EVAGRIUS SCHOLASTICUS. – Ecclesiastical writer, born at Epiphania in Syria in 536–37, died at Antioch toward the end of the century. He practiced law (whence the epithet “Scholasticus”) in Antioch, then held important offices; in 588 he accompanied Patriarch Gregory to Constantinople when the latter was summoned to clear himself, and defended him before the Emperor and the Synod.
He mentions (Hist. eccl., VI, 24) a lost work of his own containing reports, letters, deliberations, speeches, and dialogues. Instead, the Ecclesiastical History in six books has come down to us; in it, intending to continue the histories of Sozomen, Theodoret, and Socrates, he covers the period 431–594. He makes no mention of Theodoret the Reader and expresses reservations, inspired by strict orthodoxy, regarding the doctrinal positions of Eusebius. He confines himself to the East, though he also treats of secular events such as the war between Romans and Persians (I. VI); yet his chief interest lies in the history of dogma, and he is especially important for the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies and for the further developments of Monophysitism. Though sometimes too credulous and fond of the marvellous, he is impartial. For the history of the Eutychian affair he draws especially on Zacharias the Rhetor; for secular events he relies on the chronicle of his fellow-countryman Eustathius, on Procopius of Caesarea, Menander Protector, John of Epiphania, and John Malalas. His style, deliberately archaizing and modelled on Thucydides, is prolix but careful, continuing the literary tradition of Greek historiography.
