, a native of Sardis in Lydia, flourished in the fourth century,
, a native of Sardis in Lydia, flourished in
the fourth century, under the emperors Valentinian, Valeas,
and Gratian. He was a celebrated sophist, a physician
and historian. He was brought up by Chrysanthius, a
sophist of noble birth, who was related to him by marriage;
at whose request he wrote his book “Of. the Lives of the
Philosophers and Sophists,
” in which he frequently shews
himself an enemy to Christianity. Brucker calls it a mass
of extravagant tales, discovering a feeble understanding,
and an imagination prone to superstition. He wrote a
history of the Caesars, which he deduced from the reign of
Claudius, where Herodian left off, down to that of Arcadius and Honorius. Photius speaks with approbation of
this history; but complains, that he all along treats the
Christian emperors very injuriously, while he is so partial
to the heathen, as even to prefer Julian to Constantine the
Great. He inveighs also severely against the monks, whom
he charged with pride and insolence, under the mask of
austerity and ridicules with great profaneness the relics
of the martyrs. This history is lost but the substance of
it is in Zosimus, who is supposed to have done little more
than copy it. We have no other remains of Eunapius, but
his “Lives of the Sophists,
”