CONSULTATIONES ZACCHAEI ET APOLONII. — Title of an anonymous book which, in the form of a dispute between a Christian and the pagan philosopher Apollonius, contains a kind of summary (the text says: corpus credulitatis, pp. 7, 12, 91, 21, ed. G. Morin) of the Christian faith.
The work consists of three books. In Book I Apollonius presents the pagan arguments against the Christian religion but is convinced of the truth of Christianity. Book II treats of the Trinity and refutes the errors of the Jews and heretics. Book III discusses Christian life, virginity and monks, the Antichrist and the Resurrection. Once attributed to Evagrius, the author of the Altercatio Simonis Iudaei et Theophilii christiani, the work was assigned by G. Morin to Primus Maternus (Historisches Jahrbuch, 37 [1916], pp. 229-66) and published under that name by him in fascicle XXXIX of the Florilegium Patristicum, Bonn 1935. But this attribution, already contested by A. Reatz, was refuted by Axelson, Ein drittes Werk des Firmicus Maternus, Lund 1937. The author may have lived in the 5th century in Gaul. The polemic (I, 21), against the pagan doctrine that souls come from God and, returning, will be purged in the fire of the aether, is directed against Porphyry (De regressu animae). In the 5th century Porphyry was carefully studied in Gaul (Claudianus Mamertus), and if at this time Sidonius Apollinaris produced a new edition of the Latin translation of Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana (v. Ep., VIII, 3, 1), it is understandable why the author of the C. Z. A. gave the name Apollonius to the philosopher opposing Zacchaeus. The author may have been a monk, for he shows great interest in monastic life (v. F. Cavallera, Un exposé sur la vie spirituelle et monastique au IVe siècle, in Rev. d’ascétique et de mystique, 16 [1935], pp. 132-46).