- Sopater of Apamea
Sopater of
Apamea , a distinguishedsophist andNeoplatonist , was a disciple ofIamblichus , after whose death (c.325 ), he went toConstantinople , where he enjoyed the favour and personal friendship ofConstantine I , who afterwards, however, put him to death, to prove, it was alleged, the sincerity of his own conversion to Christianity. [Sozomen, "Hist. Eccl." i. 5; Suda, "Sopatros".]Eunapius , who gives a fuller account of the matter, [Eunapius, "Lives of the Sophists"] andZosimus [Zosimus, ii. 40] ascribe his death to the machinations ofFlavius Ablavius ; and, according to Eunapius, the pretext for his condemnation was the charge that he detained by magical arts a fleet laden with grain, of whichConstantinople was in the utmost want. The year of his death must have been between330 and337 .Fact|date=September 2008The
Suda lists two different sophists called Sopater, but there is no reason to suppose that there were two different people by that name. He wrote a variety of works, including one "On Providence", and another called "People who have Undeserved Good or Bad Fortune". In addition, he wrote epitomes of numerous works, and probably also the "Historical Extracts", of which Photius [Photius, "Bibliotheca" Cod. 161] 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.Notes
External links
*Eunapius, [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eunapius_02_text.htm "Lives of the Sophists"]
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