PHILO BYBLIUS (HERENNIUS PHILO): Greek grammarian and historian; b. in 63 A.D. (not 42, as was usually given); d. after 141. Knowledge of him comes principally through Suidas, though he is mentioned not infrequently by the Church Fathers, particularly by Origen (Contra Celsum, i. 15; Eng. transl., ANF, iv. 403) and Eusebius (Pręparatio Evangelica, i. 9-10; Eng. tnlnsl., 2 vols., Oxford, 1903). Suidas makes him an ambassador to Rome in the time of Hadrian, and a friend of Herennius Severua (from whom he took his name Herennius), consul in 141 A.D. Three of the many works ascribed to him are often referred to: "Concerning Cities and the Famous Men they have produced," "PhenicianHistory" or "Things Phenician" (a professed translation of a work by Sanchuniathon, q.v.); and "Concerning Jews," about which it is debated whether it was an independent work or merely an excursus to or a chapter in the "Phenician History," with the probability inclining in favor of the former alternative. The quotations from his "Phenician History" are supposed to make him out to be a Euhemerist;. but it is to be remembered that if this work is really a translation from the putative author, Sanchuniathon, Philo can not be held responsible for the trend of opinion there expressed. Only fragments remain of his works in citations by Eusebius.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: The fragments are collected in C. and T. Muller, Fragmenta historicorum Gręcorum, iii. 580-578, 4 vols., Paris, 1841-51. Consult H. Ewald, in the Abhandlungen of theRoyal Society of Göttingen, v (1853); E. Renan, in the Mémoires of the Academy of Inscriptions, xxiii. 2 (1858), 241 sqq.; W. von Baudissin, Studien sur semitischen Religionogsechichte, i. 3 sqq.. Leipsic, 1878; Schürer, Geschichte, and Eng. transl., Introduction, §§ 3, 18; and literature under ,SANCHUNIATHON.
PHILO OF CARPASIA: Bishop who flourished in the fourth century. Polybius in his fanciful Vita Epiphanii (MPG, xli. 85) writes of a deacon Philo whom among others the sister of Honoriusand Areadius sent to Cyprus to Epiphanius to summon him to Rome to cure her of sickness by the laying on of hands and prayer. But Philo on account of his piety was consecrated by Epiphanius as bishop of Carpasia, Cyprus, and was entrusted with the former's official administration during his absence at Rome. With this has been combined the notice of Suidas that "Philo the Carpathian wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs"; but Carpathos is the name of an island between Rhodes and Crete. Here there is either reference to different persons or a confusion of places; probably the latter, since the commentary mentioned by Suidas, preserved in a number of manuscripts, is provided with the superscription, "Commentary on the Song of Songs of Philo, bishop of Carpasia." The commentary was first published by A. Giacomelli (Rome, 1772); was printed by A. Gallandius, Bibliotheca veterum Patrum, vol. ix. Appendix, p. 713 (Venice, 1765-1781); and is in MPG, xl. i sqq.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Gręca, ix. 252, Hamburg, 1804; O. Bardenhewer, Patrologie, p. 278, Freiburg, 1901, Eng. transl., St. Louis, 1908.
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