When Wisdom Calls: Philosophical Protreptic in Antiquity ed. by O. Alieva, A. Kotzé, S. Van der Meeren

Abstract

Reviewed by: When Wisdom Calls: Philosophical Protreptic in Antiquity ed. by O. Alieva, A. Kotzé, S. Van der Meeren Diego De Brasi Alieva, O., Kotzé, A., and Van der Meeren, S. (edd.) 2018. When Wisdom Calls: Philosophical Protreptic in Antiquity. Turnhout: Brepols. Pp. 517. ISBN 978-2-503-56855-6. €100.00. At least since Paul Hartlich's dissertation De exhortationum a Graecis Romanisque scriptarum historia et indole (Leipzig: Hirzel 1889) the study of protreptic has been a significant aspect of research on classics, especially ancient philosophy and early Christianity. However, while scholarly attention in the last 130 years focused more on canonical authors like Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Paul of Tarsus, authors from the imperial era and late antiquity have been slightly neglected and a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of ancient protreptic literature is still missing. The book under review represents, thus, an extremely welcome addition to the analysis of ancient protreptic as it tries to fill this gap. Indeed, the volume offers a very good outline of protreptic and its interaction with other literary genres from the 'beginning' up to the 'end' of Antiquity. Of course, one cannot and should not expect from a collective volume a systematic approach to the subject matter, but the absence of methodological unity is not problematic in this case. As Olga Alieva in her inspiring opening essay shows ('Protreptic: a protean genre', pp. 29–45), scholars are far from reaching consensus on the criteria which define protreptic. Only the quite general claim that protreptic, as its etymology suggests, aims at the 'conversion' of the addressed audience seems to be widely accepted. Further, as Alieva also shows, and many contributors to the volume claim, even ancient authors – or at least some of them – use the term προτρέπειν and its cognates vaguely and do not distinguish clearly, for instance, between protreptic and παραίνεσις. In this regard, Alieva seems to side with those scholars of early Christianity who argue for different functions of protreptic and παραίνεσις (cf. also the contribution by Annemaré Kotzé, esp. p. 368). Although she recognizes the importance of questioning this dichotomy, Alieva explicitly challenges the analysis of Diana Swancutt, who systematically disputed the traditional interpretation. Swancutt argues that the difference between protreptic and παραίνεσις is explicable in socio-cultural [End Page 255] terms and is not an expression of different functions.1 Alieva is right in pointing out that we cannot find explicit mentions of socio-cultural aspects in the texts examined by Swancutt. However, it is questionable whether the absence of evidence in ancient texts is evidence of absence. We should not forget, indeed, that ancient philosophical texts are usually the expression of a 'closed' socio-cultural community, and philosophical authors perhaps did not feel the need to put the spotlight on such aspects in their arguments. After Alieva's contribution, which in some way represent a second, methodological introduction to the whole collection (while the actual 'Introduction', pp. 19–27, mainly epitomizes all contributions), the volume offers sixteen 'case studies' ranging from Hesiod to Marinus of Neapolis and dealing with more (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Galen, Augustine) and less (e.g. Philo of Alexandria, Lucian of Samosata, Marinus) 'canonical' authors. The last essay by Sophie van der Meeren ('Protreptique et isagogique: les vestibules de la philosophie', pp. 407–55) deals more generally with the protreptic implications of late antique isagogical literature. The essays are subdivided into two main sections ('Classical and Hellenistic World' pp. 47–227, 'Imperial Rome' pp. 229–455) and ordered mainly chronologically. There is only one easily explicable exception: Johan C. Thom's paper deals with Iamblichus' use of protreptic but is the second contribution in the section on 'Classical and Hellenistic World' since it also elaborates on Iamblichus' use of the so-called Pythagorean Sayings. A general bibliography and an index locorum complete the volume. All contributions are well written, of very high scientific standards and quite engaging, but since it would be impossible to assess every single one, I will focus on very few essays which I found particularly stimulating. Johan C. Thom's contribution focuses, as I mentioned above, on Iamblichus' Protrepticus and its use of Pythagorean Sayings ('Protreptic and Pythagorean sayings: Iamblichus' Protrepticus...