Euagrios Scholastikos

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Euagrios Scholastikos ( Latin Evagrius Scholasticus ) (* 536/37; † approx. 600 ) was a late antique church historian .

life and work

Euagrios was born in Epiphaneia , Syria . As a child he experienced the Persian invasions from 540 to 544 , which apparently had a strong influence on him. He seems to have enjoyed a good education, which was probably completed by studying law in Constantinople (probably in the late 50s of the 6th century). He worked for a while as a rhetorician ("lawyer") in Antioch on the Orontes before he became the secretary of the local Orthodox Patriarch Gregory . Apparently Euagrios enjoyed a good reputation in legal matters because he accompanied Gregory to Constantinople in 588, where he defended him in a trial. Euagrios was married several times and had several children. After the death of his first wife, who died as a result of the plague , he married again in October 588. Several of his children also seem to have died as a result of the plague, which plunged Euagrios into deep sorrow for some time. Theologically he supported the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon and therefore turned against the Miaphysites .

After Gregory's death in 594, Euagrios wrote a church history ( Historia Ekklesiastike ) in six books, which dealt with the time from the beginning of the Nestorian dispute (428/431) to his own time; the work ends in 594.

The church history of Euagrios is considered the last important ancient work of this genre. The tradition of church history was only taken up again in post-ancient times. More than many other church historians from late antiquity, Euagrios also devoted a great deal of space to secular history (especially in the last books), which is why his work is an important source, especially for the sixth century and the time of Justinian I. The work is written in ancient Greek , its style is considered demanding and quite difficult. In terms of content, Euagrios is mostly reliable; In evaluating the rulers, he attached great importance to “virtues”. Euagrios' intention was to write a church history (he apologizes for describing military campaigns in great detail), but he apparently also saw himself following the classical ancient secular historiography. This is also shown by his listing of several historians of the past, some of whom are only known by name (such as Nikostratos of Trebizond and a certain Eusebios , which some researchers - though probably incorrectly - equated with Eusebius of Nantes ).

Euagrios processed several, largely very good sources in his church history. The work of Eustathius of Epiphaneia served him as a template ; he also possibly resorted to the work of his relative John of Epiphaneia . He certainly used the ecclesiastical history of Zacharias of Mytilene as well as the "secular" historical works of Priscus and Procopius of Caesarea . There is evidence that the work of Euagrios was written within a short time; so he expressly refrained from getting a copy of the histories of Agathias , although this would probably have been possible due to his good contacts.

Euagrios' account of the Persian Wars in particular contains important information. Book 4 deals with the battles in the time of Justinian I, book 5 with the subsequent battles under Justin II (whom he judges very negatively) and Tiberios I, and book 6 with the events in the east during the time of Maurikios received. The flight of the Persian king Chosrau II to the Romans (590) is also described by Euagrios. Euagrios seems to have had some interest in the Persian War, because in addition to these statements in his church history , he at least toyed with the idea of ​​wanting to write a separate account of this.

With regard to regions outside of Syria (with the exception of Constantinople), however, it offers little information; this is partly justified with religious arguments, with Egypt, for example, being a refuge of paganism and heresy .

Editions and translations

Entry in Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP) .

  • Adelheid Hübner (ed.): Evagrius Scholasticus. Historia ecclesiastica - Church history (Fontes Christiani 57) . Greek-German. 2 vols. Brepols, Turnhout 2007.
  • Michael Whitby (translator): The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus . Translated Texts for Historians . Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2000 (English translation with commentary).

literature

  • Pauline Allen: Evagrius Scholasticus, the Church Historian. Louvain 1981 ( Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense 41, ISSN  0775-3357 ).
  • Hartmut Leppin : Evagrius Scholasticus or: Church history and faithfulness to the Reich. In: Mediterraneo antico. Volume 6, 2003, ISSN  1127-6061 , pp. 141-153.
  • Hartmut Leppin: Roman Identity in a Border Region: Evagrius and the Defense of the Roman Empire . In: Walter Pohl et al. (Ed.): Visions of Community in the Post-Roman World . Farnham 2012, pp. 241-258.
  • John Martindale: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire IIIa . Cambridge 1992, pp. 452f.
  • Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 2: Baanes-Eznik of Kolb . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , pp. 453-454.
  • Warren Treadgold : The early Byzantine Historians. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke et al. 2007, ISBN 978-1-4039-3458-1 , pp. 299-307.

Web links

Wikisource: Euagrios Scholastikos  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ For general information on the Vita, see Whitby, The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus , pp. Xiii – xv; PLRE IIIa, pp. 452f.
  2. ↑ Euagrios 4:26.
  3. ↑ On evaluation as a historian: Whitby, The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus , S. xlviiff.
  4. ↑ Euagrios 5.20.
  5. ↑ Euagrios 5:24, cf. also the remarks by Mischa Meier : Prokop, Agathias, the plague and the “end” of ancient historiography. In: Historische Zeitschrift 278, 2004, pp. 281–310, here pp. 301–303.
  6. ↑ On the sources: Whitby, The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus , pp. Xxiiff.
  7. ↑ Cf. Euagrios, Church History , 5.20.
personal data
SURNAME Euagrios Scholastikos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Evagrius Scholasticus (Latinized)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late antique church historian
DATE OF BIRTH 536 or 537
DATE OF DEATH around 600