Sopolis

• a celebrated painter in the time of Cicero, Cic. Att. 4, 16; acc. Sopolin, Plin. 35, 11, 40, § 148.

(Σώπολις), son of Hermodorus, commanded the Amphipolitan cavalry in the army of Alexander the Great, in the battle against the Triballians on the banks of the river Lyginus, B. C. 335. He is mentioned again as commanding a troop of horse, probably the contingent from Amphipolis, at the battle of Arbela in B. C. 331; and we may perhaps identify him with the father of Hermolaus, the youthful conspirator against Alexander's life [Hermolaus]. (Arr. Anab. 1.2, 3.11, 4.13; Curt. 8.7.) [E.E]

a distinguished painter, who flourished at Rome in the middle of the first century B. C., is mentioned with Dionysius by Pliny, who says, that their works filled the picture galleries. (H. N. 35.11. s. 40.43.) In some MSS. of this passage the name is written Sopylus. From a passage of Cicero (Cic. Att. 4.16), which has been first pointed out by R. Rochette (Lettre à M. Schorn, pp. 315, 404, 2d ed.), we learn that Sopolis was at the head of a school of painters. [P.S]

(Σώπολις) a physician who instructed Aetius (the heretic, not the physician) in medicine, in the former half of the fourth century after Christ. A high character is given him by Philostorgius, who says he was inferior to none of his contemporaries (Hist. Eccles. 3.15, p. 52); St. Gregory of Nyssa, on the other hand, without naming Sopolis, says that Aetius became servant to a quack doctor (ἀγύρτης), from whom he picked up his knowledge of physic. (Cont. Eunom. i. p. 293.) [W.A.G]