I happened upon the review by Adam Kamesar of Vermes and Goodman, The
Essenes According to the Classical Sources, which offers some comments
relevant to recent threads here (JAOS 111 [1991] 134-5).
"...Synesius, Dio 3.2, where the Essenes are described as a 'polis hole
eudaimon'...This phrase is translated with the words 'an entire and
prosperous city'....Yet it must be remembered that Dio is a Stoic of sorts,
and he regards a polis not so much as a place of habitation, but as a
'group of people living under the rule of law in the same place' (Oratio
36.20; cf. 36.29 and H. von Arnim, Stoicum veterum fragmenta, III:80-81).
Indeed, that in this passage polis should be translated and understood with
reference to this definition (cf. the rendering "Gemeinwesen' in Adam and
Burchard, 39) may be confirmed by the fact that it is employed [/p.135] in
apposition to the word 'Essenes.' Accordingly, we should be wary of
pressing the distinction between the description of the Essenes as a
'polis' in Dio/Synesius and as a 'gens sola' in Pliny....For the latter
phrase should probably be rendered 'a people living on its own,' and not as
Goodman translates, 'a people unique of its kind'....Likewise, 'eudaimon'
should not be translated by an adjective with material connotations such as
'prosperous,' for the author is clearly thinking of that sort of eudaimonia
which accrues to a city as a result of the virtue and concord of its
inhabitants (see von Arnim, SVF, 1:61). In fact, in the immediately
preceding sentence (omitted by Goodman), Synesius had mentioned Dio's
description of the 'bios eudaimonikos' of an individual, a Euboaean hunter
who lived a highly austere life in the wilderness but nevertheless achieved
an outstanding degree of happiness (Oratio 7). Therefore, in all
probability Synesius is referring to a description of the Essenes in which
the latter are praised for a similar accomplishment in a group setting."
Such description accords with a Stoic view of the Qumran Jewish Essenes,
'ose hatorah, the yahad (Gemeinwesen, community) on the north-west Dead Sea
shore.
best,
Stephen Goranson
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