EVEMERUS. — Greek philosopher. Almost nothing is known of his life: a native of Messene (it is uncertain whether of Sicily or of the Peloponnese), he was a friend of King Cassander (317–298 B.C.) and published his principal work, the *Sacred History*, around 280 B.C., as may be inferred from Callimachus.
Of this writing only a few Greek fragments remain, reworked by others; others survive in Latin through Christian authors—especially Lactantius—who certainly drew upon the tradition (and reworking) of the work of E. Made in the 3rd century B.C. by the poet Ennius.
In this account E. relates (cf. Diodorus, V, 41–46; VI, 12, 4; 49–50) that during a voyage from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean he had encountered a group of islands. Having landed on one of these (Panchaea) he minutely described its customs: the division of the population into three social classes (priests-artisans, farmers, soldiers), the exclusive political preeminence of the priests, the equitable distribution among all of the island’s products, etc. He further reported having visited the temple of Zeus Triphylius, where Zeus himself, while still alive, had wished to transmit to posterity, by inscribing it on a stele, a record of the most famous deeds of his ancestors, beginning with Uranus, the first king on earth, down to the age of his own prosperous reign.
In this way all mythology was by E. reduced from the divine plane to the human. The *Sacred History* was, however, not original in its theoretical premises, whether social or religious. While the former indeed drew inspiration from those communal utopias so common in the 4th century, of which Plato’s *Republic* was the shining example, the latter were rationalistic inasmuch as they were negative.
EVIDENTIUS; THEODULUS, saints, martyrs: *v.* ALESSANDRO, EVENZIO e TEODULO, santi, martiri.