Sopaios

Sopaios (Greek: Σωπάιος) or Sopaeus or Sinopeus (fl. 390 BC) was a powerful Bosporan minister to Satyros I, the father of queen Theodosia, and father-in-law to Leukon I.

Sopaios
BornSopaios
Diedc.370 BC
Issue
  • Unnamed son
  • Theodosia
OccupationMagistrate of Satyros I

Biography

Sopaios was a native of the Bosporan Kingdom who was greatly influential during the reign of Satyros I. Sopaios controlled major regions of the kingdom and the king's military forces.[1] His daughter, named Theodosia, married one of Satyros's sons, Leukon.[2][3] Sopaios, as an aristocratic nobleman, was able to send his son to the school of Isocrates in Athens.[4] Sopaios lived in a country palace of significant size, with one of his sons boasting while in Athens "I, who live in Pontus and possess so large an estate that I am even able to assist others!"[5]

Sopaios, however, was suspected of treason and was arrested. According to Moreno, the Spartocids could take away what they could easily give and ordered the Bosporans who lived in Athens to confiscate Sopaios's son's possessions and force him to return, even if it meant raising the matter with the Athenian authorities.[5] However, it seems that Sopaios was later acquitted of all his crimes and was brought back into the king's favour who later allowed his son to marry Sopaios's daughter, Theodosia.[6]

References
  1. Moreno (25 October 2007). Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC. ISBN 9780191607783. they find good confirmation in the statement made by the son of Sopaios that his father's relations with Satyrus "are so intimate, that he has control over an extensive territory, and has charge of Satyrus' entire forces."
  2. D. E. W. WORMELL (1946). "STUDIES IN GREEK TYRANNY—II. Leucon of Bosporus". Hermathena (68): 49–71. JSTOR 23037564. and Satyrus's son, perhaps Leucon, married his daughter
  3. Moreno (25 October 2007). Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC. ISBN 9780191607783. Satyros, we must not forget, later allowed one of his sons to marry Sopaios's daughter
  4. Moreno (25 October 2007). Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC. ISBN 9780191607783. We remember how Sopaios was able to send off his son to the school of Isocrates in Athens.
  5. Moreno (25 October 2007). Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC. ISBN 9780191607783.
  6. Glover (1917). From Pericles to Philip. Macmillan. p. 314. and in token to his reconciliation, had advanced Sopaios to more important duties and had taken his daughter to be his own son's wife
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