Numenius (Noi'ju/ji'ioc) of Apajiea, in Syria, a Greek philosopher who lived in the second half of the 2d century A.D., was one of the first philosophers who at- tempted to reconcile the Greek schools with the Oriental doctrines, a conciliation previously undertaken by Philo, and later by Plotinus. The personal history of Nume- nius is unknown, but it appears that he acquired a great reputation, and we often find him quoted with Cronius by the Neoplatonic philosophers as one of the chiefs of the new school. Nothing precise is known as to the opin- ions of Cronius; tliose of Numenius are better known. Numerous fragments of his works, quoted by Origcn, Theodoret, and Eusebius, show the essential features of his philosophy. He professed much respect for the Oriental religions and doctrines, including Judaism and Christianity. '"I know," says Origen, "that the Py- thagorean Numenius, who has explained Plato, and who was so well versed in the philosophy of Pythago- ras, quotes in many places of his works passages from Moses and the prophets, and he skilfully discovers the hidden meaning. He has done this in his work enti- tled Kpops, in his book upon Numbers, and in his trea- tise upon Space. Much more, in his third book 'Of the Supreme Good' he quotes a fragment from the his- tory of Jesus Christ, of which he seeks the hidden in- terpretation." In his eclecticism, more fervent than enlightened, Numenius endeavored to bring back Plato, whom he calls an Attic Closes, to Pythagoras, and Py- thagoras himself to the wise men of the East, so that the Platonico-Pylhagorean philosophy, the true Greek philosophy, restoreil to its original purity, and freed from the interpolations of Aristotle and the Stoics, is identical with the dogmas and mysteries of the Brah- min, the Jews, Jlagi, and Egyptians. He sustained this proposition in a treatise entitled Tlepi twv Tl\d- rtm^of aTToppijTiov, and in llepi -ij^ tujv ' AKa^ripdiKMV TrpuQ llXdrtiJva vianrdnitxK^. Many fragments remain of this treatise, which give a poor idea of it. An eru- dition without criticism is found in it, manj' stories, and .no discussions at all truly philosophic. His treatise Hfpi Tciya^ov is better. He endeavored to demon- strate in it, in opposition to the Stoics, that life can neither issue from the elements, which are in a perpetual state of change and transition, nor from matter, which is movable, inanimate, and which is not in itself an object Vll— P
of intelligence ; on the contrary, life, in order to be capa- ble of resisting the principle of death which is in matter, must be incorporeal and immutable, eternally present, in- dependent of time, simple, and unable to experience mod- ifications, either by its own will or by the will of other beings. Life is, then, a spiritual principle (I'oi'f) iden- tical with the first God, who exists in himself and through himself, and who is the sovereign good (-('- nya^cJi'). But as this absolute and immutable princi- ple cannot be active and creative, it is necessary to ad- mit a second God (o SivTipoc, ^toc, 6 (i]iaovpyiKuQ 3f ot-) proceeding from the first, who, as bond and author of matter, communicates his energy to the intellectual es- sences, and infuses his spirit through all creatures. This second God contemplates the first {/.uTovaia roi» Trpibrov), and it is upon the ideas that he sees in the sovereign good that he arranges the world. The first God communicates his ideas to the second, without de- priving himself of them, the same as we communicate our knowledge (t7r(ffr/;/(jj) to another without losing anything. We see that Numenius attributes to his sec- ond God a double duty: first, to contemplate the ideal; secondly, to arrange the world upon this ideal. This duality of functions led the philosopher to double his second God, and he thus obtained a Trinity. The con- nections between these two Gods, which are at the same time two and one, are not clearly established in the frag- ments which remain to us of Numenius. As for his theories upon the soul, they are still more uncertain; but the little that we know of them shows that in his psychology, as in his metaphysics, Numenius confound- ed the theories of Plato with the Oriental theories, ac- corded very little place to scientific investigation, and delivered himself too nuich to his own imagination. See Suidas, s. v. 'Qpiyti'tjQ, 'NoLifxljinor ; Porphyry, Vita Plolhii ; TLusehhis, Prceparatio evanf/elica ; Origen, Adv. Celsuni; Ritter, Gesch. der alien Philos. iv, 427. etc.; Kingsley, Philos. of Alexandria, p. 94 sq. ; Simon, Hist, de I'Ecole d' A lexandrie ; Vacherot, Ilist.de VEcole dWlexundrie ; Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosojildques ; Ueberweg, Hist. Philos. i, 234, 237 sq. ; Smith, Diet, of Class. Biog. s. v.
Numerale, the same book as the Compotus, or Cat.endak (q. v.). See Walcott, Saci-ed A rchoBology, p. 403.
Numidicus of Carthaoe, a Christian martyr of the early Church, flourished at the African city after which he is surnamed near the middle of the 8d century. For his exemplary conduct in the persecution bishop Cyprian made him a presbyter. It is related of Numid- icus that, after having inspired many with courage to suffer martyrdom, and seen his own wife perish at the stake, he had himself, when half burned and covered under a heap of stones, been left for dead. His daugh- ter went to search under the stones for the body of her father, in order to bury it. Great was her joy at finding him still giving signs of life, and her filial assiduities finally succeeded in completely restoring him. We know little else of the personal history of Numidicus. He died near the close of the century. See Neander, Ch. Hist, i, 133.