Philo of Carpasia

PHILO OF CARPASIA: Bishop who flourished in the fourth century. Polybius in his fanciful Vita Epiphanii (MPG, xli. 85) writes of a deacon Philo whom among others the sister of Honorius and Arcadius sent to Cyprus to Epiphanius to summon him to Rome to cure her of sickness by the laying on of hands and prayer. But Philo on account of his piety was consecrated by Epiphanius as bishop of Carpasia, Cyprus, and was entrusted with the former's official administration during his absence at Rome. With this has been combined the notice of Suidas that "Philo the Carpathian wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs"; but Carpathos is the name of an island between Rhodes and Crete. Here there is either reference to different persons or a confusion of places; probably the latter, since the commentary mentioned by Suidas, preserved in a number of manuscripts, is provided with the superscription, "Commentary on the Song of Songs of Philo, bishop of Carpasia." The commentary was first published by A. Giacomelli (Rome, 1772); was printed by A. Gallandius, Bibliotheca veterum patrum, vol. ix. Appendix, p. 713 (Venice, 1765–1781); and is in MPG, xl. i sqq.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Græca, ix. 252, Hamburg, 1804; O. Bardenhewer, Patrologie, p. 276, Freiburg, 1901, Eng. transl., St. Louis, 1908.