Sopatros of Apamea

Sopatros of Apamea ( Greek  Σώπατρος Sōpatros , Latin Sopater; † between 330 and 337 in Constantinople ) was a late antique philosopher of the Neoplatonic direction. To distinguish it from a younger philosopher of the same name from Apamea, he is sometimes called Sopatros 1 in research .

Life

Sopatros came from Apamea on the Orontes , the city where the school of the famous Neoplatonic philosopher Iamblichus of Chalkis was very likely . He became a student of Iamblichus. In addition to his philosophical activity, he was also active politically; he went to the court of the emperor Licinius , probably on behalf of Iamblichus or as envoy of the city of Apamea. After the death of Iamblichus (around 320/325) Sopatros and Aidesios were the most respected personalities in the school, and Sopatros apparently initially took over their leadership. But soon Sopatros left this task to Aidesios and went to the court of Constantine the Great to pursue his political goals there.

At the court of Constantine, Sopatros gained great influence as an adviser to the emperor, according to the report of the historian Eunapios of Sardis , who treats him in his book Life Descriptions of the Philosophers and the Sophists . Eunapios writes that Sopatros wanted to persuade the careless ruler to behave sensibly with arguments. Constantine valued him so much that he publicly let him sit on his right. However, it must be expected that Eunapios exaggerates the political importance of Sopatros. At the inauguration of the new imperial residence city of Constantinople in 330 Sopatros acted as "initiator" ( telestḗs ), so he carried out a religious ceremony. Apparently he performed a ritual of the old pagan religion of which he was a follower. In the following years he came into conflict with the strong Christian forces at court. It is unclear to what extent religious opposition played a role in his conflict with the Praefectus praetorio Ablabius , a devoted Christian, and other courtiers. According to the assessment of Eunapios and the historian Zosimos, it was a court intrigue of envious opponents of the philosopher.

When there was a shortage of grain in Constantinople because the supply was temporarily interrupted, Sopatros was accused by his opponents of having magically influenced the winds and thus preventing the arrival of the grain ships. He was also accused of "sitting on the imperial throne" thanks to his cunning, that is, of endangering the imperial authority with his position of power. Ablabius managed to arouse the emperor's suspicion and Constantine had Sopatros executed.

Sopatros had descendants, which probably included a philosopher of the same name who lived in Apamea around 360 and was probably his son. Libanios , to whom he was related, addressed a few letters to this younger Sopatros ; in other letters he mentioned him. The younger Sopatros ( called Sopatros 2 in research ) had a brother named Himerios to whom he wrote a philosophical letter about good administration; apparently Himerios held a higher office.

A letter from Emperor Julian praises a son-in-law of the elder Sopatros, who lived in Hierapolis in 363 and was Julian’s host there.

Works

In the Suda , a Byzantine lexicon, an otherwise unknown treatise is ascribed to Sopatros, the title of which was "On Providence and those who receive undeserved happiness or unhappiness".

reception

Eunapios, a staunch opponent of Christianity and a sharp critic of Constantine the Great, portrays Sopatros as an important personality who did not associate with ordinary people. He avoids addressing the religious aspect of the conflict at court. He compares the fate of Sopatros with that of Socrates , who was the prime example of a philosopher who was slandered for low motives and wrongly executed. He tells with satisfaction how Sopatros' main adversary, Ablabius, later came to an inglorious end.

The historian Sozomenos claims that Sopatros was regarded by his contemporaries as the most learned man in Greece. Sozomenos tells a legend that he himself regards as unhistorical and ascribes to anti-Christian circles who wanted to denigrate Christianity. Accordingly, Emperor Constantine regretted that he had initiated the murder of some of his relatives and, in particular, condoned the murder of his son Crispus . He asked Sopatros how he could atone for these acts. Sopatros replied that there was no atonement for it. Then the emperor turned to bishops and learned from them that in Christianity he could be cleansed of his sin. Thereupon Constantine accepted the Christian religion and induced his subjects to take the same step.

Source edition

• Giuseppe Giangrande (ed.): Eunapii vitae sophistarum . Istituto poligrafico dello stato, Rome 1956

literature

• Richard Goulet: Sôpatros d'Apamée. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 459–463 (see pp. 464–472)
• Paweł Janiszewski: Sopatros. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , p. 340
• Robert J. Penella: Greek Philosophers and Sophists in the Fourth Century AD Studies in Eunapius of Sardis . Francis Cairns, Leeds 1990, ISBN 0-905205-79-0

Web links

• Eunapios on Sopatros (English translation)

Remarks

1. ↑ Garth Fowden: The pagan holy one in late antique society . In: Journal of Hellenic Studies 102, 1982, pp. 33–55, here: p. 50 and note 142.
2. ^ Robert J. Penella: Greek Philosophers and Sophists in the Fourth Century AD Studies in Eunapius of Sardis , Leeds 1990, p. 49 f.
3. ^ Dominic J. O'Meara: Platonopolis. Platonic Political Philosophy in Late Antiquity , Oxford 2003, pp. 112-115. Edition of the excerpts from the letter with French translation in: Dominic O'Meara, Jacques Schamp (ed.): Miroirs de prince de l'Empire romain au IV ^e siècle , Friborg / Paris 2006, pp. 45–69.
4. ^ Ada Adler (ed.): Suidae Lexicon . Vol. 4, Leipzig 1935, p. 407 (Adler no. Σ 845; online ).
5. ^ Sozomenos, Church History 1.5.
6. ↑ See the detailed study by Antonio Baldini: Il filosofo Sopatro e la versione pagana della conversione di Costantino . In: Simblos 1, 1995, pp. 265-286.