The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius

PREFACE.

Of Maximus, the author of the following Dissertations, nothing more is known than that he was a Tyrian by birth; that he lived under the Emperors Antoninus and Commodus; that he resided for some time in Rome, but likely spent most of his life in Greece; that he practiced philosophy, primarily that of Plato; and that he was one of those sophists who, like Dio Chrysostom, combined philosophy with the study of rhetoric, uniting sublimity and depth of thought with magnificence and elegance of speech.

I have noted that he primarily followed Platonic philosophy because, in the twentieth dissertation, it appears he preferred the Cynic life The Cynic school emphasized living in accordance with nature and rejecting conventional desires for wealth, power, and fame. over all others, thus placing the end of life in practical Footnote: As the essence of man consists in intellect, which is entirely contemplative, the true end of life must consist in contemplation, not in action. Practical virtue, therefore, ranks as a means, and theoretic virtue as the end.