev. 6.13: aliquantum agrorum Daphnensibus dedit, quo lucus ibi spatiosior fieret, delectatus loci amoenitate et aquarum abundantia). Interestingly enough, Malalas mentions no activity of Pompey at Daphne, though he mentions the rebuilding of the f30VAEV­ T~P'OV at Antioch (211 ).17 12 Barnes (105) suggests this possibility. 13 M. Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer of Roman Palestine (=QEDEM 5 [1976]) 51, cf map 2 (p.107), adds AJ 17.24 as an additional reference, but Josephus there clearly refers to the suburb of Antioch. The Loeb translators, citing C. Kraeling, JBL 51 (1932) 133- 35, remark that the Ulatha in this passage is the Holath Antioch of the Talmud and thus the famous city in Syria. 14 P. Thomsen, Loca Sancta (Halle 1907) 55, citing H. Hildesheimer, "Beitrage zur Geographie Pallistinas," Jahresb.d.Rabbiner-Seminars zu Berlin 3 (1884-85) 22f. Hildesheimer lists predecessors who think that the place in question is Daphne in Palestine, but himself disagrees with this view. IS Text from CCL 75. The asterisked et does not appear in all manuscripts. 16 Jerome reveals confusion about the geography of northern Palestine and Syria just before the passage quoted. This is responsible for the view that he is referring to Daphne in Palestine. 17 Malalas' references to Daphne (204,234,243,261,272,275-78,289, 307f, 327, 360, 396, 421), with the sole exception of the passage on Iamblichus, specifically VANDERSPOEL, JOHN, Iamblichus at Daphne , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 29:1 (1988:Spring) p.83 86 IAMBLICHUS AT DAPHNE The ancient evidence for the existence of a place called Daphne in northern Palestine is meagre. Only Josephus mentions it unambigu­ ously}S Nevertheless, the toponym for this little place, near ancient Caesarea Philippi and about 3 km. south of Tell el-Qadi,19 has sur­ vived to the present day, as Tel (or Khirbet) Dafne. The name is perhaps a result of the similarity of its amenities to those of Daphne near Antioch. 20 Given the complete and surprising lack of evidence for any resi­ dence of Iamblichus at the suburb of Antioch, it is possible that he resided at another place of this name. Iamblichus was born at Chalcis in the Lebanon, not far from Daphne, to a wealthy family that undoubtedly had estates in a variety of areas, including perhaps a resort villa. On this interpretation, the philosopher retired to one of his or his family's estates after he left Porphyry and began his teaching career there, presumably during the reign of Galerius, before he moved to Apamea. One other item may make more sense on this view of Iamblichus' place of residence. Eunapius reports that Iamblichus and his disciples travelled to the hot springs at Gadara on one occa­ sion (VS 459). This is, of course, not an impossible journey from Daphne near Antioch, but the trip from the other Daphne is less than one-fourth the distance.21 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY January, 1988 associate it in some way with Antioch (pointed out to me by my colleague Barry Baldwin). This may mean that Malalas was aware of the existence of a second Daph­ ne or of some problem with the tradition about lamblichus. 18 Fons Daphnis appears in the Vulgate at Num. 34.11, but is absent in the Hebrew and Greek versions of the text. 19 Cf I. Benzinger, RE IV (1901) 2136 s.v. "Daphne (2)"; F. Abel, Geographie de fa Palestine I (Paris 1933) 444. 20 One might compare the delectatus loci amoenitate et aquarum abundantia of Eutropius and Festus with Josephus' L~u1.4>JI"'s XWP'OV Tel TE li.>..>..a TPV4>EPOV Ka, n.""as f'XOJlTas. 21 I am grateful to Professor Fergus Millar for sending some materials to which I did not have ready access, after we had discussed the main idea of the present article. The suggestions of a referee have helped to make this paper an improvement on an earlier version.