Apocras

Apocras is known only as a sophist (a teacher of rhetoric) who received six short letters from Isidore of Pelusium and is otherwise unattested; his career as a correspondent places him in the Pelusium and eastern Nile Delta milieu of early-to-mid 5th-century Egypt. Isidore writes to him in a learned, collegial register suited to a man of letters, treating themes of rhetorical practice and intellectual life: the discipline of argument and the honest resolution of difficult questions, the duty of mastering a single art rather than dabbling in many, and the dignity of reason as a divine gift that sets humanity apart (quoting Homer's Odyssey). Several letters also draw moral lessons from cases of reconciling estranged brothers and from military discipline as an image of the soul's war against the demons, suggesting Isidore engaged him as much on virtue and Christian self-examination as on technical rhetoric. Nothing in the letters fixes his dates, office, or any biographical detail beyond his profession and his relationship to Isidore.