Eunapius
Who was Eunapius?
Ancient Greek sophist and historian
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Eunapius (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Eunapius was a Greek sophist, rhetorician, and historian, born around 347 CE in Sardis, the old capital of Lydia in Asia Minor. He lived through a very turbulent time in late antiquity, witnessing the decline of traditional Greco-Roman paganism and the rise of Christianity as the main religion of the Roman Empire. His writings show his strong dedication to the intellectual and religious traditions of the classical world, and he wrote with open hostility toward Christianity and the policies of the emperors who supported it.
He studied under Chrysanthius of Sardis, a student of the well-known Neoplatonist Iamblichus. This connection placed Eunapius firmly in the Neoplatonic tradition, which mixed philosophy, religious mysticism, and rhetoric into a single way of learned life. He also went to Athens to study under the sophist Prohaeresius, one of the leading teachers of his time, though Eunapius later felt doubtful about Prohaeresius due to his reported Christian leanings. These experiences shaped Eunapius into both a practitioner and a recorder of the sophistic tradition.
His main surviving work is the Lives of Philosophers and Sophists, written in Greek and covering 24 philosophers and sophists from the time of Plotinus to Eunapius's own era. Loosely based on the earlier Lives of the Sophists by Philostratus, the work is a key source for understanding the intellectual and religious culture of the late third and fourth centuries CE. The biographies often show Eunapius's own Neoplatonic and pagan leanings, making the text both a polemic and a historical record. He depicts many of his subjects as wonder-workers and holy men operating in a world increasingly unfriendly to their traditions.
Eunapius also wrote a historical work known as the History after Dexippus, sometimes called the Histories, covering the period from about 270 CE to around 404 CE. Only fragments of this work survive, preserved in later Byzantine compilations, notably in the excerpts collected under the Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos. The Histories were used as a source by the later historian Zosimus, who relied heavily on Eunapius for his own account of the decline of the Roman Empire. Due to this reliance, Eunapius's views on late Roman history have had a significant impact on how later generations understood the period.
Eunapius died around 420 CE, having outlived most of the philosophers and statesmen he had written about. His career covers a transitional time when the Greek literary and philosophical tradition was struggling to keep its place against the spread of Christian culture, and his works try to remember a world he saw fading away.
Before Fame
Eunapius was born around 347 CE in Sardis, a city with strong Greek intellectual ties, even though it was in the Roman province of Lydia in Asia Minor. He grew up during a time when Emperor Julian temporarily revived pagan religion and classical Hellenic learning, influencing many thinkers of his time. He was educated in Greek rhetoric and philosophy, areas where Sardis had a respectable local presence.
Eunapius's significant education came from studying under Chrysanthius of Sardis, a Neoplatonic philosopher who introduced him to a lineage of thought that traced back to Iamblichus. He later traveled to Athens, the symbolic and institutional hub of Greek learning, where he studied under Prohaeresius. These experiences connected him with the leading thinkers of his era and provided the inspiration for his later biographical writings. By early adulthood, he had made a name for himself in sophistic rhetoric and was a dedicated follower of the Neoplatonic philosophical movement.
Key Achievements
- Authored the Lives of Philosophers and Sophists, a foundational source for the intellectual history of late antiquity covering 24 biographers and thinkers
- Composed the History after Dexippus, a chronicle of Roman imperial history from approximately 270 to 404 CE
- Preserved biographical details about Neoplatonic philosophers, including Iamblichus and Porphyry, that survive nowhere else in ancient literature
- Served as the primary source for Zosimus's New History, ensuring his account of late Roman decline reached subsequent generations
- Produced one of the most detailed surviving pagan intellectual responses to the Christianization of the Roman Empire
Did You Know?
- 01.Eunapius studied under Prohaeresius in Athens but later criticized him in the Lives of Philosophers and Sophists, apparently because of Prohaeresius's suspected Christian sympathies.
- 02.His historical work, the History after Dexippus, was so influential that the later historian Zosimus reproduced large portions of it, sometimes nearly verbatim, in his New History.
- 03.Eunapius portrayed many of his philosophical subjects as thaumaturges capable of miracles, a rhetorical strategy that mirrored Christian hagiographic writing while asserting a pagan counter-tradition.
- 04.The Lives of Philosophers and Sophists is one of very few surviving ancient texts to provide detailed biographical information about the Neoplatonist Iamblichus, though Eunapius never met him personally.
- 05.Eunapius expressed open contempt for Christian monks, referring to them in his writings as men who merely pretended to philosophy while living degraded lives.