Stephanos of Alexandria was a philosopher and public lecturer who flourished in Constantinople under the Byzantine emperor Herakleios (610–41 AD). His subjects included Plato, Aristotle (upon whom there is extant a commentary bearing Stephanos’ name), as well as mathematics, astronomy, and music. Although attribution of the Great and Sacred Art of the Making of Gold to Stephanos is at times disputed for stylistic reasons, it is accepted as authentic by the translator, F. Sherwood Taylor, on the grounds that its Neoplatonism and numerous scientific allusions would have been familiar to him. This work, known also as De chrysopoeia, the Greek word for gold-making, was much copied and widely cited by Byzantine alchemists. If its highly rhetorical, enthusiastic style jars with that of Stephanos’ scientific works, this may result, according to Taylor, from the fact that “a declamatory and rhetorical style may have been thought appropriate to lectures upon a subject of arcane character” (116). Such stylistic excesses may also be explained by the fact that the Great and Sacred Art consists of nine lectures, undoubtedly presented orally to their original audiences. It should be noted that early Greek scientific and alchemical treatises – such as those of Pseudo-Democritus and Cleopatra included in this collection – frequently employ ornate rhetoric. Whatever the reasons, Lecture I, in particular, is an unadulterated example of the author's rhapsodizing on the glory, beauty, and power of Nature and God.