Sunero ̄s (of Campania?) (200 BCE – 95 CE)
A P., in G CMLoc 4.8 (12.774–776 K.), records two of his collyria,
one for conjunctivitis, containing calamine, roast hematite, myrrh, opium, pepper,
pompholux, and saffron, ground into aged olive oil and Italian wine, applied with egg-
(white) – repeated by A A 7.112 (CMG 8.2, pp. 377–378) – and the other for
trachoma, containing roast copper, hematite, saffron, and opium, in gum and very sharp
vinegar. The name in this era is attested almost solely from Campania: LGPN 3A.406–407,
contrast 1.416, 2.410, 3B.388, 4.320.
RE 4A.2 (1932) 1362 (#2), F.E. Kind.
PTK
Sunesios (300 – 390 CE)
Unknown to Z but cited by O, Sunesios opens the era of alchemical
commentators; he wrote a commentary on the Phusika and Mustika of -D
as a dialogue entitled Sunesios to Dioskoros, Commentary on the Book of De ̄mokritos (CAAG 2.56–69).
His identification of D as a priest of Serapis at Alexandria provides a terminus ante
for the work, before the destruction of the Serapeion (391 CE). Berthelot (1885: 188–191)
identifies this Sunesios with Bishop S K, but a dedication to a pagan
priest renders that rather difficult. Lacombrade (1951: 71) suggests an identification with
Sunesios of Philadelpheia (ca 250 CE) mentioned by the Souda A-2180, but he has no
connection with alchemy.
In his work, Sunesios declares his exegetical intention: one must explore the writings of
De ̄mokritos to learn his thoughts and the order of his teachings. The obscurity professed by
De ̄mokritos about procedures and substances is interpreted, in a locus classicus of alchemy, as
a means of protection against outsiders and an exercise for the intelligence of adepts. The
explanations of general principles show a strong Aristotelian influence: notions of mixture,
putrefaction, qualitative change, matter and form, potential and actuality, all applied to
procedures. The goal of gold-making is identified with agents of material transformation.
The cause of transmutation is what one calls divine water, mercury, khrusokolla, unfired
sulfur, and it acts in effecting a dissolution of the bodies. Mercury appears simultaneously as
agent, common substrate, and principle of liquidity.
Ed.: CAAG 2.56–69.
Berthelot (1885) 188–191; C. Lacombrade, Synésios de Cyrène, hellène et chrétien (1951) 64–71; Letrouit
(1995) 47.
Cristina Viano
Sunesios of Kure ̄ne ̄ (ca 395 – 413 CE)
Christian Platonist philosopher and poet, born (ca 370) to an apparently aristocratic fam-
ily. It is unclear whether he was born pagan or Christian. Sunesios studied philosophy and
science with H in Alexandria until 398. Sunesios participated in a Libyan mission to
the emperor in Constantinople in 399 and he was elected bishop of Ptolemais in the pro-
vince of Pentapolis in 411. Sunesios regarded himself as a philosopher (Ep. 79, 105) and
rejected Christian doctrines of the world’s corruption and soul’s resurrection (Ep. 105) that
conflict with his Platonism. Sunesios considered Christian priesthood complementary
to (Ep. 41, 62), and a step towards, philosophy (Ep. 11), since he considered philosophy
SUNESIOS OF KURE ̄NE ̄