According to John Moschus, he was teaching and writing commentaries in Alexandria in the 580s, where he was involved in the controversy over Monophysitism, apparently taking positions on both sides.
[1] Shortly after the accession of the Emperor Heraclius in 610, Stephanus moved to Constantinople, the capital of the empire, "thereby bridging late Alexandria and the medieval Byzantine world.
He took up a position as "ecumenical professor" (oikoumenikos didaskalos)[b] at the Imperial Academy teaching Plato, Aristotle, the quadrivium,[c] alchemy and astrology.
Among his students were the philosopher known as Pseudo-Elias and Tychicus of Trebizond, the teacher of the Armenian polymath Anania Shirakatsi.
[1] Agapius of Hierapolis, writing of the treaty between Heraclius and the Persian king Kavad II in 628, states that Stephanus was "famous among the philosophers at that time".
[4] A compendium of alchemical texts including the poem De Chrysopoeia (On how to make gold) is extant in two manuscripts, Venice Cod.