Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/876

Rh 864 SOPATER. the generals elected by the Sj-racusans on the mur- der of Hieronymus in b. c. 215 (Liv. xxiv. 23, 25). 2. A general of Philip V., king of Macedonia, crossed over to Africa in B. c. 203, with a body of 4000 troops and some money, in order to assist the Carthaginians. He was taken prisoner by the Romans, together with many of his soldiers, and Philip sent an embassy to Rome to solicit their release. (Liv. xxx. 26, 42.) 3. An Acarnanian, the commander of Philip's garrison at Chalcis, was slain with most of his troops in B. c. 200. (Liv. xxxi. 23.) 4. One of the generals of Perseus, slain in battle with the Romans in B. c. 171. (Liv. xlii. 66.) 5. Two Sicilians of this name are mentioned by Cicero in his orations against Verres. (Cic. Verr. ii. 28, iv. 39.) S(yPATER(2(W7raT/3os), literary. L OfPaphos, a writer of parody and burlesque (jphvaKoypcupos)^ who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, and continued to flourish down to the reign of Ptolemy II., as Athenaeus (ii. 71, b.) informs us, on the authority of the poet himself: his period may therefore be regarded as the forty years from B. c. 323 to 283 (Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. s. a. 283). He is frequently mentioned by Athenaeus, who occa- sionally calls him iaKios, which seems to be a nick- name, derived from the word (paKrj i^lentile-porridge^ which appears to have been the title of one of So- pater's plays), and applied to him as a punning variation upon Tiai.<pios. The following titles of his plays are preserved by Athenaeus and Suidas {s.v, Suidas has made the mistake of distinguishing two Sopaters, the one a comedian and the other a parodist) : — Ba/cx'S< Ba/cxi5os 7a^os, Ba/^x'Sos lxvr](TT7Jp€S, TaXdrai, Ev§ovo6i:6/x€pOT05, 'IttttoAu- Tos, KviSla, Mutrrai, Mvcttcxkou @r)Tiov^ Ne/cuia, Ope<rTrjy,nuAai,2iA(^at, ^aKrj,^vai6o'Yos. (Fabric, vol. ii. p. 492 ; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk. vol. ii. p. 325.) 2. Of Apamea, a distinguished sophist, the head for some time of the school of Plotinus, was a dis- ciple of lamblichus, after whose death (before a. d. 330), he went to Constantinople, where he enjoyed the favour and personal friendship of Constantine, who afterwards, however, put him to death, from the motive, as was alleged, of giving a proof of the sincerity of his own conversion to Christianity (Sozom. H.E. i. 5 ; comp. the note of Valesius ; Suid. S.V.). Eunapius, who gives a fuller account of the matter {Vit. Aedes. pp.36, 37,41), and Zosimus (ii. 40) ascribe his death to the machina- tions of Ablabius ; and, according to the former writer, the pretext for his condemnation was the charge that he detained by magical arts a fleet laden with corn, of which Constantinople was in the utmost want. The time of his death must have been between A. d. 330 and 337. (Clinton, Fast. Rom. s. a. 312, 326, 330.) The only works ascribed to him by Suidas are, one On Frudence, (riepi Ilpoi/otas), and another On Persons who are undeservedly Fortunate or Unfortunate (7re/;i tS>v irapcL TTjj/ a^iav evnpayovvTU}v ^ Svairpayovi'TU}}'). There are, however, several other writings, gram- matical, and of miscellaneous information, under the name of Sopater, but the best critics ascribe these to a younger Sopater, of Apamea or Alex- andria, whom Suidas distinguishes, and, as they suppose, rightly so, from the pliilosopher of the time of Constantine. Whether this view is correct can hardly be determined with certainty. SOPHAGASEtsrtJS. 3. The younger sophist of Apamea, or of Alex- andria, is supposed to have lived about two hundred years later than the former. Suidas tells us that he wrote epitomes of numerous works, and that some ascribed to him the Historical Extracts (iKoyriv rwv iffTopiwu), which, we may therefore infer, others attributed to the elder Sopater. Pho- tius (Bibl. Cod. 161) has preserved an abstract of this eKoyri, or, as he calls it, €Koyal Sidcpopoi, from which it appears that the work contained a vast variety of facts and figments, collected from a great number of authors. A list of the writers quoted by Sopater is given by Fabricius {Bibl. Grace, vol. x. pp. 720 — 722 ; comp. vol. ii. p. 321, vol. iii, p. 51, vol. iv. p. 250, and Vossius,rfe Hist. Grace, p. 294, ed. Westermann). The rhetorical and grammatical works under the name of Sopater are the following : — ^laipiadis CTjTTjfjLdrcoy, a classification and analysis of rhe- torical themes, printed in the Aldine collection, Venet. 1508, folio ; a commentary on the part irepl (TTaaewv of the Tex^h ^TjTopiK-f} of Hermo- genes, printed in the same collection ; and Prole- gomena to Aristeides, printed from a MS. in the Bodleian Library in vol. i. of Jebb's edition of Aristeides. All the remains of his rhetorical works are contained in vols, iv., v., and viii. of Walz's Rhetores Graed. (Fabric. BiU. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 18, 73, 102, 138 ; Westermann, ad Voss. l. c.) [P. S.] SOPHAE'NETUS (2o(/)aiV€Tos), a native of Stymphalus in Arcadia, was a commander of mer- cenaries in the service of Cyrus the Younger, whom he joined in his expedition against Arta- xerxes, in B. c. 401, with 1000 heavy -armed men. In the following year, after the treacherous appre- hension of Clearchus and the other principal generals of the Cyreans, Sophaenetus and Cleanor were deputed to meet Ariaeus, and receive his explanation of the transaction. When the main body of the Greeks, after their arrival on the frontier of the western Armenia, marched to dis- lodge Teribazus from the defile where he meant to intercept them, Sophaenetus remained behind in command of the troops that were left to guard the camp. At Trapezus, Philesius and Sophaenetus, being the oldest of the generals, were placed in command of the ships which were to sail to Cerasus with the men above forty, and the women and children, while the rest of the army proceeded thither by land. Some deficiency being afterwards detected in the cargoes of these ships, an inves- tigation took place at Cotyora, and Philesius, Xanthicles, and Sophaenetus were fined, — the two former for peculation or carelessness in the custody of the goods, and the third for his negligent supervision of them. We rind Sophae- netus mentioned again, in the account of the engagement of the Cyreans with the Bithynians and the troops of Pharnabazus, as giving his opinion against the attempt to cross a deep glen which lay on the line of march. (Xen. Anal. i. 1. § 11, 2. §§ 3, 9, ii. 5. § 37, iv. 4. § 19, v. 3. § 1.8. § 1, vi. .5. § 13.) [E.E.] SOPHAGASE'NUS {■^o<l)ayaaTivos), -a. king of India, with whom Antiochus the Great is said to have renewed an alliance, and from whom he ob- tained some elephants, when he crossed the Indian Caucasus. (Polyb. xi. 34.) This Sophagasenus probably ruled over the same people as the Indian king Saudrocottus, with whom Selcucus Nicatoi