Philagrius, sophist

A correspondent named Philagrius, identified as a sophist (teacher of rhetoric). The name is attested as a recipient in two distinct collections separated by roughly a century, and these are very probably different men: Libanius of Antioch (4th c. AD) corresponded with a Philagrius among his circle of pupils and fellow rhetors in the Greek East, while Sidonius Apollinaris (5th c. AD) addresses a Philagrius in his Gallo-Roman correspondence. Neither is richly documented beyond his appearance in these letters; in each case Philagrius emerges as a cultivated, rhetorically trained member of the educated provincial elite with whom the author exchanged literary and social courtesies. The grouping of both under a single record likely reflects name-matching across collections rather than a single historical individual, so specific dates, offices, and a single place of activity cannot be assigned with confidence.