Zacharias of Mytilene

A 1735 edition of Zacharias' Ammonios

Zacharias of Mytilene (with the surname Scholastikos or Rhetor ; * around 465 near Gaza , † after 536) was a late antique bishop and church historian .

The life of Zacharias of Mytilene can only be reconstructed from a few scattered statements in contemporary sources, some of which contain contradicting material (some Syrian authors use Mytilene Melitene instead ). Zacharias was born near the city of Gaza, where an important school of rhetoric was located in late antiquity. His first training probably took place in their environment before he went to Alexandria in Egypt around 485 and studied philosophy there for two years. In Alexandria he became involved in disputes between Christians and pagans (see Horapollon ). There he met Severus , who later became the important Patriarch of Antioch . Zacharias was baptized and went to Beirut in 487 to study law at the university there. Zacharias stayed in Beirut until 491, but he also made several trips through Palestine in search of religious orientation and led a rather ascetic life in Beirut. He eventually moved to Constantinople and worked there for a long time as a lawyer. Zacharias, who was inclined to moderate miaphysitism , had probably also repeatedly toyed with the idea of ​​entering the monastery. He apparently enjoyed good contacts with the imperial court, to whom he probably owed his appointment as bishop of Mytilene (on Lesbos ). His successor there is attested to in 553, but Zacharias still took part in the synod of 536 in Constantinople.

Zacharias wrote several writings in ancient Greek, including a church history that was probably written at the end of the 5th century . The work, containing valuable material, was dedicated to the dignitary Eupraxios and described the years 451 to 491. Among others, Euagrios used Scholastikos for his church history from Zacharias. The original has been lost, but a shortened Syrian revision has been preserved, which was processed by a Miaphysite monk ( pseudo-Zacharias ) from Amida around 569 in his twelve-volume church history compilation (volumes 3 to 6). Zacharias also wrote three biographies of Miaphysite clergymen, whom he had met personally: About the above-mentioned Severus, about Peter the Iberian and about the Egyptian monk Isaias the Younger; they have come down to us differently. Furthermore, Zacharias wrote several polemical writings, for example against the philosopher Ammonios Hermeiou or against the Manichaeans .

Editions and translations

Entry in Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP) .

• K. Ahrens, G. Krüger (ed.): The so-called church history of the Zacharias Rhetor. Leipzig 1899 ( digitized ).
• Marc-Antoine Kugener (Ed.): Vie de Sévère par Zacharie le Scholastique (= Patrologia Orientalis , Vol. 2). Paris 1903.
• Ernest Walter Brooks (Ed.): Historia ecclesiastica Zachariae Rhetori vulgo adscripta . Louvain 1919-1924.
• Maria Minniti Colonna (ed.): Zacaria Scolastico: Ammonio . Naples 1973 (critical edition with Italian translation and commentary).
• Geoffrey B. Greatrex (Ed.): The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor: Church and War in Late Antiquity (= Translated Texts for Historians ). Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2011 (English translation with introduction and commentary).

literature

Overview representations

• Frédéric Alpi: Zacharie le Scholastique. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 7, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-271-09024-9 , pp. 301-308
• Josef Rist:  Zacharias of Mytilene. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 303-307.
• Elżbieta Szabat: Zacharias Rhetor or Scholastikos. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , p. 380

Investigations

• Pauline Allen: Zachariah Scholasticus and the Historia Ecclesiastica of Evagrius . In: Journal of Theological Studies 31, 1980, pp. 471-488.
• Josef Rist: The so-called church history of Zacharias Rhetor . In: Martin Tamcke (Ed.): Syriaca . Münster 2002, pp. 77-99
• Josef Rist: The construction of the East Syrian city of Dara (Anastasiupolis). Reflections on personal property in the church history of Ps.-Zacharias Rhetor . In: Martin Tamcke (Ed.): Syriaca II . Münster 2004, pp. 243-266.