Maël Goarzin

This article aims at presenting a specific aim of late antique biographical discourse: presenting to the reader an ideal, but nonetheless practical, way of life to put into practice. Gregory of Nyssa and Marinus’s biographical texts, The Life of Moses and The Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus on the one hand, and Proclus or concerning happiness on the other, provide a good example of this more or less explicit aim. Furthermore, these two texts are particularly interesting to determine the reason why late antique authors from the 4th and the 5th century CE used biographical discourse to present an ideal way of life and how this specific aim was achieved. By giving a concrete or practical example of the good life, biographical discourse can indeed be seen as a particularly adequate type of discourse to present and exhort the reader to imitate a particular way of life. By providing a practical exemple of the good life, biographical discourse facilitates the imitation of such a life, more than a theoretical discourse would do.

This article aims at presenting a specific aim of late antique biographical discourse: presenting to the reader an ideal, but nonetheless practical, way of life to put into practice. Gregory of Nyssa and Marinus’s biographical texts, The Life of Moses and The Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus on the one hand, and Proclus or concerning happiness on the other, provide a good example of this more or less explicit aim. Furthermore, these two texts are particularly interesting to determine the reason why late antique authors from the 4th and the 5th century CE used biographical discourse to present an ideal way of life and how this specific aim was achieved. By giving a concrete or practical example of the good life, biographical discourse can indeed be seen as a particularly adequate type of discourse to present and exhort the reader to imitate a particular way of life. By providing a practical exemple of the good life, biographical discourse facilitates the imitation of such a life, more than a theoretical discourse would do.