L’archiatra conteso: Cesario fra Gregorio Nazianzeno e la corte imperiale

An examination of the biographical events of the archiater Caesarius, Gregory Nazianzen’s younger brother, highlights – thanks above all to the analysis of oration 7 written by the Theologian on the occasion of the death of his beloved relative – not only the peculiar biographical events experienced in Constantinople by the illustrious Cappadocian physician, but also the complex and sometimes difficult political relations that existed between the Christian intellectual – whose solid training was not only medical but in fact ranged from geometry to astronomy, from philosophy to arithmetic, from rhetoric to astrology – and the emperors Constantius II, Julian and the Valentinian dynasty.

L’esame delle vicende biografiche dell’archiatra Cesario, fratello minore di Gregorio Nazianzeno, mette in evidenza – grazie soprattutto all’analisi dell’orazione 7 scritta dal Teologo in occasione della morte dell’amato congiunto – non soltanto le peculiari vicende biografiche vissute a Costantinopoli dall’illustre medico cappadoce, ma anche i complessi e talora difficili rapporti politici intercorsi fra l’intellettuale cristiano – la cui solida formazione non era soltanto medica ma in effetti spaziava dalla geometria all’astronomia, dalla filosofia all’aritmetica, dalla retorica all’astrologia – e gli imperatori Costanzo II, Giuliano e i Valentiniani.