Sopater of Apamea
Sopater of
Biography
Sopater was a disciple of
The Suda lists that he wrote a variety of works, including one On Providence, and another called People who have Undeserved Good or Bad Fortune.[1] He is distinguished from another sophist of that name "Of Apamea ... (Or rather, of Alexandria)", who wrote epitomes of very many authors and probably also the Historical Extracts,[2] of which Photius[3] has preserved a summary, from which it appears that it contained a vast variety of fact and fiction, collected from a great number of authors.
The most significant work attributed to Sopater is the Diairesis Zetematon (Division of Questions), which is a collection of 81 declamation themes, as well as containing instructions on how they are to be treated. This text gives the best insight to modern scholars on how rhetorics and their pupils worked in the schools.[4]
Sopater was one of many who were put to death by Constantine, with his death occurring before 337 AD.
Notes
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help)
External links
- Eunapius, Lives of the Sophists
- Photius' Bibliotheca Cod. 161 at The Tertullian Project
- Sigma 845 in Suda On Line project
- Sigma 848 in Suda On Line project