There were also other men at this period who emitted the bright rays of the philosophy of solitary life. In the Chalcidian [774] desert Avitus, Marcianus [775] and Abraames, [776] and more besides whom I cannot easily enumerate, strove in their bodies of sense to live a life superior to sense. In the district of Apamea, [777] Agapetus, [778] Simeon, [779] Paulus and others reaped the fruits of the highest wisdom.

In the district of the Zeugmatenses [780] were Publius [781] and Paulus. In the Cyrestian [782] the famous Acepsemas had been shut up in a cell for sixty years without being either seen or spoken to. The admirable Zeumatius, though bereft of sight, used to go about confirming the sheep, and fighting with the wolves; so they burnt his cell, but the right faithful general Trajanus got another built for him, and paid him besides other attentions. In the neighbourhood of Antioch, Marianus, [783] Eusebius, [784] Ammianus, [785] Palladius, [786] Simeon, [787] Abraames, [788] and others, preserved the divine image unimpaired; but of all these the lives have been recorded by us. But the mountain which is in the neighbourhood of the great city was decked like a meadow, for in it shone Petrus, the Galatian, his namesake the Egyptian, Romanus Severus, [789] Zeno, [790] Moses, and Malchus, [791] and many others of whom the world is ignorant, but who are known to God.

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Footnotes:

[774] i.e. the district round Chalcis in Syria, to be distinguished from the Macedonian Chalcidice.

[775] Native of Theodoret's see of Cyrus. He built himself a cell like the "Little Ease" of the Tower of London, and promoted orthodoxy by the influence of his austerities. c. 385. cf. Tillemont, viii. 483.

[776] A. went on missionary journeys disguised as a pedlar, and eventually unwillingly became bishop of Carræ. Theod. Relig. Hist. 3.

[777] Presumably Apamea ad Orontem. (Famiah.)

[778] Bishop of Apamea, a comrade and disciple of Marcianus. (Relig. Hist. iii.)

[779] Also a disciple of Marcian. For fifty years he maintained a school of ascetic philosophy. cf. Chrysost. Ep. 55. and Tillemont. ix. 304. Apparently not the same as Simeones Priscus of Relig. Hist. vi.

[780] i.e. near Zeugma, on the Euphrates, opposite Apamea.

[781] vide Relig. Hist. v.

[782] i.e. round Theodoret's see of Cyrus.

[783] Uncle of Eusebius, a "faithful servant of God." Relig. Hist. iv.

[784] Relig. Hist. iv. Abbot of Mt. Coryphe, nephew of Marianus. He chained his neck to his girdle that he might be compelled to violate the prerogative of his manhood (cf. Ovid. Met i. 85) and keep his eyes on the ground.

[785] Vide Relig. Hist. iv. He had a monastery near Antioch.

[786] Relig. Hist. vii.

[787] cf. the Symeones Priscus of Relig. Hist. vi.

[788] The disciple of Ephrem Syrus. Vide Soz. iii. 16, and Eph. Syr. Act. S. Abraam.

[789] Born at Rhosus. His life is given in Relig. Hist. xi.

[790] Relig. Hist. xii. He lived "without bed, lamp, fire, pitcher, pot, box, or book, or anything."

[791] Met in his old age by Jerome, to whom he told the story of his life. Born at Edessa, he ended his days at Maronia, near Antioch. Vide Jer. vita Malchi.