Sopater
- a Greek proper name, e. g. a victim of Verres: Halicyensis, Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 28, § 68.—Another, a witness against Verres, Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 39, § 85.
(Σώπατρος). (1) Of Paphos, a writer of parody and burlesque (φλυαρογράφος), who flourished from B.C. 323 to 283.
(2) Of Apamea, a distinguished Sophist, the head for some time of the school of Plotinus. He was a disciple of Iamblichus, after whose death (before A.D. 330) he went to Constantinople. Here he enjoyed the favour and personal friendship of Constantine, who afterwards, however, put him to death (between A.D. 330 and 337) from the motive, as was alleged, of giving a proof of the sincerity of his own conversion to Christianity. There are several grammatical and rhetorical works extant under the name of Sopater, but the best critics ascribe these to a younger Sopater, mentioned below.
(3) The younger Sophist, of Apamea, or of Alexandria, is supposed to have lived about two hundred years later than the former. Besides his extant works already alluded to, Photius has preserved an extract of a work, entitled the Historical Selections (ἐκλογή), which contained a vast variety of facts and figments, collected from a great number of authors. The remains of his rhetorical works are contained in Walz's Rhetores Graeci.