LONGINUS, CASSIUS (c. A.D. 213-273), Greek rhetorician and philosophical critic, surnamed PHILOLOGUS. The origin of his gentile name Cassius is unknown; it can only be conjectured that he adopted it from a Roman patron. He was perhaps a native of Emesa (Homs) in Syria, the birthplace of his uncle Fronto the rhetorician. He studied at Alexandria under Origen the heathen, and taught for 3o years at Athens. Longinus up held, in opposition to Plotinus, the doctrine that the Platonic ideas existed outside the divine N (On ice roil im/AarnKe ra see F. Uberweg, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philo sophie, 9th ed., 5903, i. § 72). Plotinus, after reading his treatise cipxCw (On First Principles), remarked that Longinus might be a scholar (cfm.X6Xoyos), but that he was no philosopher (4)AlroOos). The reputation which Longinus acquired by his learning was immense; he is described by Porphyry as "the first of critics," and by Eunapius as "a living library and a walking museum" or encyclopaedia. During a visit to the East he became teacher in Greek, and subsequently chief counsellor in state affairs, to Zenobia, queen of Palmyra. It was by his advice that she endeavoured to regain her independence ; Aurelian, however, crushed the attempt, and while Zenobia was led captive to Rome to grace Aurelian's triumph, Longinus paid the forfeit of his life.
Longinus was the author of a large number of works, nearly all of which have perished. Among those mentioned by Suidas are Quaestiones Homericae, An Homerus fuerit philosophus Problemata Homeri et solutiones, Atticorum vocabulorum edi: tiones dune; the most important of his philological works, cl3LX6Xo-yot (Philological Discourses) consisting of at least 21 books, is omitted. A considerable fragment of the ilepl riXovs (De finibus, On the Chief End) is preserved in the Life of Plotinus by Porphyry (§ 20). Under his name there are also extant Prolegomena to the Encheiridion of Hephaestion on metre (printed in R. Westphal, Scriptores Metrici Graeci, i. 1866) and the fragment of a treatise on rhetoric (L. Spengel, Rhetores Graeci, i. pp. 299-320), inserted in the middle of a similar treatise by Apsines. It gives brief practical hints on invention, arrange ment, style, memory and other things useful to the student.
It is as the reputed author of the well-known and remarkable work IIEpi btkovs (generally, but inadequately, rendered On the Sublime) that Longinus is best known. Modern scholars, how
ever, with few exceptions, are agreed that it cannot with any cer tainty be ascribed to him, and that the question of authorship cannot be determined (see Introduction to Roberts's edition).
The alternative author, Dionysius, of the mss. has been vari ously identified with the rhetorician and historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Atticist Aelius Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Dionysius Atticus of Pergamum, Dionysius of Miletus. Dr. W. R. Roberts (Class. Ass. Proceedings, 1928) concludes on an unidenti fied Greek man of letters who probably lived at Rome not more than 3o or 4o years after the birth of Christ. Wilamowitz-Mollen dorff also gives his date as about A.D. 4o.
The rendering On the Sublime implies more than is intended by the Greek Hepi. rAkovs ("impressiveness in style," Jebb). Noth ing abnormal, such as is associated with the word "sublime," is the subject of discussion ; it is rather a treatise on style. According to the author's own definitions, "sublimity is a certain distinction and excellence in expression," "sublimity consists in elevation," "sublimity is the echo (or expression) of a great soul" (see note in Roberts).
The treatise is especially valuable for the numerous quotations from classical authors, above all, for the preservation of the famous fragment of Sappho, the ode to Anactoria, beginning Octiverat pot KiiVOS Zoos 0 faCRY imitated by Catullus (li.) Ad Lesbiam, "Ille mi par esse deo videtur." "Its main object is to point out the essential elements of an impressive style which, avoiding all tumidity, puerility, affecta tion and bad taste, finds its inspiration in grandeur of thought and intensity of feeling, and its expression in nobility of diction and in skilfully ordered composition" (Sandys).
A full bibliography of this subject will be found in the edition by W. Rhys Roberts (2nd ed. 1909), with introduction, analysis, translation and appendices. See also W. R. Roberts' introduction to Demetrius on Style in Aristotle: the Poetics (ed. with Eng. trans. by W. Hamilton Fyfe, 1927) F. Marx, Wiener Studien (xx. 1898) and F. Kaikel, Hermes (xxxiv., 1899), who respectively advocate and reject the claims of Longinus, and J. E. Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship (2nd ed. 1906). The number of translations in all the languages of Europe is large, including the famous one by Boileau. A text and translation was published by A. 0. Prickard (1907—o8).