EVAGRIUS SCHOLASTICUS : Early church historian; b. at Epiphania, Cœle-Syria, c. 536: d. after 594. He received careful training in the schools of the grammarians and rhetoricians and settled in Antioch as a lawyer (hence his surname, Scholasticus). Here he assisted the patriarch Gregorius (569-594) in drafting briefs, reports, and decrees, and successfully defended him at Constantinople (589) when he was arraigned on the charge of grievous persecutions. From the Emperor Tiberius he obtained the rank of a quæstor; from Mauricius, that of a prefect. He is known chiefly for his "Ecclesiastical History," in six books, which is a continuation of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, extending from the Council of Ephesus (431) to the twelfth year of the reign of Mauritius (593-594). It is one of the chief sources, especially for the history of contemporary theological controversies, though it also takes account of the wars with the Persians and other barbarians, and, like other Byzantine chronicles, contains notices of all sorts of remarkable events (calamities, conflagrations, earthquakes, etc.). Evagrius made good use of his original sources (Eustathius of Antioch, Procopius of Cæsarea, John Malala, John of Epiphania, Menander Protector, Zacharias Rhetor and others), and his judgment is discreet and impartial. Ecclesiastically orthodox, he strictly abides by the synodical decisions, and censures, in particular, every deviation from the Chalcedonian dogma. Even his great predecessor, Eusebius, is not quite proof against his criticism: though Evagrius concedes that Eusebius led his readers close to the true faith, even if he did not teach them strict orthodoxy. The best edition of the history is that of J. Bidez and L. Parmentier. The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius, with the Scholia (London, 1898); Eng. transl. in Bohn's Ecclesiastical Library in the volume with Theodoret (London, 1854).

G. KRÜGER.