of by Fabririus (Bibl. Graec. bk. v. c. xvi. § 7), there are only two that require any notice here.
1. A contemporary and friend of St. Jerome, who gives him a section in his treatise De Viris Illustribus (c. 134), where he informs us that " Sophronius, a man of distinguished learning, wrote the Praises of Bethlehem (Laudes Bethlehem) while yet a boy, and lately composed an excellent work. De Subversione Serapis;" that is, on the destruction of the temple of Serapis at Rome, in A.D. 389 or 390 (see Clinton, Fast. Rom. s. a. 389): "he translated into Greek, in an elegant style, my works, De Virginitate ad Eustochium and Vita Hilarionis monachi; also the Psalter and the Prophets, which we translated from Hebrew into Latin." Now, since the Catalogue of Jerome was written in A.D. 392, the date of Sophronius is clearly determined by this passage. We have no information respecting his country or condition in life.
In the year 1539, Erasmus published at Basel, from what he calls an ancient and corrected MS., a Greek version of the Catalogue of Jerome, purporting to be made by Sophronius. This publication has ever since been a literary stumbling-block. Soon after its appearance there were not wanting persons who accused Erasmus of fabricating the version from motives of vanity. Isaac Vossius (ad S. Ignatii Episi. ad Smyrn. p. 237), while professing to reject this imputation, but solely on the faith of Erasmus's veracity ("nisi Erasmus haec diceret, multum de ejus fide dubitarem"), strongly contends, on the ground of the badness of the Greek, and on other internal evidence, that Erasmus had been imposed upon by a modern forgery. Stephanus le Moyne (ad Var. Sac. p. 418) replies to the charge against Erasmus by asserting that there are MSS. older than the one used by him, and that the version is quoted by earlier writers ; but he does not say where these MSS. and quotations are to be found. Fabricius and Cave defend the genuineness of the version, chiefly on the following ground, which appears decisive, that many articles of Suidas are in the very words of this Greek version. It is true that Suidas does not quote Sophronius by name, any more than he does Jerome ; but, if the antiquity of the version be established, there is no reason to ascribe it to any other person than Sophronius. The somewhat remarkable circumstance, that Clinton mentions the translation as the work of Sophronius, without intimating, either in his account of the Catalogue of Jerome, or in his notice of Sophronius, that its genuineness has been questioned, may be taken, we presume, as a proof of its decided genuineness, in the opinion of that great scholar (Fast. Rom. s. aa. 392, 393). Besides the separate edition of it by Erasmus, the version of Sophronius is contained in the Paris (1623) and Frankfort (1684) editions of the works of Jerome; and in the Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica of Fabricius (Hamb. 1718) it is printed with Jerome's original, and the passages of Eusebius, which were Jerome's chief authorities, in parallel columns.
To this same Sophronius Fabricius and others ascribe the work "in defence of Basil against Eunomius" (ύπέρ Βασιλείον κατά Εύνομίου), which is very briefly noticed by Photius (Bibl. Cod. v.). There is another small work ascribed to him by Erasmus, which professes to be a Greek version of Jerome's Epistola ad Paulam et Eustochium de Adsumtione Mariae Virginis, but it is most probable that both the Latin epistle and the Greek version belong to an age later than that of Jerome and Sophronius. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 158 — 161; Cave, Script. Eccles. Hist. Lift. s. a., 390, p. 285, ed. Basil.; Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p . 306, ed. Westermann.)
2. Patriarch of Jerusalem, A.D. 629--638, was a native of Damascus, and at first a sophist, afterwards a monk, and in A.D. 629 he succeeded Modestus as patriarch of Jerusalem. He distinguished himself as a defender of orthodoxy; and at the Council of Alexandria, in A.D. 633, he openly charged Cyrus with introducing heresy into the church under pretence of peace, and renounced all communion with him. When Jerusalem was taken by Omar, in A.D. 636, he obtained for the Christians the free exercise of their worship. He died, according to some, in the same year ; according to others, two years later, in A. D. 638.
There are extant in MS. numerous epistles, discourses, commentaries, and other treatises, by Sophronius, full lists of which are given by Fabricius and Cave. He also wrote hymns and other poems. An Anacreontic poem by him, on the subject of Simeon taking Christ into his arms, was published by Leo Allatius, in his Diatriba de Simeonibus, pp. 5, foll. Three epigrams in the Greek Anthology are ascribed to him. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 162—169; Cave, Script. Eccles. Hist. Litt. s. a. 629, p. 579 ; Vossius, de Hist. Graec. pp. 333, 334, ed. Westermann; Brunck, Anal. vol. iii. p. 125 ; Jacob's, Anth. Graec. vol. iv. p. 95. vol. xiii. pp. 619, 954, 955.) [P. S.]
SOPHUS, P. SEMPRO´NIUS, is mentioned by Pomponius (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 37) after App. Claudius Caecus, as one who owed his name o Sophus or Wise to his great merits. He was Tribunus Plebis in B.C 310, and attempted to compel the censor Appius Claudius to conform to the Lex Aemilia which limited the censor's functions to eighteen months. (Liv. ix. 33.) He was consul B.C. 304 with P. Sulpicius Severus (Liv. ix. 45). The two consuls defeated the Aequi, and had a triumph. He was the first plebeian consul pontifex (Liv. x. 9) B.C. 300, and in the next year a lustrum was celebrated by him and his former colleague, as censors ; and two tribes were added. He seems to be the same person who took the praetorship at a time when Rome was alarmed by a rumour of a Gallic war (Livy, X. 21). Pomponius says that no one after him bore the name of Sophus, but a P. Sempronius Sophus was consul in B.C. 268 (Fasti) and censor in B.C. 252 (Liv. Epit. 18 ; Fast. Capitol.), and he is called the son of Publius, who may have been the consul of b. c. 304. There is a story of one P. Sempronius Sophus, who divorced his wife, because she had been bold enough to see the public games without his consent ; but those who believe the story of Carvilius divorcing his wife suppose that this Sophus must have lived later than the consul of B.C. 304. [G. L.]
SO´POLIS (Σώπολις), son of Hermodorus, commanded the Araphipolitan 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 Alex-
