Pamprepius

Pamprepius (Greek: Παμπρέπιος, Pamprépios; Latin: Pamprepius; 29 September 440 – November 484) was a philosopher and a pagan poet who rebelled against the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno.

Damascius described him as a brilliant poet, Malchus as an acute politician, but ugly, arrogant, unscrupulous and treacherous; Rhetorius, an Egyptian astrologer, called him a charlatan and a libertine. He has been compared to Claudian, as both these poets enjoyed eight years of political power at the side of usurpers. He is considered the last pagan poet.

His life is known with unusual precision, as his horoscope calculated by Rhetorius in the early sixth century has been found.

Pamprepius was born in Egypt, at Panopolis, near Thebes, on 29 September 440; the discovery of a horoscope, which has been identified with that of Pamprepius, let us know that he was born at 15:48. He was ugly, but he had considerable intellectual qualities. He devoted himself to literature, especially to poetry; probably he belonged to the school of Nonnus of Panopolis, a native of his own city. He became very famous as a poet in his country. At the age of 33 years, in 473, he moved to Greece, where he spent much time in Athens, marrying a rich woman and becoming a professor of grammar (philology). At the same time he studied philosophy under the neo-Platonic philosopher Proclus, who had, among his students, the Roman general Marcellinus, the Western Roman Emperor Anthemius, and the consuls Illustrius Pusaeus and Messius Phoebus Severus.

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