EVAGRIUS. - Around 430 a certain E. published in Gaul under the title Altercatio legis inter Simonem Iudaeum et Theophilum Christianum a Jewish-Christian disputation, which in the 5th century was in everyone’s hands (Gennadius, De viris illustribus, 50).
The discussion is based on the Old Testament. The thesis of A. Harnack, Die Altercatio Simonis, etc. (Texte und Untersuchungen, 1, 111, Leipzig 1883), that the altercatio would be nothing more than a reworking of the Dialogue of Avon Pella (v.), is untenable. E. knew Tertullian, Cyprian’s Testimonia, and Gregory of Elvira.
Bibl.: Editions by Ed. Bratke, in CSEL, 45; id., Epilogus zur Wiener-Liturgie der Altercatio (Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philos.-histor. Kl., 148, 11, Vienna 1904. Studies: A. Marmorstein, Indem und Indenitum in der Altercatio Simonis Indaei, etc., in Theol. Tidschrift, 1915, pp. 360-83; A. Lukyn Williams, Altercatio Indaeos, Cambridge 1935, p. 280 sqq.