Harpocras

Harpocras is known only as a sophist -- a professional rhetorician and teacher of eloquence -- who corresponded with Isidore of Pelusium (d. c. 450) and is otherwise unattested; the context is the Pelusium and eastern Nile Delta milieu of early-to-mid-5th-century Egypt. The letters show him running a school of his own, where Isidore counsels him to discipline unruly students while sparing the diligent ones and to teach by the example of his life rather than by words alone (new-1189), and where Harpocras once brought his students to question Isidore about the Scriptures (new-1190). The correspondence is learned and affectionate, ranging over the relation of pagan philosophy to Scripture, the power of the apostles' unlearned preaching, and the difference between the wise and the good (new-741, new-1005), but it also engages a concrete personal quarrel: Harpocras had been gravely insulted by four men -- Zosimus, Maron, Eustathius, and Martinianus -- and composed a satirical monody against them, which Isidore praised in spirit yet refused to deliver for fear of provoking open war (new-956, new-959). Isidore writes warmly of being instructed and delighted by Harpocras's letters and presses him to write more often (new-1017).