Entwicklung des spartan. Ephorats (Innsbruck, 1878); H. K. Stein,
Das spartan. Ephorat bis auf Cheilon (Paderborn, 1870); K.
Kuchtner, Entstehung und ursprüngliche Bedeutung des spartan.
Ephorats (Munich, 1897); C. Frick, De ephoris Spartanis (Göttingen,
1872); A. Schaefer, De ephoris Lacedaemoniis (Greifswald, 1863);
E. von Stern, Zur Entstehung und ursprünglichen Bedeutung des
Ephorats in Sparta (Berlin, 1894). (M. N. T.)
EPHORUS (c. 400–330 B.C.), of Cyme in Aeolis, in Asia Minor,
Greek historian. Together with the historian Theopompus he
was a pupil of Isocrates, in whose school he attended two courses
of rhetoric. But he does not seem to have made much progress
in the art, and it is said to have been at the suggestion of Isocrates
himself that he took up literary composition and the study of
history. The fruit of his labours was his Ἱστορίαι in 29 books,
the first universal history, beginning with the return of the
Heraclidae to Peloponnesus, as the first well-attested historical
event. The whole work was edited by his son Demophilus,
who added a 30th book, containing a summary description of
the Social War and ending with the taking of Perinthus (340) by
Philip of Macedon (cf. Diod. Sic. xvi. 14 with xvi. 76). Each
book was complete in itself, and had a separate title and preface.
It is clear that Ephorus made critical use of the best authorities,
and his work, highly praised and much read, was freely drawn
upon by Diodorus Siculus[1] and other compilers. Strabo
(viii. p. 332) attaches much importance to his geographical
investigations, and praises him for being the first to separate
the historical from the merely geographical element. Polybius
(xii. 25 g) while crediting him with a knowledge of the conditions
of naval warfare, ridicules his description of the battles of Leuctra
and Mantineia as showing ignorance of the nature of land operations.
He was further to be commended for drawing (though
not always) a sharp line of demarcation between the mythical
and historical (Strabo ix. p. 423); he even recognized that a
profusion of detail, though lending corroborative force to accounts
of recent events, is ground for suspicion in reports of far-distant
history. His style was high-flown and artificial, as was natural
considering his early training, and he frequently sacrificed truth
to rhetoric effect; but, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
he and Theopompus were the only historical writers whose
language was accurate and finished. Other works attributed to
him were:—A Treatise on Discoveries; Respecting Good and
Evil Things; On Remarkable Things in Various Countries (it is
doubtful whether these were separate works, or merely extracts
from the Histories); A Treatise on my Country, on the history and
antiquities of Cyme, and an essay On Style, his only rhetorical
work, which is occasionally mentioned by the rhetorician Theon.
Nothing is known of his life, except the statement in Plutarch
that he declined to visit the court of Alexander the Great.
Fragments in C. W. Müller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, i., with critical introduction on the life and writings of Ephorus; see J. A. Klügmann, De Ephoro historico (1860); C. A. Volquardsen, Untersuchungen über die Quellen der griechischen und sicilischen Geschichten bei Diodor. xi.-xvi. (1868); and specially J. B. Bury, Ancient Greek Historians (1909); E. Schwartz, in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyc. s.v.; and article Greece: History: Ancient Authorities.
EPHRAEM SYRUS (Ephraim the Syrian), a saint who lived in Mesopotamia during the first three quarters of the 4th century A.D. He is perhaps the most influential of all Syriac authors; and his fame as a poet, commentator, preacher and defender of orthodoxy has spread throughout all branches of the Christian Church. This reputation he owes partly to the vast fertility of his pen—according to the historian Sozomen he was credited with having written altogether 3,000,000 lines—partly to the elegance of his style and a certain measure of poetic inspiration, more perhaps to the strength and consistency of his personal character, and his ardour in defence of the creed formulated at Nicaea.
