“Once the Milesians valiant were.
“Time also was, when I could be useful to my Friends, and when you were wont to call me Others Good; as turning to the Profit of other Men my Interest with Persons in great Authority, whom I made to serve me as so many Hands. Now I am left destitute of all, unless you have any Power; for you, together with Virtue, I reckon a Good, of which none will be able to rob me. But you have, and will always have Power, by reason of the excellent Use you make of your Credit. Wherefore let Niceus and Philolaus, virtuous Youths and Relations, return Masters of their own, thro’ the Care of all who honour you, whether private Men or Magistrates.” Thus, as a necessary Part of her History, I have inserted at Length, all the Letters written to Hypatia by Synesius, except the 15th, whereof I have given the Substance; and the 33d in the Collection of his Letters, which is too short to contain any Instruction; as likewise the 154th, which, being too long, I have abridged above.
CHAP. XIII.
Hypatia married, yet said to die a Maid. Isidorus, her Husband, the most eminent Philosopher of his Time.
It would be as great a Prodigy in Nature as Hypatia was herself, if a Lady of such Beauty, Modesty, Wisdom, and Virtue, were not by many eagerly sought in Marriage: And, in Effect, we find that she was actually married to the Philosopher Isidorus, tho’ Suidas says she died a Maid; which is not so irreconcilable a Thing, as People may be apt to imagine on first Thoughts, but, as we shall shew, very likely to be true. This Isidorus succeeded Marinus in the School, and his Life has been written by Damascius, one of Theon’s Scholars, who therefore had all imaginable Opportunities to know whatever regarded Hypatia and Isidorus. His Life was abridged by Photius, but we have it not so perfect as he left it; for besides the extreme Confusion and Incorrectness which appears thro’ the whole, the learned Valesius gave the World Expectations, that he would, one Time or other, publish it twice larger than that we read now in Photius. However, in such as it still is, Damascius bestows such Elogies on Isidorus, as put him almost above Humanity; yet, no way concerning Hypatia, I pass them over in Silence. I frankly confess, that I more than suspect many of the Things he reports as knowing that Damascius was a great Visionary, and, like Philostratus with respect to Apollonius Tyaneus, designed to oppose Isidorus to those Christian Saints, who were celebrated for their miraculous and supernatural Attainments. But this ought not to affect his Credit in Matters of an ordinary Nature, and therefore I do not in the least hesitate to believe him, when he positively affirms that Hypatia was Wife to Isidorus.
CHAP. XIV.
In what Sense it might be said, that tho’ Hypatia was married, yet she died a Maid.
Suidas likewise makes her the Wife of the same Isidorus, tho’ he be the very Man who tells us she died a Virgin. That Matter, considering the great Uncertainty in which we are left by the meditated Destruction or casual Decay of authentick Writers, I conceive to stand thus. Damascius says, that Isidorus had another Wife, whose Name was Domna, by which he had a Son call’d Proclus. She died the fifth Day after her Delivery, and, according to his Panegyrist, she rid the Philosopher of an evil Beast and a bitter Wedlock. Now supposing this to happen some Time before the tragical End of Hypatia, and that the latter was betrothed to Isidorus, it might very well be said that she was his Wife, and yet that she died a Maid. The Author of an Epigram, that was made upon her, seems to have been of the same Opinion.
The Virgin’s starry Sign when e’er I see,
Adoring, on thy Words I think and thee: