Euphrates the Stoic

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Euphrates (Greek: Εὐφράτες), was an eminent Stoic philosopher, who lived c. 35-118 AD.

According to Philostratus,[1] he was a native of Tyre, and according to Stephanus of Byzantium,[2] of Epiphania in Syria; whereas Eunapius calls him an Egyptian. At the time when Pliny the Younger served in Syria (c. 81 AD), he became acquainted with Euphrates, and seems to have formed an intimate friendship with him. In one of his letters[3] he gives us a detailed account of the virtues and talents of Euphrates. His great power as an orator is acknowledged also by other contemporaries,[4] though Apollonius of Tyana charges him with avarice and servile flattery. When he had arrived at an advanced age, and was tired of life, he asked and obtained from emperor Hadrian the permission of putting an end to himself by poison.[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Philostratus, Vit. Soph. i. 7, Vit. Apoll. i. 13
  2. ^ Stephanus, Epiphaneia
  3. ^ Pliny the Younger, Epistles, i. 10
  4. ^ Epictetus, Discourses, iii. 15, iv. 8; Marcus Aurelius, x. 31
  5. ^ Dio Cassius, lxix. 8.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).

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