An anonymous life of Ephraim was written not long after his death in 373. The biography has come down to us in two recensions. But in neither form is it free from later interpolation; and its untrustworthiness is shown by its conflicting with data supplied by his own works, as well as by the manner in which it is overloaded with miraculous events. The following is a probable outline of the main facts of Ephraim’s life. He was born in the reign of Constantine (perhaps in 306) at or near Nisibis. His father was a pagan, the priest of an idol called Abnil or Abizal.[2] During his boyhood Ephraim showed a repugnance towards heathen worship, and was eventually driven by his father from the home. He became a ward and disciple of the famous Jacob—the same who attended the Council of Nicaea as bishop of Nisibis, and died in 338. At his hands Ephraim seems to have received baptism at the age of 18 or of 28 (the two recensions differ on this point), and remained at Nisibis till its surrender to the Persians by Jovian in 363. Probably in the course of these years he was ordained a deacon, but from his humble estimate of his own worth refused advancement to any higher degree in the church. He seems to have played an important part in guiding the fortunes of the city during the war begun by Shapur II. in 337, in the course of which Nisibis was thrice unsuccessfully besieged by the Persians (in 338, 346 and 350). The statements of his biographer to this effect accord with the impression we derive from his own poems (Carmina Nisibena, 1-21). His intimate relations with Bishop Jacob were continued with the three succeeding bishops—Babu (338–?349), Vologaeses (?349–361), and Abraham—on all of whom he wrote encomia. The surrender of the city in 363 to the Persians resulted in a general exodus of the Christians, and Ephraim left with the rest. After visiting Amid (Diarbekr) he proceeded to Edessa, and there settled and spent the last ten years of his life. He seems to have lived mainly as a hermit outside the city: his time was devoted to study, writing, teaching and the refutation of heresies. It is possible that during these years he paid a visit to Basil at Caesarea. Near the end of his life he rendered great public service by distributing provisions in the city during a famine. The best attested date for his death is the 9th of June 373. It is clear that this chronology leaves no room for the visit to Egypt, and the eight years spent there in refuting Arianism, which are alleged by his biographer. Perhaps, as has been surmised, there may be confusion with another Ephraim. Nor can he have written the funeral panegyric on Basil who survived him by three months. But with all necessary deductions the biography is valuable as witnessing to the immense reputation for sanctity and for theological acumen which Ephraim had gained in his lifetime, or at least soon after he died. His biographer’s statement as to his habits and appearance is worth quoting, and is probably true:—“From the time he became a monk to the end of his life his only food was barley bread and sometimes pulse and vegetables: his drink was water. And his flesh was dried upon his bones, like a potter’s sherd. His clothes were of many pieces patched together, the colour of dirt. In stature he was little; his countenance was always sad, and he never condescended to laughter. And he was bald and beardless.”
The statement in his Life that Ephraim miraculously learned Coptic falls to the ground with the narrative of his Egyptian visit: and the story of his suddenly learning to speak Greek through the prayer of St Basil is equally unworthy of credence. He probably wrote only in Syriac, though he may have possessed some knowledge of Greek and possibly of Hebrew. But many of his works must have been early translated into other languages; and we possess in MSS. versions into Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic and Ethiopic. The Greek versions occupy three entire volumes of the Roman folio edition, and the extant Armenian versions (mainly of N.T. commentaries) were published at Venice in four volumes in 1836.
It was primarily as a sacred poet that Ephraim impressed himself on his fellow-countrymen. With the exception of his commentaries on scripture, nearly all his extant Syriac works are composed in metre. In many cases the metrical structure
- ↑ It is now generally recognized, thanks to Volquardsen and others, that Ephorus is the principal authority followed by Diodorus, except in the chapters relating to Sicilian history.
- ↑ It is true that in the Confession attributed to him and printed among his Greek works in the first volume of the Roman edition he speaks (p. 129) of his parents as having become martyrs for the Christian faith. But this document is of very doubtful authenticity.
