Isidore befriended this man, who had received[1] all men in piety and a whole philosophical way of life, except Isidore himself. The man had so much of true manner and speech, and of that which is accustomed to be called in the proverb, and in deed confirmed by him, "live secretly," that I would expect no one of men living at that time either of the younger or of the elders would know what I mean;[2] nor did anyone else know what kind of man that Sarapio was, and even I would not know now, if the philosopher himself had not shown me Sarapio by his words. For he said that never in fact could he persuade[3] him to meet another man, especially because when he grew old he no longer came out frequently from his own house; he lived alone in a truly small dwelling, having embraced the solitary life, employing some of the neighbors only for the most necessary things. He said that Sarapio was exceptionally prayerful, and visited the holy places in the dress of an ordinary man, where the rule of the feast led him. For the most part he lived all day in his house, not the life of a man, but to speak simply, [the life] of a god, continually uttering prayers and miracle-stories to himself or to the divinity, or rather meditating on them in silence. Being a seeker of truth and by nature contemplative, he did not deign to spend time on the more technical aspects of philosophy, but absorbed himself in the more profound and inspired thoughts. For this reason Orpheus was almost the only book he possessed and read,[4] in each of the questions which came to him always asking Isidore, who (so to speak) had achieved the summit of understanding in theology. He recognized [Isidore] alone as an intimate friend and received him [in his house]. And [Isidore] seemed to observe in him the Kronian life of mythology. For that man continued doing and saying nothing else but recollecting himself and raising himself, as far as he could, towards the inward and indivisible [life].[5]
He despised money so much that he possessed nothing whatever but only two or three books (among these was the poetry of Orpheus); and [he despised] the pleasures of the body so much that straightway from the beginning he offered to the body only what is necessary and alone brings benefit, but of sexual [activity] he was pure throughout his life. And he was so little concerned about honor from men that not even his name was [known] in the city. He would not have been known subsequently, if some one of the gods had not wished to make him an example for mankind of the Kronian life, so that the saying would not seem to be [merely] a myth, not having the history to bear it witness. For the one called Chiron stood rather in the interval between the rule of Kronos and [that of] Zeus, whence he had two natures.[6] But let this Sarapion be recorded such as he was known by the philosopher; he used Isidore as an heir, having no [heir] from his family, nor supposing that anyone else was worthy of his property, I mean of two or three books.[7]
In this time period another man arrived at Alexandria, differing diametrically from Sarapio, or rather [differing] still more greatly than diametrically, if it is possible to say [this]; for the one was a man of Kronos and of Zeus in his lifestyle, but the other was a man of Typhon, and a wild beast even more changeable than Typhon, and more fiery.[8] For there is no one of men living now who does not know what Pamprepius[9] became both in soul and in fortune.[10]