3. Eusebius mentions a Christian philosopher of that name in the 2d century, giving an interesting fragment of a work of his on the question, then much discussed, of the origin of evil {Prcep. Evang. vii, 21 fin., 22 ; Hist. Eccles. V, 27). He has been by some considered as the author of the I)ialogus c. Marcion., formerly and errone- ously attributed to Origen ; but Gieseler {Stud. xi. Krit. 1830-32, p. 380) successfully opposed this view.
4. Another Maximus, who represented himpf^lf both as a philosopher (cynic) and a Christian, and ga\ e much trouble to Gregory of Nazianzum, at Constantinople. — Herzog, Real-EncyUoj). ix, 208.
Maximus, bishop of Turin, was born towards the close of the 4th centurj^, and early in the 5th was ele- vated to the episcopate. But little is known of his life. His signature is affixed to a document expressing the approval liy the bishops of Northern Italy of pope Leo's letter to Flavian on Eutychianism (Leo, 0pp. ed. Ques- nel, p. 291). Among the signatures to the acts of a synod hehl at Rome in A.D. 465, his name appears im- mediately below that of pope Hilarius, the successor of Leo, a circumstance that marks him as the oldest bishop of the assembly. His writings, chieflj' homilies, are rich in descriptions of the life of the Christians, at a time when paganism, although tottering to its fall, was still powerful among the rural population, and when the empire was trcmliling before the power of the invading hordes of barbarians. During the irruption of Attila he displayed a lofty faith in God, and succeeded in arousing his people from their despair, which had deter- mined them to forsake their homes and seek safety in flight. The people of Turin obeyed his counsel, and their city was spared. But when the Huns departed from Italy, and the citizens purchased a share of their spoil, including slaves, he did not hesitate to condemn their conduct, and even compared them to wolves fol- lowing in the track of lions, in order to gorge them- selves on their abandoned prey. His homilies often censure the still prevailing idolatr}-, particularly the cultus Dianro arvorum numinis, the practice of the priests in inflicting wounds on themselves to do honor to their goddess, etc., and also defended the orthodox doc- trines of the Church against Eutychians, Nestorians, Pelagians, and IManicha-ans. The best edition of his works is that published at Rome in 1784, found in Migne, vol. Ivii. See also Schonemann, Bibl. Hist. Lit, (Leips. 1794), ii, 607 sq. ; Acta Sanct. Jmie 25 ; Biogra-
MAXIMUS
920
MAXWELjl
j>Me, UiiiverseUe, vol. xxvii, s. v. ; Herzog, Real-EncyUop. ix, 208 ?:(i. ; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lex. xii, 782 sq.
Maximus of Tyre, a Neo-Platonic philosopher, sumanunl after the place of his abode, flourished in the 2d century as teacher of philosophy and rhetoric, first in Greece and afterwards in Rome, whither he made two journeys, one under the reign of Antoninus, another un- der that of Coramodus. He may be ranked with Phasdrus, (Juintus Curtius, and others, of whom their contempora- ries have scarcely made mention, and therefore of whom very little is known. We have extant of his works forty-one ^laKi^uQ, or dissertations, upon various argu- ments, a MS. copy of which was first brought out of Greece into Italy by Janus Lascaris, and presented to Lawrence de Medicis. From this copy a Latin transla- tion was made, and published by Cosmus Paccius, arch- bishop of Florence, in 1519 : then in Greek by Henry Stephens in 1557; then in Greek and Latin by Daniel Heinsius in 1G07 ; by J. Davis in 1703 ; by Keiske in 1774, and since, in 4to. These dissertations are enter- taining, curious, and instructive, and have gained the author high encomiums among the learned. The fol- lowing examples will give some idea of the subject of Maximus's dissertations : " On Plato's Opinion respect- ing the Deity;" "Whether we ought to return Injuries done to us ;" " Whether an Active or a Contemplative Life is to be preferred ;" " Whether Soldiers or Husband- men are more usefiU in a State ;" " On the Daimouium of Socrates ;" " Whether Prayers should be addressed to the Deity," etc. The dissertations have been translated into French by Morel (Paris, 1607), by Forney (1764), and by Dounais (1S02) ; into Italian by Petro de Eardi (Venice, 1642) ; and into German by C. T. Damm (Ber- lin, 1764). There is, we believe, no English translation of this author. Isaac Casaubon, in the epistle dedica- tory of his Commentaries upon Peisius, calls him " mel- litissimus Platonicorum ;" and Peter Petit represents him as " auctorem imprimis elegantem in philosophia ac di- sertum" {Misc. Observat. lib. i, c. 20). He has spoken a good deal of himself in his thirty-seventh dissertation, and seemingly in a style of panegyric, for which his editor Da\'is has accused him of indecency and vanity ; but Fabricius {Bib. Grcec. lib. iv, c. 23) has" defended him very well upon this head by observing that Davis did not sufficiently attend to Maximus's purpose in speaking thus of himself: " which was," he says, " not at all with a view of praising himself, but to encourage and pro- mote the practice of those lessons in philosophy which they heard from him with so much applause." Some have confounded Maximus of Tyre with Maximus Ephe- sius, the preceptor of Julian the Apostate. See Gen. Bio(j. Diet. s. v.; Smith, Diet. Greek and Roman Biog. and Mythol. s. v. ; English Cydopcedia, s. v.