A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

4. THEOPHILUS PROTOSPATHARIUS (Πρωτοσπαθάριος), the author of several Greek medical works, which are still extant, and of which it is not quite certain whether some do not belong to Philaretus [PHILARETUS] and Philotheus [PHILOTHEUS]. Every thing connected with his titles, the events of his life, and the time when he lived, is uncertain. He is generally called "Protospatharius," which seems to have been originally a military title given to the colonel of the bodyguards of the emperor of Constantinople (Spatharii, or Σωματοφύλακες); but which afterwards became also a high civil dignity, or was at any rate associated with the government of provinces and the functions of a judge. (See Dr. Greenhill's Notes to Theoph., or Penny Cyclopedia, art. Theophilus, and the references there given.)

With respect to the personal history of Theophilus, if, as is generally done, we trust to the titles of the MSS. of his works, and so endeavour to trace the events of his life, we may conjecture that he lived in the seventh century after Christ ; that he was the tutor to Stephanus Atheniensis [STEPHANUS, p. 907]; that he arrived at high professional and political rank; and that at last he embraced the monastic life. All this is, however, quite uncertain; and with respect to his date, it

has been supposed that some of the words which he uses belong to a later period than the seventh century ; so that he may possibly be the same person who is addressed by the title " Protospatharius" by Photius (Epist. 123, 193, pp. 164, 292, ed. Lond. 1651) in the ninth. He appears to have embraced in some degree the Peripatetic philosophy ; but he was certainly a Christian, and expresses himself on all possible occasions like a man of great piety : in his physiological work especially he everywhere points out with admiration the wisdom, power, and goodness of God as displayed in the formation of the human body.

[W.A.G]