Serapion
(Σεραπίων) or Sara'pion, literary.
1. Of Antioch, a writer on Geography, whom Pliny mentions among his chief authorities. (Elench. Lib. ii. iv. v.) He seems to be the same as the Serapion who is twice mentioned by Cicero as very unintelligible, and as a severe critic of Eratosthenes. (Ad Att. 2.4, 6.)
2. Aelius Serapion, of Alexandria, a distinguished sophist and rhetorician, in the time of Hadrian. (Suid. s. v.) The following works of his are enumerated by Suidas : Ηερί τῶν ἐω ταἰς μελέταις άμαρτανομένων, ʼἈκροάσεων βιβλία ς, Πανηγνρικὸς ἐπ̓ Ἀδριανῷ τῷ βασιλεῖ, Βουλευτικὸς Ἀλεξανδρεῦσιν, Εἰ δικαίως Πλάτων Ὅμηρον ἀπέπεμψ̓ε τῆς πολιτείας, Τέχνη ῥητορική, and many other works. There is also a little work on astrology ascribed to him. (Lambec. vii. p. 256.) The Greek Anthology contains an epigram of his. (Brunck. Anal. vol. ii. p. 291; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii. p. 5, vol. xiii. p. 951.)
3. A younger Serapion, of Alexandria, is mentioned by Porphyry as a pupil of Plotinus. (Vit. Plot. 7.)
4. A philosopher of Hierapolis (Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἱεράπολις), probably the same as the following.
5. A philosopher who flourished at Rome under the early emperors, and who is censured for his false eloquence by Seneca. (Epist. 40 ; comp. Muret. Adv.)
6. A philosopher of a later period, the friend of Isidore, of whom Suidas (s. v.) gives a long eulogistic notice, extracted front the Life of Isidore by Damascius, but containing scarcely any facts of general interest. His library is said to have consisted of three volumes, one of which was the Orphic poems.
7. Of Ascalon, wrote on the interpretation of dreams. (Fulgent. Myth. 1.13; Tertullian. de : Anima, 46.)
8. There was at least one poet of this name, perhaps more. A Serapion of Athens, who, from. the context, was evidently an epic poet, is introduced by Plutarch as a speaker in his dialogue on the reason of the Pythia's no longer giving oracles in verse (p. 396). Another of the interlocutors compares Serapion's poems to those of Homer and Hesiod, for their force, and grace, and the style of their language. It is, therefore, scarcely to be doubted that this Serapion is the same poet from whose έ̀πη Clemens Alexandrinus quotes certain statements respecting the Sibylline oracles. (Strom. vol. i. p. 304.) Stobaeus, again, quotes two iambic verses from a certain Serapion. (Serm. 10.)
9. There are also some Christian writers of this name, but not of sufficient importance. to require particular notice. What is known of them, as well as of the other Serapions, will be found in Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 154-158, and the other passages there referred to). [P.S]
(Σεραπίων), a physician of Alexandria (Galen, Introd. 100.4. vol. xiv. p. 683), who lived in the third century B. C., after Herophilus, Erasistratus, and Philinus, and before Apollonius Empiricus, Glaucias, Heraclides of Tarentum, Menodotus, Sextus Empiricus (Gal. l.c. ; Celsus, De Med. i. praef. p. 5), and Crito (Galen, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. 6.4. vol. xiii. p. 883). He belonged to the sect of the Empirici, and so much extended and improved the system of Philinus, that the invention of it is by some authors attributed to him (Cels. l.c.). Dr. Mead, in his " Dissert. de Numis quibusdam a Smyrnaeis in Medicorum Honorem cusis" (Lond. 1724, 4to. p. 51), tries to prove that he was a follower of Erasistratus, because his name appears upon a medal discovered at Smyrna, where it is known that the school of Erasistratus flourished; but it is not at all certain that the physician is the person in whose henour the coin was struck. Serapion wrote against Hippocrates with much vehemence (Galen, De Subfig. Empir. 100.13, vol. ii. p. 346, ed. Chart.), but neither this, nor any of his other works, are now extant. He is several times mentioned and quoted by Celsus (5.28. 17, p. 115), Galen (De Meth. Med. 2.7, vol. x. pp. 136, 143; De Compos. Medicam. see. Loc. 10.2, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. 2.9, 6.4, vol. xiii. pp. 343, 509, 883 ; De Rented. Parab. 2.17, vol. xiv. p. 450), Caelius Aurelianus (De Morb. Acut. 2.6, 3.4, 8, 17, 21, De Morb. Chron. 1.4. pp. 84, 195, 212, 246, 263, 322), Aetius (2.2. 96, 4.3. 11, 17, pp. 296, 747, 767), Paulus Aegineta (3.64, 4.25, 7.17, pp. 484, 515, 678), and Nicolaus Myrepsus (De Compes. Medicam. 1.66, 10.149, pp. 374, 580), who have preserved some of his medical formulae, which are not of much value. (See Sprengel's Gesch. der Arzneik. vol. i. ed. 1846.)
It may be useful to remark that this Serapion must not be confounded with either of the twô Arabic physicians of the same name. (See Penny Cyclop.) [W.A.G]
a highly celebrated scene-painter, who failed, however, in his attempts to depict the human figure. We have no better clue to the time at which he flourished than the following obscure passage in Pliny :--Maeniana, inquit Varro, omnia operiebat Serapionis tabula sub Veteribus (Plin. Nat. 35.10. s. 37). The invention of scenepainting is ascribed to Sophocles. (Aristot. Poet. 4.) [P.S]
(Σεραπίων). A physician of Alexandria, who lived in the third century B.C., and belonged to the Empirical school of medicine. He was an opponent of the teachings of Hippocrates, but none of his works is now extant.